Latest News

Week Beginning 23 August 1997

30 August 1997

Jonatan Johannson will make his debut for Rangers today in a reserve match against Celtic at Ibrox. The 21 year old who recently joined from Estonian side FC Flora for £500,000 said, "Old Firm games are well known in Finland and I saw them on TV last season. Although this is still a reserve match I'm sure it'll still be quite a battle."

Stuart McCall will take another step towards first-team football by playing his first full match for Rangers in 10 months. He said, "I can barely remember the last time I played at Ibrox. It's been about 10 months and most days since I've been running around that pitch looking at it, I'm looking forward to playing on it again. I still need a few games but I've laready played for the reserves and I'm feeling stronger all the time."

Strasbourg defender Phillipe Rafchke is worried that his side might get taken apart by Rangers in the UEFA Cup. Three of their players David Zitelli, Valerian Ismael and Jean-Luc Dogon are all banned for the first leg. He said, "having those three players suspended is going to make it very difficult for us. We have a good stadium and we will have a good atmosphere for the first game but the suspensions are a cause for regret. We had hoped for an easier draw. Rangers are a very physical team and their players are experienced enough to know all about European football."

Midfield star Stephane Collet said, "we must make the difference in Strasbourg because it will be terrible in Scotland. Rangers have a huge following and they are sure to make it very hard for us there."

Skipper Gerard Barticle, who was linked with a move to Rangers in the summer said, "I'm happy with the draw. It will be difficult but it is a good one for us. Rangers have spent millions of pounds and have players such as Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne and Jonas Thern. Obviously it did not work for them in the Champions' League but I think most people will expect them to do well in the UEFA Cup. It's a challenge for us but we can rise to the occasion."

Walter Smith said, "I saw Strasbourg play Auxerre when we were preparing to play them in the Champions' League last year and they played very well indeed. They have three games between now and the first leg and we will watch them again. There are five French clubs in the UEFA Cup which indicates the strength of their domestic league."

David Murray has been linked to a sensational takeover of their Euro rivals Strasbourg. He is believed to be helping a business associate Mark McCormack to complete a multi-million pound buyout of the French club. Murray has spent several months scouring Europe for a feeder club which could be used to nurture potential talent for Rangers and he was in Strasbourg last week. The Rangers Chairman would only say, "nothing is in place at the moment at Strasbourg or anywhere else. But there is a possibility something will happen in the future."

Lorenzo Amoruso is not sure when he will be able to play for Rangers. He said, "I honestly don't know when I will be ready to play again. If it was up to me then I would start tomorrow but I must see what the doctors say. It's a very difficult situation for me. When I signed for Rangers I had to undergo surgery but it was not a big problem. Then I was told I needed a second operation and then I knew there was something wrong. After that operation there was a lot of swelling and I was in a lot of pain. It was so painful I didn't sleep for two nights."

"I will go back to London next week and I hope they will tell me that I am okay. But I don't know what they will say. Even if they do tell me that I am able to start training again I think it would be better for me to go back to Italy for a second opinion. My English is still not so good and it is easier for me to explain the situations in my leg to an Italian doctor. After two operations I ant to be sure that everything is okay before I start again. It's been terrible for me because I want so much to start playing for Rangers."

29 August 1997

Rangers have drawn Strasbourg in the first round of the UEFA Cup. The first leg will take place in France on 16 September with the return leg at Ibrox a fortnight later. Celtic will play Liverpool, the first leg is at home. Kilmarnock will play French side Nice in the Cup Winners' Cup.
Rangers have been seeded 14th for today's UEFA Cup draw in Geneva although they could still have to play Schalke who amazingly weren't seeded despite winning the competition last year. UEFA last night announced that the Scottish Champions and Italian side Lazio will be the two seeds in a group of eight.

Rangers group is as follows:

Lazio (Ita) (*seed)
Rangers (Sco) (*seed)
Vitoria Setubal (Por)
Hadjuk Split (Yug)
Alania Vladikavkaz (Rus)
Schalke (Ger)
Strasbourg (Fra)
MTK Budapest (Hun)

Celtic have not been seeded, their group is as follows:

Inter Milan (Ita) (*seed)
Liverpool (Eng) (*seed)
Celtic (Sco)
Neuchatel Xamax (Swi)
Lillestrom (Nor)
Twente Enschede (Hol)
FC Metz (Fra)
Royal Excelsior Mouscron (Bel)

Celtic player Darren Jackson has been ruled out of football for at least three months after a serious head injury was diagnosed. Jackson missed Tuesday night's match against FC Tirol with a headache but tests revealed a problem which might stop him playing again. Celtic's general manager Jock Brown said, "his condition is not life-threatening, but may well be career-threatening." All of us here at the Unofficial Rangers Site would like to wish him a speedy recovery.

28 August 1997

Walter Smith banned his players from speaking before or after last night's Champions' League Qualifier. He would only say, "Poor quality defending has cost us in both legs and we will have to brush up on that. In terms of overall play we had the better of the tie but we lost bad goals and that is disappointing. Again, we've contributed in both games to our own downfall. When we lost the goal it left us with too much to do and the game went flat. It was very disappointing."

"I felt we played well enough in the first half. It was always going to be a very difficult game for us to create chances but we managed to get one. The introduction of Brian Laudrup might have helped at that point but thy scored before we could get him on."

Gothenburg scorer Robert Andersson admitted he was disappointed by Rangers but still thinks they can get their act together and do well in the UEFA Cup. He said, "they will be very successful in that competition They can go all the way to the final and even win it. The Rangers defence is good but I was surprised at the space I got when I scored our goal, I was completely unmarked."

Gothenburg coach Mats Jingblad said, "I thought we had a problem when Rangers scored but my players stood up well and it was great to get the goal. I expected to be put under more pressure. Brian Laudrup did cause us problems when he came on and it was a bonus for us that he could not play in both games. He is one of the top players in Europe and he showed that tonight for the 35 minutes he played. But I wasn't surprised he didn't play from the start because he has been sick for a few weeks."

"Maybe if he had played from the beginning he would have had to rest for another two weeks. You will have to ask Rangers about that. I believe they did not create any good chances after they scored their goal. I was worried that their fans would lift them, but we silenced them as we started the second half well with a goal. At half-time we talked about Rangers threat on the flanks, particularly the dangerous Staale Stensaas. But after the break we closed him down by changing our defence around and that worked well for us as it stopped that flow of attack."

27 August 1997

There is an old cliche which says 'don't believe everything you read in the papers' and it could have been written about this game. The papers today have all chosen to go on about Rangers poor performance last night and that is simply not the case.

It is true that Rangers didn't apply as much pressure as they might have after securing the early goal but they still maintained a very high standard of football throughout. The team of 97 is a far better footballing side and last night they arguably played better football than they did for the whole of the nine-in-a-row season.

To say Rangers performance was substandard distracts too from Gothenburg's display. They did not show much flair in the match but their tactics were spot on. They kept eight or nine men in the box at the time and merely crowded the Rangers players out and tried to get their away goal on the break.

The Ibrox side broke the deadlock in the 23rd minute. Jonas Thern appeared to have dallied for too long in midfield but he recovered and sent a high ball to Ian Ferguson in the box. His clever header found Charlie Miller who surged in from the right, took a touch and smashed the ball into Thomas Ravelli's right hand corner.

Three minutes after half-time Gothenburg scored to end Rangers challenge after Craig Moore was forced to play the ball out for a Gothenburg corner. Niklas Alexandersson swung a cross into the area which Andy Goram seemed late coming to collect it and Robert Andersson mis-hit a shot just inside his left hand post.

Rangers threw on Laudrup in an attempt to at least salvage some pride - and silence the media - but Gothenburg sat in deep and coped with everything the Scottish team could throw at them.

Another disappointing night in Europe but the damage was effectively done in the Ullevi stadium a fortnight ago. Rangers played some wonderful passing football but in the end it wasn't enough because at times the ball wasn't played to the front men quickly enough. However, the Ibrox side are only a month into a job which may take two or three seasons before they can really taste some European success. A comparison between last season and last night suggests that they are certainly moving in the right direction.

Rangers
 
Goram       6                   
Moore       6                   
Stensaas    7
Porrini     7
Bjorklund   7
Miller      8
Ferguson    7
Thern       6 
Gascoigne   7
McCoist     5
Negri       5                
Laudrup     3   (Sub)
Durie       1   (Sub)
 
 

Man of the Match: Charlie Miller

Falkirk Follower

27 August 1997

Brian Laudrup is fit and ready to lead Rangers into European action tonight. The Dane has been given the all-clear to face Gothenburg at Ibrox tonight after blood tests showed he had shaken off chickenpox. Walter Smith said, "he hasn't played for three weeks so it's a dilemma to know the right time to put him on the park. However, the important factor is he's back. But it's not just about Brian Laudrup. It's going to need a performance from the entire squad. We have individuals who can win us games but if you look at the goals we lost in Gothenburg, they were caused by a breakdown in teamwork as much as anything."

"If we can cause a bit of nervousness in the Gothenburg side, then the supporters can help us by creating an intimidating atmosphere. But it is up to us to put pressure on Gothenburg to make that happen. We're not out of the competition yet. We can still get the kind of result we are looking for, although it will take one hell of a performance."

Laudrup himself said, "I am ready to play now and it is up to the manager when he wants to use me. It doesn't matter to me if he plays me from the start or keeps me until the beginning of the second half. I will be happy with whatever the manager decides. I can't say if I will be able to last 90 minutes, but I can tell you I have trained all week and feel good. I am ready to play."

"They must be feeling secure. I know I would if I were in their position. But this can still be a mission possible for Rangers. The manager knows I can create space and that will be important in this match because I expect Gothenburg, who are a very physican and experienced side, to wait for us to come at them. They will try to hit us on the break and it will be very difficult for us to turn this tie around."

"In the past I have always admired teams like Real Madrid who could lose maybe lose two or three goals away but recover at home. I believe we can still do it, although we may have to score a goal fairly early and we will also need to have the supporters behind us."

Walter Smith refused to comment on the shape of his team but he admitted that if Lorenzo Amoruso had been fit at the start of the season he would have gone to a 4-4-2 formation. On Amoruso's fitness Smith would only comment, "I'm hoping he will be back shortly but I don't know how long he'll be out."

26 August 1997

Brian Laudrup faces an anxious wait today to find out whether medics will allow him to play against Gothenburg tomorrow. Results of a blood test are due at Ibrox today and Walter Smith will have to decide whether to risk the Dane if it is clear. Smith said, "Brian has trained for the last two days and had no adverse effects. He's keen to be involved and looks fine. Although chickenpox is mainly a children's illness it can be more serious in an adult if they don't take care after it because it can lead to other complications such as shingles. We won't take any risks."

Rangers had an injury scare today when Jonas Thern was forced to miss training with a knee injury but Walter Smith is confident that the Swede will be fit for the match.

David Murray insists that failure to qualify for the Champions' League will not be a total disaster for Rangers. He said, "what happens on Wednesday doesn't really matter to the long-term progress of this team. The players are starting to get to know each other now and when they are all fit we will have a great Rangers team."

The Rangers Chairman also believes tomorrow night's attendance will be the highest Euro crowd at Ibrox since he took control of the club. He said, "the highest in my time has been 43,000 for our games against Leeds and Marseille in 1992. Ticket sales are now approaching the 40,000 mark and I expect us to beat the record."

Gothenburg coach Mats Jingblad is preparing his side for a tough match against Rangers. He said, "Rangers have shown they can score goals as they did against Dundee United on Saturday. We know what Marco Negri is capable of. I believe he will be the top scorer in Scotland this season and Rangers are going to be the top club in Europe, but this time I hope we can beat them."

Midfielder Stefan Petterson took a swipe at Paul Gascoigne. The former Ajax skipper said, "Rangers had some problems in the first game and Gascoigne was not as good as he can be. Maybe he was just not having a good day, that can happen. But we don't expect him to play like that again in this match. He'll be desperate to do well in front of his own support. Also there is the chance that Brian Laudrup will be playing and that will be another problem for us. In the games that we have had watched he has been a very important player for Rangers."

"We are in a good position. We did not think we would be coming to Glasgow with a three goal lead. We have a big respect for Rangers but we are determined to qualify. If we can play as well as we did in the first match we will do it. I do not want to predict a result but I predict that we will go through as long as we don't take anything for granted. We were able to score three times in one half in Gothenburg so Rangers still have a chance. They have nothing to lose now, they can throw everything at us, but we know what we have to do."

Andreas Andersson who plays his final game for Gothenburg before signing for AC Milan added, "we know Rangers will be much better this time but if we score one goal the tie will be over. I'd love to be the man who scores it. If we lose 4-0 it would be the worst moment of my career and the worst possible way to end my days with Gothenburg."

The Daily Record reports that Rangers bosses are worried that Lorenzo Amoruso may be missing for months after his second achilles operation three weeks ago. Amoruso has restarted light training and although medics insist he could be back in action by October the Record speculates that he may be missing for longer.

25 August 1997

IFK Gothenburg dropped from top spot in the Swedish League on Saturday after struggling to a 1-1 draw with injury hit Orebro. Rivals Halmstads have now taken over at the top of the table.

Gothenburg scout Eijlert Bjorkman watched Marco Negri destroy Dundee United but insisted that he was not worried about the big Italian. He said, "we're not afraid of Rangers because of that win. I didn't see anything new from them. They scored so many because Dundee United were very bad. Gothenburg play better than that and we will go through. We know Negri is a very good player at Ibrox, we saw him score twice against Hearts. We're aware he can score goals, but United allowed him to get five and we can stop him."

Dundee United's Swedish players Lars Zetterlund and Kjell Olofsson are also backing Gothenburg to beat Rangers. They said, "Gothenburg will not play as badly as we did and they will win the tie."

24 August 1997

Newcastle are ready to make a £1.5 million bid for Charlie Miller. Their boss Kenny Dalglish has been a long term admirer of the youngster and are ready to pounce after this week's European ties are over. Miller said on Scotsport, "I do not know of any bid from Newcastle. I would be happy to remainat Ibrox for the rest of my career if they want me."

German side Wolfsburg have made an audacious bid for Erik Bo Andersen. The newly promoted Bundesliga side offered to pay the Dane's wages for a year and pay the Ibrox club a fee of £250,000. Walter Smith said, if he is going to leave then I would prefer it is a clean sale. He may not be at his cleverest when he is trying to link up with Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup, but he's the fastest player on my staff and you can't argue with his scoring record. I want to keep him but he wants to be in the first team on a regular basis."

Brian Laudrup is ready to take a huge gamble and declare himself fit to play Gothenburg on Wednesday. He said, "it would be a big gamble because I lack fitness. But I want to play as long as I can then perhaps go off. If I can get out there then the adrenalin will keep me going."

Thomas Ravelli has warned his teammates to be on their guard against a backlash from Rangers on Wednesday night. He said, "we've lost players after we had a very good side three years ago. Back then we had Jocky Bjorklund at the back, Stefan Rehn who is now in Switzerland and Pontus Kamark who is at Leicester. We came top of a group which included Barcelona and Manchester United and only lost on away goals to Bayern Munich in the last eight."

"This team has a way to go to match that but perhaps the Rangers game shows we are growing. We're not through yet. We have 90 tough minutes left and if we can score three goals at home then so can Rangers. Also I remember in 1986 we were 3-0 up on Barcelona after the first leg then lost the away game by the same score and went out on penalties. But I did expect to be busier in Gothenburg. I only had one real save to make from Marco Negri in the first half and that was offside."

"We didn't deserve to win 3-0 and I felt sorry for Andy Goram. I told him afterwards that he hadn't had much help. Now I want to complete the job and make the Champions' League again because the last time we lost home and away to both Rosenborg and Porto. Our only high was beating Milan at home but overall it was desperately disappointing."

Walter Smith has spoken about the complex procedure the Ibrox club now utilises when signing foreign players. He said, "the turning point was when we tried to sign Florin Raducioiu from Espanol two seasons ago. We trailed him for two months, being told we were getting him the whole time, then it ended up he didn't want to come and we had to dive in and take other people without having their backgrounds checked."

"That was when we decided the scouting network had to be enlarged. Now when we go for a player, it is after watching five alternatives. When Inter Milan wouldn't sell Massimo Paganin and Alessandro Pistone, we were able to turn to Amoruso and Porrini immediately."

He gave a man-by-man account of the new arrivals:

Jonas Thern (Free)
"I knew as far back as December that he was going to take advantage of freedom of contract in the summer. He was a player I had seen over a period of seasons and I was interested immediately. A meeting was set up in Rome and I went over in January and agreed a deal. At that time, some agreements were signed, but these are essentially meaningless because the player is still in contract. However, Jonas had a really good reputation, both as a player and a person and when we shook hands I knew he would come to us. Tying him up so early was the first brick in the rebuilding and let me get started."

Tony Vidmar (Free)
"I first became aware of him a couple of seasons ago when then Australia manager Jimmy Thomson said he was worth a look at. Archie Knox and Ewan Chester watched him in a couple of friendlies during their mid-season break then I saw him against Sparta Rotterdam. He was attractive because he could play a variety of positions across the defence and like Thern I we agreed things a while ago, around February."

Staale Stensaas (£1.75m)
"He was I the only one I didn't see playing myself. We had an idea we were losing David Robertson at the end of last season so the left-back area was one we were looking at. Scandinavia is a market we cover thoroughly because there's always the likelihood of player movement there and last season our coaching staff saw a lot of Rosenborg in the Champions League. They always came back with good reports about Stensaas."

Lorenzo Amoruso (£4m)
"I was looking for defenders and I feel that in Italy you get better value for money than England. There is a residual value because Italy has clubs that can well afford to buy players back if things go wrong. I watched him against Bologna &emdash; he was playing against Kennet Andersson, who I was also having a look at. Ewan Chester saw him against Barcelona in the semi-final of the Cup-Winners' Cup, and we watched him another couple of times after that. I started the negotiations but the chairman took over and finalised the deal, as is normally the case."

Sergio Porrini (£3m)
"His transfer was slightly easier in that it stemmed from when we played Juventus last season. Our chairman has a good relationship with their president and asked which of their players would be available. Porrini's was one of the names mentioned, we were looking for defenders, and it went from there."

Marco Negri (£3.75m)
"I have a couple of very good contacts in Italy and in January I had a meeting with them at our training camp at Il Ciocco. It was to gather information about several players but they both independently spoke very highly of Negri. Then when Archie Knox went to four Italian clubs - AC Milan, Inter, Parma and Juventus - to watch training his name kept cropping up. In Italy, checking into the back grounds of players is a real art. When we spoke to our people about Negri, they were able to tell us not only what Negri was like in games, but how good a trainer he was, that he he's a good mixer, and even that he favours a pair of jeans with tears in them rather than designer gear when he goes out! He was watched four or five times, always by different people. Initially, Perugia didn't want to sell him, but we asked them to contact us if they changed their mind."

Antti Niemi (£750,000)
"We were left in an embarrassing situation test season when we'd to sign Andy Dibble on loan towards the end of the season. I was determined that wouldn't happen again. Niemi was recommended to us by former Denmark coach Richard Moller-Nielsen, who said he was a keeper with enormous potential who was ready to step up. We watched him both for FC Copenhagen and for Finland. Coventry came in late in the day but by then we'd had the initial contact with his club and established that they we keep in touch with us."

Rino Gattuso (Free)
"The legislation in Italy is that players haven't signed full contracts can leave under freedom of movement. Rino had played eight games Perugia and an agent asked if would be interested. At the time, we were told that would be no problems but it turned out there were and the Italian FA ended up having to adjust their contract system because of it. But it meant that Rino was with us for three months, from March, without being able to play. We had some sympathy for Perugia because we genuinely hadn't realised there would be problems over it. Because we didn't want bad feeling to result the chairman paid a little extra in the Negri deal to compensate Perugia for Gattuso."

Jonatan Johansson (£500,000)
"He was another recommended by Richard Moller-Nielsen. Richard had indicated he was a young Finnish player who'd be beneficial to us in the future. Ewan Chester saw him play and made arrangements with his club Estonia to get him across as soon as season began. We finally agreed a five-year with with him the day we played our Champions' Cup game in Gothenburg. He has a good level of ability decent temperament, he's two-footed and he's an international player."

Smith also talked about the signings which have most disappointed him. He said, "I knew within four weeks of Basile Boli and Oleg Salenko arriving that they weren't going to work out. Neither made any attempt to integrate and it soon became clear both had another agenda. It would have been far better saying at the outset they didn't fancy coming. Salenko went to Turkey and had similar problems there and then, unfortunately for him had to quit through injury. Overall, it's never going to go smoothly all the time when you have new signings coming to a new country. But most have done well."

A terrific performance by Rangers was enough to give them an emphatic victory over Dundee Utd, a team regarded by many as the best team in Scotland outside the Old Firm.

Rangers struggled to make space against United last season and this resulted in closely fought matches, two won by Rangers and two by United. The new look 1997 Gers though are far better at passing the ball and simply switched the ball to the other side of the park when United closed them down.

The first goal came in the 33rd minute. A poor pass from Dave Bowman at the back sailed over Stuart McKimmie's head. Staale Stensaas was first to the loose ball and as Sieb Dykstra raced out of his goal he squared it across the box for Negri to tap in.

The second for Rangers followed in the 41st minute. A neat passing movement between Charlie Miller picked up the ball in midfield and played a one-two with Paul Gascoigne before sending an excellent pass through to Negri but Eric Pederson nipped in to clear. From the resultant corner Gascoigne played the ball into the box and as Dykstra hesitated Negri headed home.

Just a minute later Negri got his hat-trick in what is sure to be a strong contender for goal of the season. Andy Goram found Gascoigne with a throw-out and he passed to Negri deep inside United's half. The Italian flicked the ball over McKimmie's head and as he stumbled flicked it back again before steadying himself and sending a stunning dipping volley over Dykstra from 25 yards.

Negri added his fourth in the 67th minute. Miller's cross found Gordon Durie at the back post and he knocked it back to Negri. He had his back to goal but managed to turn McKimmie and score from six yards.

Two minutes later United grabbed a consolation goal after Mark Perry was brought down in the box by Sergio Porrini. Stephen Pressley stepped up to take it and calmly sent Andy Goram the wrong way.

Five minutes from the end Negri rounded off a wonderful performance with his fifth goal. Durie nodded a Goram kick-out on to Negri who controlled it well and sent it back to the Scot. He ran at the defence and played flicked the ball Back to Negri who was making the diagonal run and he slammed it into the net from 22 yards.

Many people thought the United match would be a good test for Rangers ahead of Wednesday's game against Gothenburg. Both teams play with a similar style and like to deny the opposition space and hit them on the counter attack. On the evidence of this performance the rebuilding process is certainly working. In the two League matches this season Rangers have played better football that they did at any time during the nine-in-a-row season.

An excellent performance too from both Charlie Miller and Marco Negri. The Italian striker never really touched the ball before he scored his first goal but he certainly made up for that. Not sure what it will take to make the man smile though as he did not show the slightest emotion after any of his five goals.

Rangers
 
Goram       6                   
Moore       5                   
Stensaas    7
Porrini     6
Ferguson    7                  
Bjorklund   7
Durie       6 
Gascoigne   6
Negri       9                
Miller      8
Thern       7
Cleland     2   (Sub)
Gattuso     2   (Sub)
 
 

Man of the Match: Marco Negri

Falkirk Follower

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30 August - 6 September 1997
16 August - 23 August 1997