Eleven the dream
McPherson: Stevie’s Gers can surpass our unbeaten Euro record and use the belief to fuel title bid
DAVE McPHERSON is convinced Rangers could have won the Champions League on the back of a record-breaking run in Europe.
But the former defender reckons surpassing their 10 games unbeaten against Spartak Moscow would be as significant an achievement as Steven Gerrard restores respectability to the Ibrox club after years of turmoil.
McPherson, Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley, Andy Goram, John Brown and Co came within a whisker of taking the club to their loftiest peak in European football in 1993.
A run to the group stage of the Europa League through qualifying-round opposition from countries such as Slovenia and Macedonia seems modest in comparison.
But McPherson has respect for the rebuilding job Gerrard is undertaking after Rangers climbed from the financial abyss and the failed experiment of previous bosses Pedro Caixinha and Mark Warburton.
In fact, he reckons further progress in the Europa League in the weeks and months ahead might just serve them well as they bid to wrestle the title from the firm grasp of Celtic for the first time since 2011.
McPherson said: “It’s always difficult to compare like with like but to go through 10 matches unbeaten in European competition at any time is a great achievement.
“Rangers and Gerrard deserve enormous credit and he has clearly instilled confidence in a group who are playing for him but I’d still rather see them win the league.
“In fairness, a run in Europe over the next few months may even be as important in its own way as the unbeaten games we enjoyed in 1992-93.
“Back then our team had basically been constructed – Walter Smith only needed to add one or two players, not make wholesale changes.
“Gerrard is still trying to find his way a little with a new-look squad and my only fear is Europe may be a bit of a distraction for him as they push in the Premiership.
“But the belief the squad will also gain from doing well in the Europa League
can boost their confidence on the home front because those games are so much tougher than domestic matches. “I want to see Rangers do well again in domestic competition but it’s also important they restore their credibility in Europe. “I was in Spain conducting business interviews and people weren’t talking about the club as much as they did in the past, perhaps because they’ve been under the radar as a result of those off-field issues. “But a run of good results in the Europa League would go a long way to helping put Rangers back into the public consciousness on the European stage.” McPherson is still involved in the game, inspiring a new generation of young players from across Europe to achieve ambitions in the American college system through his successful company Global Sports Recruitment. He still fondly remembers that debut
season of the Champions League in 1992 that began with a 2-0 win at home to Lyngby and ended in the frustration of a goalless draw at home to Spartak’s great rivals, CSKA.
In between they defeated Leeds home and away, drew with eventual winners Marseille at Ibrox and in France and recorded a memorable 2-1 victory with 10 men over Belgian champions Brugge.
But it was a clash against CSKA in the German city of Bochum in December 1992, with Moscow snowbound, that really gave Rangers belief.
Ian Ferguson scored the only goal of the game and it helped them achieve a run that – with exception of reaching the UEFA Cup Final in 2008 – has since gone unmatched.
McPherson said: “They were one of the best teams I faced.
“It was incredibly difficult to get the ball off them, even if they were never a great attacking threat.
“There were so many Rangers fans it was more like a home game for us and victory gave us the belief we could go on and achieve great things.
“I still remember the build-up to the game – we couldn’t get access to a local stadium for our warm-up and had to prepare in the patch of grass in front of our hotel.
“We knew after that game we had nothing to fear from anyone and we continued to build self-confidence game by game. We felt as if we were invincible and it remains the best season of my career.
“We got some breaks that season too but our luck ran out in the final game at home to CSKA when we did everything but score.
“In the end, a victory wouldn’t have been enough to take us to the Final but I genuinely believe to this day we could have gone all the way and won the first Champions League.
“We defeated Leeds at Ibrox and Elland Road and there weren’t many betters sides in Europe at that time.
“We played our best stuff against better teams and they really came to fear coming to Ibrox. Playing four Premier League games at the time against the same opposition became mundane and boring, if truth be told.
“Playing those European nights at Ibrox were massive. That’s the level on which the club has to operate and I’m so pleased to see those big games back.”