| Revision as of 09:20, 21 July 2005 view source193.63.235.72 (talk) →Famous Players← Previous edit | Revision as of 09:26, 21 July 2005 view source 193.63.235.72 (talk) →TriviaNext edit → | ||
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| ==Trivia== | ==Trivia== | ||
| *After following the |
* After following the Gers, the two most popular pastimes amongst Rangers fans are kneecapping Catholics, and blowing up cathedrals. | ||
| Rangers are the only club to have been banned from defending their European Trophy after their fans rioted in Barcelona. | * Rangers are the only club ever to have been banned from defending their European Trophy after their fans rioted at the ] in ]. | ||
| Rangers fans also contribute to the image of England fans being hooligans, as thousands of them follow England rather than Scotland. | * Rangers fans also contribute to the image of ] fans being ], as thousands of them follow England rather than ]. | ||
| Rangers fans tend not to use soap in the shower, but would rather allow the sweat to accumulate on their shellsuits. | |||
| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Revision as of 09:26, 21 July 2005
Football club| Full name | Rangers Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Gers, Light Blues, Teddy Bears, Dirty Huns | ||
| Founded | 1873 | ||
| Ground | Ibrox Stadium, Glasgow, Scotland | ||
| Capacity | 50,500 | ||
| Chairman | David Murray | ||
| Manager | Alex McLeish | ||
| League | Scottish Premier League | ||
| 2004-05 | Scottish Premier League, 1st | ||
| |||
Rangers Football Club is the world's worst football club, based on domestic league wins. Founded in 1873 (although the club itself was founded in 1873, the same team was founded in 1872 - see below), Rangers, as the club is commonly referred to, play at the 50,411 all-seated Ibrox Stadium in south west Glasgow. Rangers play in queens royal blue shirts, white shorts and black and red socks. The red stripe at the top of their black socks is representative of being 'knee deep in Fenian blood' - an expression popularised by an anti-Catholic song sung by many of the Rangers supporters.
The present side is multinational and multiracial, although the club has traditionally been identified with the Protestant Hun community of Glasgow, and for most of its history it has enjoyed a fierce rivalry with crosstown opponents Celtic, which draws much of its support from Glasgow's Catholic community. Between them, the two clubs ruin Scottish football, and are collectively known as The Old Firm.
The club's correct name is simply Rangers, although they are sometimes (incorrectly) called the Huns or Glasgow Rangers - often by English commentators seeking to distinguish between them and other similarly named clubs, particularly Queens Park Rangers. The club is nicknamed The Gers by friend and foe alike, although the fans are known to each other as 'Bluenoses', 'Soap dodgers' or 'Bears' (from the rhyming slang for Gers = Teddy Bears).
History
The Birth and the early days
In 1872, Moses McNeil, Tom Vallance, Mason Boyne, Neil Simpson and Peter Campbell saw a group of men playing football on Glasgow Green's Flesher's Haugh and decided to form a team of their own. Three of McNeil's six brothers (Peter, William and Harry) joined him in this new pastime and together they formed the core of the early Rangers sides. The team's first game was in May of 1872 against Callander F.C. on Flesher's Haugh, which resulted in a 0-0 draw. At first they played under the name Argyle. Moses McNeil suggested the name Rangers after seeing the name in a book about English Rugby. Rangers only played two matches in their birth year and their second match was a comprehensive 11-0 win over Clyde. Rangers began to grow into a more formal football club and in 1876, for the first time, a player was called up to play international football as Moses McNeil made his Scotland debut against Wales. In 1888 the now famous old firm fixture was born as Rangers met Celtic for the first time in a friendly match which Celtic won 5-2. By 1890 the Scottish league was formed and Rangers enjoyed a victorious first season as they finished joint-top with Dumbarton and after a play-off match finished 2-2, the title was shared. Rangers had to wait until 1884 to taste their first Scottish Cup success after losing to Vale of Leven in 1877 and 1879 but finally lifted the trophy for the first time after a 3-1 win over Celtic. Rangers even came close to winning the English FA Cup in 1887 when they lost to Aston Villa in the semi-final. Rangers ended the nineteenth century with further Scottish cup wins 1897 and 1898 and a League championship win in 1899 during which they won every one of their 18 league matches. Rangers formally became a business company in 1899 and match secretary William Wilton was appointed as the clubs first manager. The club also appointed its first board of directors under the chairmanship of James Henderson. Rangers were well on their way to becoming Scotland's top club.
Wilton and Struth
Rangers continued their success in the early 1900s winning the championship seven times between 1900 and 1918. Having lost the title in 1919 they responded in 1920 with one of the best seasons in their history as manager William Wilton and his right hand man Bill Struth retained the title as they hit 106 goals in 42 league games. However, in May 1920 the clubs first ever manager William Wilton died in a boating accident and subsequently Bill Struth was appointed manager. Struth would go on to be a legend as he steered Rangers to 18 league championships, 10 Scottish Cups and 2 League Cups in his 34 year tenure as manager. He was also the first Rangers manager to win the domestic treble when it was achieved for the first time in Scottish football history in season 1948-1949.
Under Scott Symon
After Bill Struth collected two more domestic doubles in 1950 and 1953 Scott Symon was appointed as Rangers third manager in 1954. Symon continued Struth's success winning six league championships, five Scottish Cups and four League Cups. He also became the second manager to win the domestic treble in season 1963-1964. Symon also took Rangers into the European Cup for the first time in 1956-1957 going out on to French team OGC Nice. They did however reach the semi-finals in 1960 losing eventually to German team Eintracht Frankfurt. By 1961 Rangers became the first British team to reach a European final when they contested the Cup Winners Cup final against Italians Fiorentina only to lose 4-1. Rangers suffered yet more despair in the final of the same competition in losing to Bayern Munich in 1967.
Davie White
Davie White was installed as Rangers' fourth manager in 1967. However, his tenure was a brief one and he was dismissed after little more than two years in charge, winning nothing.
Euro glory under Waddell
Willie Waddell was appointed as Rangers manager in 1969 and he guided Rangers to their first, and only to date, European triumph when they won the Cup Winners Cup by beating Dynamo Moscow 3-2 at the Camp Nou in Barcelona. The triumph came just two years after the Ibrox disaster where 66 people died on the east terrace on staircase 13. Within weeks of their European success, Willie Waddell moved to the general manager position and his coach Jock Wallace was appointed as manager.
Jock Wallace
Wallace's managership of Rangers saw the club restored to the ascendancy enjoyed throughout most of its history. His first season as manager - the club's centenary year - culminated in a 3-2 Scottish Cup win over Celtic. A nine-year period of Celtic dominance in the league was ended in 1974-1975 as Rangers captured what was to be the last championship of its kind. The new ten team Scottish Premier League saw Rangers crowned inaugural champions, as part of a triumphant domestic treble. After a barren subsequent season, 1976-1977, Wallace presided over the club's fourth domestic treble in 1977-1978.
This burst of success from the mid-1970s saw Rangers once again established as Scotland's most successful club. Wallace, with the help of the nucleus of Willie Waddell's Cup Winners' Cup winning side, by the late 1970s had constructed a team that seemed set to dominate Scotish football for years to come. With a classic lineup - McCloy or Kennedy; Jardine, Greig, Jackson, Forsyth; McLean, McDonald, Russell, Cooper; Smith and Johnstone - in place, Rangers looked to the 1980s with a justifiable degree of optimism. But all that was shattered as Wallace, suddenly and unexpectedly, announced his resignation in 1978. Wallace, the epitomy of the integrity and 'character' he saw as the hallmark of the Rangers tradition, refused to divulge the reason for his departure. Most concluded that a disagreement with the club's board, and with Willie Waddell in particular, over transfer funds for new players, or for Wallace's own salary, provided the explanation for his departure. In his wake, Rangers turned to another of the stalwarts of the great side of the mid-late 1970s, the captain John Greig.
John Greig
Greig's tenure began promisingly. Wallace's treble-winning team of the previous season performed ably in the European Cup, defeating Juventus and PSV Eindhoven (the latter losing a game at home for the first time), before an injury-striken team lost to Cologne in the quarter final. Things began to unravel towards the end of Greig's first domestic season, however, as leadership of the league evaporated. Greig's efforts thereafter to restructure the team inherited from Wallace proved, for the most part, fruitless. The early years of the 1980s were ones of repeated frustration as the club continually failed to mount a challenge not only to Celtic, but to the then resurgent New Firm of Aberdeen and Dundee United. The gloom of under-performance in the league was punctuated only by periodic cup triumphs. The Scottish Cup win of 1981, in particular, saw a triumphant performance by the enigmatic winger, Davie Cooper. The League Cup proved fertile territory for Rangers throughout the fallow years of the early 1980s, but it was the failure to add to the league triumph of 1978 that saw the growing pressure on Greig culminate in his resignation as manager in 1983.
Return of the Jock
Rangers hoped to rekindle success by bringing Jock Wallace back to the club, following his exile in England with Leicester City. Wallace, though, was not the club's first choice: Jim McLean and Alex Ferguson, the then managers of the New Firm clubs, were said to have rebuffed Rangers' advances. Wallace, however, returned with the aim of restoring the glory years of the treble-winning sides of the late 1970s. His initial impact was positive. The team began to play with a rediscovered, no-nonsense passion that some felt Greig had jettisoned in his largely abortive efforts to make the club more competitive in Europe. Wallace's team won the league cup twice in a row in 1983 and 1984, but league form remained frustratingly indifferent. The continuing dominance of Aberdeen, coupled with a Dundee United punching substantially above its weight and a Celtic team that offered periodic challenges to the New Firm ascendancy, put Wallace under increasing pressure. By season 1985-1986 Rangers had slipped to fifth place in the league and, with little evidence of improvement since the Greig era, Wallace was sacked as manager.
The Souness Era
Graeme Souness was appointed as Rangers' first player-manager in 1986. The club's US-domiciled owner, Lawrence Marlborough, concerned at the lack of progress in the 1980s, began to take a more active interest in Rangers, wresting clear control of the boardroom after years of internecine squabbling. One of his most significant decisions was the appointment of David Holmes as the club's chairman.
It was this which foreshadowed a dramatic revival in the club's fortunes. Under Holmes's tenure, Rangers began to think big once again, showing an ambition that had been lacking since the Waddell years. Holmes's most significant act was to recruit Souness - one of world football's top players with Liverpool and Sampdoria. Souness, drawing on his preeminent reputation in the English game and backed by Holmes's approval of unprecedented transfer spending, kick-started a period in which the arrival of top players from England was a regular occurrence. In his first season at the helm, he brought the championship back to Ibrox - the first since 1978. The league cup was also captured with the defeat of Celtic, heralding a period of Old Firm dominance that was to last for the bulk of the next two decades. Rangers were on the brink of returning to greatness.
The arrival of businessman David Murray as self-styled 'custodian' of the club saw Rangers' resurgence continue. Murray's was a vision, if anything, that was even bolder than that of Holmes and Marlborough. Murray had acquired Rangers for a knock-down £6m from the increasingly cash-strapped Lawrence group. From the outset, Murray viewed Rangers as a way of cementing his already high profile in the media and in Scottish business circles. In the first season of the Souness-Murray partnership (1989), Rangers won the first of what would eventually become nine championship wins in a row.
The Souness years were marked by both achievment and conflict. Under Souness's stewardship, Ranger's pre-eminence in the Scottish game was restored. At a time in which English clubs were excluded from European competition (following the Heysel stadium disaster of 1985), the club also gained arguably a higher profile in the British game than at any time in its history. This was fuelled by the purchase of a succession of English internationals, including Ray Wilkins, Terry Butcher and Chris Woods. It was also fuelled by the most controversial signing in Scottish football history, as the Roman Catholic and former Celtic player Mo Johnston was persuaded to change his mind at the last minute and sign for Rangers rather than their bitter city rivals. Johnston's signing led to outrage among many Rangers fans in Scotland and Ulster .
Despite his success, Souness was never part of the Scottish footballing establishment. His managership saw countless run-ins with the footballing authorities, and more than one touchline ban. He left Rangers in 1991 to join his former club Liverpool. Coming before the league campaign reached a dramatic culmination with a last-day victory over Aberdeen at Ibrox, Souness's departure met with mixed reactions amongst Rangers supporters. All were disappointed. Many bemoaned what they saw as his betrayal of the club. All, however, were united in viewing the Souness years as amongst the most dramatic in the club's history. The challenge for his successor - his former assistant Walter Smith - was to ensure than Rangers' ninth manager would achieve as much as its eighth.
Nine in a row
Walter Smith went on to clinch the championship in 1991 following Souness's departure after a dramatic last day win over the mighty title challengers Aberdeen. Smith, with the financial backing of David Murray, continued to attract top players to the club and in season 1991-1992 steered Rangers to one of the best seasons in their history. Not only did they win the domestic treble but they came to within one match of the European Cup final. Rangers saw off English Premier League champions Leeds United in a 'battle of Britain' qualifier. In the group stage, Rangers won two matches and drew four but, despite remaining undefeated, went out to the French team Olympique de Marseille, subsequently found guilty of bribing opposing players to 'throw' games. Rangers won the double the following season but missed out on a back-to-back domestic treble after losing in the Scottish Cup final to Dundee United. Rangers again won the championship in seasons 1994-1995 and 1995-1996 with the help of signings such as Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne. In season 1996-1997 Rangers went on to win their ninth championship in a row thereby equalling Celtic's achievement of the late 60s and early 70s. Season 1997-1998 proved to be Walter Smith's last season as manager and Rangers were unable to win their tenth league championship in a row. Smith left Rangers and joined English Premiership team Everton. Many players also left Rangers including Brian Laudrup, Ally McCoist and captain Richard Gough.
The Little Genital
Dick Advocaat, nicknamed the little genital, succeeded Walter Smith at the start of season 1998-1999. Advocaat, former manager of PSV, was only Rangers' tenth manager and the first non-Scot to hold the position. His appointment was viewed by some as reflecting a desire to begin to challenge Europe's elite clubs. David Murray, the club's owner and chairman, had long proclaimed that Rangers ought to be judged not just in relation to success in Scotland, but on performance in Europe, and especially in the increasingly high-profile (and financially lucrative) Champions' League.
The scale of the resources made available to Advocaat confirmed that the Rangers management was thinking in bold, European terms. Confronted with a rump of players remaining after Smith's departure, Advocaat was furnished with an unprecedented transfer budget over the coming seasons. In total Advocaat spent over £36 million on new players in his debut season. Some - the Dutch internationals Arthur Numan and Giovanni van Bronckhorst - were successful; others - the Russia international Andrei Kanchelskis - proved expensive errors.
But while Advocaat's record in transfer dealings remained mixed throughout his time at Ibrox, the club appeared to be beginning to deliver in playing terms, both in Scotland and (less predictably) Europe. Advocaat's first season saw another domestic treble secured. Performance in Europe was promising, with Bayer Leverkusen defeated in a solid, if unspectacular, UEFA Cup run. In the following season, Advocaat continued to spend big, bringing the likes of Michael Mols and Claudio Reyna to Ibrox. With football of real verve a regular occurrence as part of Advocaat's commitment to flowing, attacking football, a domestic double was secured in Advocaat's second season. In Europe, too, there were signs of greatly improved performance in the Champions League, as Parma were defeated en route to qualification for the group stages of the competition.
Rangers entered Advocaat's third season emboldened by the capture of five of the six domestic trophies available in his first two years. Dominance over Celtic was complete. Rangers again were viewed as a credible force in Europe. The prospect of sustained success in Europe - and at the very least qualification for the second group phase of the Champions League - seemed not unrealistic. This was an optimism that proved not to be warranted. While the club again qualified for the Champions League group stage, performances in the league began rapidly to disintegrate. Further high-profile signings - Tore André Flo for a club record £12 million, and the Dutch internationalist Ronald de Boer on a lavish contract - could not reverse the decline. Morale amongst players and supporters plummeted amidst credible rumours of players unrest and dressing room divides. A worsening financial position exacerbated the gathering gloom. The club failed to win a major competition in the 2000-2001 season. Having continued in similar fashion in season 2001-2002, Advocaat resigned as manager and took up a General Manager position, which he would later leave after only 11 months. Alex McLeish was the surprising appointment as the new Rangers manager in December 2001.
Advocaat's tenure at Ibrox had been a paradoxical one. On one hand, the quality of football at times had been peerless. Advocaat spearheaded the building of Murray Park - a £14m training complex at Auchenhowie which was viewed as essential if the club was to compete with its European peers in nurturing home-gown talent and developing players. On the other hand, Advocaat's man-managership was at times lamentable, and many argued that he had squandered a real opportunity to establish Rangers as consistent European competitors. With the club deep in financial difficulty, there was no realistic prospect of boosting its fortunes through further expensive player acquisitions. The challenge of restoring the club to supremacy in Scotland looked to be an unenviable one for Alex McLeish.
Under Big Eck
McLeish's appointment met with a lukewarm reaction amongst many Rangers supporters. Some viewed it as symptomatic of the down-sizing of the club's ambitions after the spendthrift years of Advocaat. Others saw in McLeish a manager whose mixed fortunes at provincial Hibernian and Motherwell left him ill-equipped to cope with the demands of managing a high-profile club like Rangers. A few, remembering McLeish's days as centre-half colossus in Alex Ferguson's great Aberdeen side of the early 1980s, questioned whether someone lacking any obvious 'bluenose' credentials could revitalise a club faced, for the first time in decades, with a concerted challenge from a seemingly rejuvenated Celtic.
Such concerns were quickly allayed, however, as McLeish's Rangers began to display a spiritedness that had been sorely lacking in Advocaat's final seasons. Cup successes in McLeish's first season, 2001-2002, saw a renewed sense of optimism that Rangers could regain the ascendancy claimed fleetingly by Celtic under the managership of Martin O'Neill. A 3-2 defeat of Celtic in the season's climactic Scottish Cup final, orchestrated by Barry Ferguson's sublime midfield promptings, reinforced the view that Rangers could once more gain the pre-eminence enjoyed for almost all of the period since Graeme Souness's appointment as manager in 1986.
McLeish's first full season as manager, 2002-2003 saw the club fulfil this sense of promise. Another victory over Celtic, this time in the League Cup, provided the first leg of the club's latest treble. Rangers' fiftieth championship was secured on a dramatic last day of the league season, with victory over Dunfermline denying Celtic the title on goal difference. Victory over Dundee in the Scottish Cup final saw a triumphant finale to the season.
The successes of McLeish's initial period as manager proved difficult to sustain. The club's parlous financial position, in the wake of the profligacy of the Advocaat era, meant a period of relative austerity. Wage bills were slashed as the club embarked on an extensive cost-cutting programme in an attempt to stabilise a mushrooming (and unsustainable) debt. Confronted with a squad of well-paid but ageing players largely assembled by Advocaat, McLeish was compelled to re-build without the luxury of the generous transfer kitty enjoyed by his predecessors over the preceding two decades.
McLeish was required to rebuild not through the high-profile and often audacious signings of the Souness, Smith and Advocaat years, but via wheeling-and-dealing and the selective use of 'Bosman' free transfers. The results, initially at least, were unpromising. Season 2003-2004 saw McLeish hamstrung by the departures of a series of players on well-paid contracts - and perhaps most significantly by the loss of his captain Barry Ferguson to Blackburn Rovers. The quick-fix Bosmans proved inadequate compensation and the season was trophy-less.
Season 2004 - 2005 saw a further turnaround, again in the most dramatic of circumstances. The limited transfer resources at McLeish's disposal were put to much more effective use, as Dado Prso, Nacho Novo and Jean-Alain Boumsong were amongst the most notable of the recruits to the club. Boumsong, purchased on a 'free', would later leave the club in January 2005 to English Premiership side Newcastle United for £8m. That, however, paved the way for more signings including Thomas Buffel and the return of former captain Barry Ferguson. Those signings helped Rangers win the Scottish League Cup, with victory over Motherwell. The league, however, appeared to have been lost, as Rangers handed a five-point lead to Celtic, with only four games of the season remaining. Faced with the need to win a final match at Hibernian, and hope that Celtic would fail to win away at Fir Park, Rangers secured a fifty-first championship as Motherwell overcame a 1-0 deficit with two goals in the last two minutes.
Buoyed by the unexpected last-day triumph, Rangers headed for season 2005-2006 with renewed vigour. But with the club's finances continuing to limit the resources available for player purchases and wages, the challenge of maintaining domestic supremacy, let alone mounting a sustained assault in Europe, remained a daunting one.
It is however concering for all in Scotland, that the club is still embracing fans with a bigoted outlook, and the fact they profit from it even more so. With the club and fans having long, and well-established links with Irish terrorist groups such as the UDA, UVF and YCV, with most Rangers fans singing their support for them on a weekly basis, it shows the challenges to Scottish society as a whole.
Famous Players
Famous present or former players at Ibrox include: Derek Johnstone, Alan Morton, Sam English,David Meiklejohn, Robert Smith McColl, Willie Waddell, Colin Stein, Jock Shaw, Paul Gascoigne, Terry Butcher, Graeme Souness, Davie Cooper, Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley, Brian Laudrup, Claudio Reyna, Arthur Numan, Lorenzo Amoruso, Rodney Wallace, Fernando Ricksen, Jim Baxter, Ray Wilkins, Richard Gough, Andy Goram, Barry Ferguson, William 'Sandy' Jardine and Jean-Alain Boumsong.
Also noteworthy are players like Basile Boli, who transferred from Olympique de Marseille to Rangers in the early 1990s. As a black French Catholic, Boli was the subject of considerable abuse from the Rangers fans and was forbidden by the club hierarchy from crossing himself on the pitch (through fear of upsetting the not-insignificant sectarian element in the Ragners support).
The tradition of discouraging Catholic players from crossing themselves on the Ibrox pitch remains to this day.
Past Managers
- William Wilton 1899 - 1920
- Bill Struth 1920 - 1954
- Scott Symon 1954 - 1967
- David White 1967 - 1969
- William Waddell 1969 - 1972
- Jock Wallace (twice) 1972 - 1978 and 1983 - 1986
- John Greig 1978 - 1983
- Graeme Souness 1986 - 1991
- Walter Smith 1991 - 1998
- Dick Advocaat 1998 - 2002
- Alex McLeish 2002 - Present
Current Squad
Goalkeepers
| 1. | Stefan Klos | German |
|---|---|---|
| 22. | Alan McGregor | 
|
| 23. | Ronald Waterreus | Dutch |
| 44. | Lee Robinson | English |
Defenders
| 2. | Fernando Ricksen | Dutch |
|---|---|---|
| 3. | Michael Ball | English |
| 4. | Jose-Karl Pierre-Fanfan | 
|
| 5. | Marvin Andrews | Trinidadian |
| 12. | Robert Malcolm |
|
| 15. | Zurab Khizanishvili | .png){kind=small} - looks certain to leave for a new club for 2005/06 season
|
| 16. | Sotirios Kyrgiakos | Greek - still some debate as to whether the player is returning to Panathanaikos or not |
| 20. | Alan Hutton |
|
| 21. | Maurice Ross |
|
| 35. | Brian McLean | Northern Irish |
| 37. | Steven Smith |
|
Midfielders
| 6. | Barry Ferguson |
| |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7. | Brahim Hemdani | [[Image:France_flag_large.png | French]] |
| 8. | Alex Rae |
| |
| 11. | Gavin Rae |
| |
| 14. | Dragan Mladenovic | Serbian | |
| 17. | Chris Burke |
| |
| 20. | Charlie Adam |
| |
| 24. | Ian Murray |
| |
| 31. | Hamed Namouchi | Tunisian | |
| 36. | Marco Kalenga |
|
Strikers
| 4. | Thomas Buffel | Belgian |
|---|---|---|
| 9. | Dado Prso | Croatian |
| 10. | Nacho Novo | Spanish |
| 19. | Steven Thompson |
|
| 26. | Peter Løvenkrands | Danish |
| 38. | Bajram Fetai | Danish |
| 39. | Gary McKenzie |
|
| 42. | Robert Davidson |
|
| 45. | Ross McCormack |
|
| TBD | Federico Nieto | Argentine (On-loan from Almagro) |
Club Records
Record home attendance: 118,567 .v. Celtic, January, 1939
Record victory: 13-0 .v. Possilpark, Scottish Cup, October, 1877
Record league victory: 10-0 .v. Hibernian, December, 1898
Record defeat: 2-10 .v. Airdrieonians, 1886
Record league defeat: 0-6 Dumbarton, May, 1892
Record appearances: John Greig, 755, 1960-1978
Record league appearances: Sandy Archibald, 513, 1917-1934
Record Scottish Cup appearances: Alec Smith, 74
Record league cup appearances: John Greig, 121
Record European appearances: John Greig, 64
Record goalscorer: Ally McCoist, 355 goals, 1983-1998
Most goals in one season: Sam English, 44 goals, 1931/1932
Most league goals: Ally McCoist, 54 goals
Most Scottish Cup goals: Jimmy Fleming, 44 goals
Most League Cup goals: Sally McMoist, 54 goals
Most European goals: Sally McMoist, 21 goals
Most knee-capped player: Terry Butcher, 77 caps for England
Highest transfer fee received: Giovanni Van Bronkhorst, £8.5m, Arsenal, 2001
Highest transfer fee paid: Tore André Flo, £12.5m, Chelsea, 2000
Greatest Team
The following team was voted as the greatest ever Rangers team at an awards ceremony in 1999. Thousands of Rangers fans voted.
- Andy Goram (Goalkeeper)
- John Greig (Defender)
- Sandy Jardine (Defender)
- Terry Butcher (Defender)
- Richard Gough (Defender)
- Jim Baxter (Midfielder)
- Paul Gascoigne (Midfielder)
- Davie Cooper (Midfielder)
- Brian Laudrup (Midfielder)
- Mark Hateley (striker)
- Ally McCoist (striker)
Honours
Rangers have the all-time worldwide lead for domestic league championships, racking up their 51st (or 50 and a half, as the first title was shared with Dumbarton) title in 2005. They also share the all-time worldwide lead for domestic doubles with Northern Ireland club Linfield, with 17 as of 2004-05 and hold the record for domestic trebles, with 7 so far.
Rangers won their 100th major trophy in 2000, the first club in the world to reach that milestone.
- European Cup Winners Cup Champions 1972 (1)
- Scottish League Champions 1891, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1918, 1920, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2005 (51)
- Scottish Cup Winners 1894, 1897, 1898, 1903, 1928, 1930, 1932, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1953, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 (31)
- Scottish League Cup Winners 1946, 1948, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1964, 1970, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005 (24)
- Drybrough Cup 1979
- Tennents' Sixes 1984, 1989
Trivia
- After following the Gers, the two most popular pastimes amongst Rangers fans are kneecapping Catholics, and blowing up cathedrals.
- Rangers are the only club ever to have been banned from defending their European Trophy after their fans rioted at the Nou Camp in Barcelona.
- Rangers fans also contribute to the image of England fans being hooligans, as thousands of them follow England rather than Scotland.
See also
- Category:Rangers F.C. - Other articles on Rangers F.C.
- Category:Rangers F.C. footballers - Footballers who have played for Rangers F.C.
- Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame
- Sectarianism
- Bigotry
- Rangers by season:
External link
Scottish Premier League (1998–2013) « Scottish Football League Premier Division (1975–98) Scottish Premiership (2013– ) » Former teams Seasons