DAUM ON... inflated Ibrox transfer fees!

THE draw pairing Rangers with Bayer Leverkusen moved Barry Ferguson to recall the day Christoph Daum labelled him a £20million talent.

The former Ibrox midfield star was only 20 at the time and joked last week that the Leverkusen manager must have been on some strong German beer when he passed judgment.

Yet Daum can confess it wasn’t the first time he had attached a bloated fee to one of Rangers’ top players.

For a decade earlier, when boss of Cologne, a miscalculation was responsible for him spectacularly botching a swoop for Ally McCoist after Graeme Souness and David Murray had agreed to sell.

Daum’s team prevailed 3-1 on aggregate over Rangers in a UEFA Cup second-round tie in November 1988.

Soon after they advanced in the competition, Daum decided to return to Glasgow to check on McCoist and was persuaded to make a transfer approach.

‘For me, Ally McCoist was a top goalscorer and I really wanted to transfer him to Cologne,’ revealed Daum.

‘So I spoke first with Graeme and told him that I wanted to have this great player.

‘He said to me that they could transfer him to Cologne for “three million”. At the time that was a huge amount but I said, okay, I will discuss with my board.

‘They said to me: “Yes, it’s a big amount but if you think he is the one that you need in the team, then we will do it”.

‘I went back to Graeme and he said that he’d spoken to David Murray and they were okay to do it.

‘I prepared my paper for the offer and wrote the offer and signed for three million Deutsche Marks. That figure had been in my head all the time.

‘But David Murray came back and said there was a big misunderstanding. They were expecting £3m so three million Deutsche Marks was about a third of what Rangers wanted!

‘That would be the most expensive transfer of the time, nearly nine million Deutsche Marks! It was more than the whole budget for the team.

‘I went back to my board. Not surprisingly, they told me that next time, before I come to them, I had to figure out the exact amount and shouldn’t make the same mistake again.’