Invasion of foreign players is nothing new
RANGERS will soon be able to field an all- foreign XI if manager Pedro Caixinha continues recruiting far from home.
He’s already signed players from Portugal, Mexico and Colombia but appears far from finished. Not that it’s unusual for Rangers to rely on non-Scots. During the Graeme Souness, Walter Smith and Dick Advocaat reigns in particular, some of the finest players ever to play for Rangers were from abroad.
Think no further back than Brian Laudrup, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Arthur Numan, Gio van Bronckhurst, Stefan Klos, Jorg Albertz, Terry Butcher, Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens and Paul Gascoigne.
The Light Blues also benefited from the Scandinavian invasion of the 1960s, following in the footsteps of Dundee United and Morton.
United were deep in relegation trouble during the 1964-65 season, with only seven points from 15 games, when manager Jerry Kerr pulled off a masterstroke.
Having watched Dunfermline play Oergryte in a Fairs Cup tie, he immediately signed Swedish international winger, Orjan Persson.
Kerr quickly followed this up by signing another Swede, Lennart Wing, Mogens Berg and Finn Dossing from Denmark and, finally, Norwegian Finn Seemann.
Within weeks, United were transformed, finished ninth and relegation was never mentioned again at Tannadice during this era.
With their five Scandinavians, United went on to defeat Barcelona home and away two seasons later.
Around this time, Hal Stewart was doing something similar at Morton by signing players of the calibre of Danish internationalists Erik Sorensen, Kai Johansen, Jorn Sorensen and Flemming Nielsen.
Ironically, Rangers signed Persson from United as well as the two Sorensens and Johansen from Morton.
Kerr and Stewart were both flamboyant impresarios. They had transformed Scottish football well before Jock Stein began his revolution at Celtic.
Stewart had actually started at Dundee a few years earlier, working with Dens Park managing director, George Anderson.
During Stewart’s time at Dens, the Dark Blues sensationally broke the Scottish transfer record in 1950 by signing Billy Steel from Derby for £23,500.
Stewart was still at Dens when Dundee signed South Africans Ken Ziesing and Gordon Frew. Both played in Dundee’s League Cup-winning team in 1952 against Kilmarnock, making them the first overseas players to win a major honour in Scotland.
So Caixinha is far from the first manager in Scotland to look abroad to strengthen. Rangers fans can only hope he’s as successful as Kerr and Stewart.