SAYS EX-GERS ACE ANDREI KANCHELSKIS

“Th “The fans f were always l happy h and no players were jumping out of the way – in the middle it was ‘boom’ when players were going for the ball.

“The whole team were watching this game – sitting there thinking it is not possible to play this kind of football.

“Then I come here and the welcome I get in my first game against Celtic is a broken arm! Welcome to Scotland!”

IT IS understandable if Kanchelskis struggled to recognise what he saw on Saturday – while this is an era where Celtic are dominating and inexorably moving towards 10 in a row, his first season at the club following a £5m move from Fiorentina, 1998-99, saw him rack up a T Treble. bl Th The next tf few years were spent battling it out with Martin O’Neill’s emerging Celtic team, before he eventually became a victim of the overspending in the latter part of the Dick Advocaat era as Rangers moved players on the balance the books.

Reared on the in-your-face confrontational style of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, he didn’t take too kindly to the manner he was shown the back door by Alex McLeish when he would happily have prolonged his stay for a few years further.

“It has been a long time,” said Kanchelskis. “But I had a great four years here and I just hope Rangers get back to the same level as before.

“It would be better for both teamst [Rangers [R and d Celtic] C lti ] if they were fighting it out at the same level.

“I know they have had financial problems but they have good fans and I remember my great time here.

“I’m very sad for Rangers when they went down to the fourth division.

“I don’t understand how it happened so quickly.

“When I arrived, the club was at the top level and there was big money.

“But when Dick Advocaat is working at the club, always after that there are problems! Every club goes down! They spent a lot money and I thought there were too many Dutch players in the squad and playing in the team.

“The atmosphere in my first two t seasons was great tbti but in the third season there were problems as there were more Dutch players.

“They spoke always in their language, not English. There were three groups – the Dutch players, the other foreign players and the Scottish boys. It wasn’t good.

“Advocaat left and [Alex] McLeish came in and in my opinion, he was a coach with a double face – one day he would speak with you okay and after an hour he was double-faced and tell you a lot of rubbish,” he added.

“Some players from Scotland will know what I’m saying. One minute he will say everything is okay and the next it is: ‘you f**k off’. He is not a great man, although Andy Watson was