In 1872, brothers Peter and Moses McNeil, William McBeath and Peter Campbell saw a group of men playing football on Glasgow Green's Flesher's Haugh and decided to form a team.
The team's first game was May of 1872 V Callander F.C. on Flesher's Haugh, which resulted in a 0-0 draw. Moses McNeil suggested the name Rangers after seeing the name in a book about English Rugby. Rangers only played 2 matches in their birth year and their second match was a comprehensive 11-0 win over a team named Clyde - not the present Clyde F.C.
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. Celtic beat Rangers 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 1894 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 one of Scotland's top clubs.
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 netting 106 goals in 42 league games. However, in May 1920 the clubs first ever manager, William Wilton, died in a boating accident and Bill Struth was subsequently appointed manager. Struth went on to steer 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 1948-49.
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 1963-64. Symon also took Rangers into the European Cup for the first time in 1956-57 going out on to French team Nice. The following season however saw Rangers suffer their worst ever defeat to their arch rivals Celtic, losing 7-1 in the League Cup final of 1957. They did however reach the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1960 losing eventually to German club Eintracht Frankfurt by a record aggregate 12-4 for a Scottish team. In 1961 Rangers became the first British team to reach a European final when they contested the Cup Winners' Cup final against Italian side Fiorentina, only to lose 4-1 on aggregate. Rangers suffered yet more despair in the final of the same competition in 1967, losing 1-0 after extra time to Bayern Munich.
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 no trophies.
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. Due to a pitch invasion the team were presented with the trophy in the dressing room and following pressure exerted by the Spanish Government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco UEFA banned Rangers from defending the cup [citation needed] (in response to what was considered to be an unfair politically driven decision; FC Barcelona were to invite Rangers to participate in their pre-season Joan Gamper Tournament the following year alongside the Basque team Athletic Club de Bilbao [citation needed]). The triumph in the European Cup Winners' Cup came less than 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.
Wallace's managership of Rangers saw the club achieve a period of sustained success. 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. In 1978 Wallace, suddenly and unexpectedly, announced his resignation while refusing to divulge the reason for his departure. In his wake, Rangers turned to another of the stalwarts of the great side of the mid-to-late 1970s, the captain 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-stricken team lost to FC Köln 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.
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. Wallace's team won the League Cup twice in a row in 1983 and 1984, but league form remained indifferent. The continuing dominance of the great Aberdeen side of the 80s, coupled with a Dundee United and Celtic team that offered periodic challenges to Aberdeen's ascendancy, put Wallace under increasing pressure. By season 1985-86 Rangers had slipped to fifth place in the league and, with little evidence of improvement since the Greig era, Wallace was sacked as manager.
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. Holmes' most significant act was to recruit Souness.
Souness, drawing on his preeminent reputation in the English game and backed by Holmes' 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.
The arrival of businessman David Murray as self-styled 'custodian' of the club saw Rangers' resurgence continue. Murray had acquired Rangers for £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 achievement and conflict. Under Souness's stewardship, Rangers' 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 controversial signing of Roman Catholic and former Celtic player Mo Johnston, who 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 from some fans of the traditionally Protestant club as he was the first high-profile Catholic to sign for Rangers in modern times.
Despite his success, Souness was never part of the Scottish footballing establishment. His managership saw countless run-ins with the footballing authorities. He was sent off in his debut and suffered more than one touchline ban.
Souness 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. Many were disappointed. Some 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.
Walter Smith went on to clinch the championship in 1991 following Souness's departure after a dramatic last day win over title challengers Aberdeen, who had just that last week overtaken them to be above them on goal difference. Smith, with the financial backing of David Murray, continued to attract top players to the club and in season 1992-93 steered Rangers to 1 of the best seasons in their history. Not only did they win the domestic treble but came to within 1 match of the European Cup final. Rangers saw off English Premier League champions Leeds United in a 'battle of Britain' tie. Defeating them 2-1 at home, and away. Then, 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 1994-95 and 1995-96 with the help of signings such as Brian Laudrup and Paul Gascoigne. In season 1996-97 Rangers went on to win their ninth championship in a row thereby equalling Celtic's achievement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Season 1997-98 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 club Everton. Many players also left Rangers including Laudrup, Ally McCoist and captain Richard Gough.
Dick Advocaat, nicknamed the Little General, succeeded Walter Smith at the start of season 1998-99. Advocaat, former manager of PSV Eindhoven, and the Dutch National Team, 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. But despite being given resources on a scale never before handed to a Rangers manager, success on a larger stage failed to materialise, other than a good victory over Parma, who were then in the late 1990s, one of the best Italian teams, almost winning Seria A, which saw the best Scottish result in Europe of the late 1990s. A vast improvement of the less successful era of the mid 90s, when yes there was a incredible victory over the Russian champions to reach the Champions League, but where it is felt Smith's record in Europe, and lack of success, including a embaressing 4-1 defeat to Juventus, where they were outclassed in a way they have rarely ever been, were what caused him to never have as massive support from Ranger's fans, as say Jock Stein did at Celtic, despite achieving the completion of 9 in a row, and big victories over most of the Premier League's clubs, equalling Premier League record Victories, and defeats for many clubs, with 7-0 at times, occurring. including a first 4 League games, 4 wins whitewash of Celtic one season. So when Hearts and Celtic, were fighting them out of the title in his last season, he was able to lose his job. Especially when the victory of Hearts in the cup final meant Rangers had no trophy for the first time in many seasons. With Ranger's fans hoping for a great new big reputation manager. But the costly legacy of Advocaat's time at Ibrox was a debt that would cripple the club for years.
The scale of these resources made available to Advocaat initially 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 - for example Andrei Kanchelskis - proved ineffectual.
But while Advocaat's record in transfer dealings remained mixed throughout his time at Ibrox, at first the club appeared to be beginning to deliver in playing terms. Advocaat's 1st season saw another domestic treble secured. Performances 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. 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 3rd season emboldened by the capture of five of the six domestic trophies available in his first 2 years. However, while the club again qualified for the Champions League group stage, performances in the league began 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 2000-01 season, as Celtic swept the domestic board. Having continued in similar fashion in 2001-02, and with Martin O'Neill's Celtic side again running away with the championship, Advocaat resigned as manager and took up a general manager position, which he would leave after only 11 months. Alex McLeish was the surprising appointment as the new manager in December 2001.
Advocaat's tenure at Ibrox had been a paradoxica. On one hand, Advocaat spearheaded the building of Murray Park - a £14m training complex at Auchenhowie, viewed as essential if the club was to compete with its European peers in nurturing home-gown talen. On the other hand, Advocaat's man-management was subject to criticism, and some 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.
Alex McLeish's four-and-a-half-year spell at Ibrox was a turbulent one, coming as it did after the wastefulness of the Advocaat era. His appointment in December 2001 met with a lukewarm reaction among many Rangers supporters. Some viewed it as symptomatic of the downsizing of the club's ambitions, while others saw in McLeish a manager whose mixed fortunes at Hibernian and Motherwell left him ill-equipped to cope with demands of managing a high-profile club. Some questioned whether someone lacking a Rangers allegiance could revitalise a club faced, for the 1st time in a decade, with a Celtic team that seemed to be richer and more fashionable than Rangers. Such concerns were allayed however, as Rangers began to display a spirit that was lacking in Advocaat's final seasons. Cup successes in McLeish's first half-season, 2001/2, saw a renewed sense of optimism that Rangers could regain the ascendancy claimed 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 nd marked by a dramatic last minute winner, reinforced the view Rangers could once more gain the pre-eminence enjoyed for almost all of the period since Graeme Souness's appointment as manager in 1986.
His first full season as manager, 2002/03, saw the club fulfil this sense, and featured an astonishingly tense run-in to the league campaign that many thought could never be repeated - until two years later. Another victory over Celtic, this time in the League Cup provided the first leg of the club's latest treble. Rangers' half-century of championships was secured on a dramatic last day of the league season, with victory over Dunfermline Athletic denying Celtic the title on goal difference
The destination of the title was unknown until the dying seconds of this match as both teams had headed into the game level on points and goal difference. Only a last-minute penalty by Mikel Arteta clinched the win. A somewhat drab and anti-climactic 1-0 victory over Dundee in the Scottish Cup final the following week saw a triumphant finalé to the season and a near-flawless start to McLeish's reign, ruined only by a poor showing in Europe, which Rangers exited in the first round to minnows Viktoria Žižkov.
McLeish was compelled to rebuild without the luxury of the generous transfer kitty enjoyed by his predecessors over the preceding two decades, and lost from his treble winning team the inspirational but mistake-prone Lorenzo Amoruso, Scottish international winger Neil McCann and, most damagingly of all, club captain Barry Ferguson to Blackburn Rovers To replace these players, McLeish was required to rebuild, not through the high-profile and often audacious signings of the Souness, Smith, Advocaat, but wheeling and dealing and use of 'Bosman' free transfers.
After a good start to 2003/2004 which saw the team lead the SPL and qualify for the money-spinning Champions League (with another dramatic late goal in Denmark against FC Copenhagen), the loss of Ferguson shortly afterwards led to a dramatic downturn in results and a trophyless campaign. McLeish's Bosman signings of experienced players, such as the Brazilian midfielder Emerson and Norwegian forward Egil Østenstad have since entered Ibrox folklore as some of the worst players to pull on a Rangers shirt. Most damaging of all, however, was the £600,000 signing of Portuguese winger Nuno Capucho.
The 2004/2005 season started in same vein, with McLeish making another poor signing in Serbian midfielder, Dragan Mladenovic, for £1m. The Serb would manage less than ten games for the club. On the pitch, the team again fell behind Celtic in the league and exited the Champions League at the qualifying stage. It was rumoured that failure to gain entry into the new UEFA Cup group stage would see McLeish lose his job, but another late goal and a penalty shoot out win over CS Marítimo of Portugal provided him with a stay of execution.
After this, his fortunes began to turn again. McLeish made some canny signings in summer, such as Nacho Novo, plus Bosmans Dado Pršo, Jean-Alain Boumsong along with midfielder Alex Rae. Once these settled in, the team began to recover ground on O'Neill's aging Celtic side. Boumsong, in particular, was a great success but was to be sold in January 2005, after only six months at the club, to English Premiership side Newcastle United for £8m. This cash paved the way for more signings, including Thomas Buffel and former captain Barry Ferguson.
Another trophy, the League Cup, was won in a 5-1 victory over Motherwell The league, however, appeared lost. Despite catching and overtaking Celtic (2 Old Firm wins, including a pivotal 2-0 victory at Parkhead - McLeish's first win there as Ibrox manager) nerves seemed to get the better of Rangers once they had got on top. A loss to Celtic in the last derby of the season handed a 5-point lead to their rivals with only 4 games of the season remaining, and seemed to end McLeish's hopes.
However, the Ibrox team managed to win the league title on the last day of the season. A 3-1 Celtic home loss to Hibernian the week after the derby meant 2 points separated the sides going into the final game of the season, at which point Rangers needed to win at Hibernian and hope that Celtic would drop points at Fir Park. In perhaps even more dramatic circumstances than two years previously Motherwell overcame a 1-0 deficit with 2 goals in injury time to defeat the Parkhead side, while Rangers edged out a tight 1-0 win at Easter Road. For 89 minutes of the match, Rangers thought their rivals were set for the title, and once news broke of Motherwell's late intervention, ecstasy awaited for the Ibrox legions. Even the helicopter that was carrying the league trophy was on its way to Fir Park to present it to Celtic when it had to turn around and fly to Easter Road. That day has passed into Ibrox folklore, becoming known as 'Helicopter Sunday'. McLeish could celebrate his 2nd, and Rangers' 51st title.
Season 2005/2006 got off to a bad start, with Rangers only winning 6 league games out of the first 17, being knocked out of the League Cup by Celtic in the process. The period from October through to early December saw the team embark on statistically the worst run in their history, ten games without a win. During this time, though Rangers became the 1st Scottish side to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, drawing with Inter Milan. In the end though results including defeats and draws with teams, they were crushing on regular occasions in the 1990s, who at times were at very low ebbs, made him lose support.
Overall, the McLeish era was mixed. Results swung violently, his record in the transfer market was also inconsistent. Lack of money played its part in McLeish's downfall (he brought in around £13 million in transfer fees overall and the Ibrox wage bill was slashed to under £15 million a year) but it is debatable, based on money he did have to spend, whether greater sums would have been invested wisely.Some supporters of the Ibrox club claim some of McLeish's signings have been among the club's worst ever.
McLeish obtained seven domestic trophies in four years, beating initial Old Firm counterpart Martin O'Neill by one. But O'Neill it has to be said reached a Uefa Cup Final, which is really more than equal to a Cup win. And he had been put off by his wife's illness. And on the other hand his last season, was the lowest league position for Rangers in almost 2 decades, and a rare one in that period with no trophies. Not even a final in a competition, which is a very rare event for Rangers, something you have to go back to the mid 1980s, to have seen last time. But of course he was the first Rangers mamanger in that era, to have little money to spend, and be up against a much wealthier Celtic, and a team outside the Old Firm, that had big money to spend namely Hearts, even the Aberdeen team of the late 80s and early 90s, did not have comparable money to Rangers, but in this season at times it seemed Hearts did. Or were not very far behind.And on the other hand when he was appointed everybody said, this would be a new low spending era, and it was a era, when Rangers, turned from massive spending,to spending withing their means. So in that sense, he was not all that bad. Though in his last season he did drop to 4th in mid season, till a late season relative revival.
After signs that supporter unrest was turning on Murray, on 9 February 2006, two days before the crucial Old Firm match, it was announced that Alex McLeish would leave his position as manager at the end of the 2005-06 season and on 11 March, it was confirmed that former Lyon manager Paul Le Guen would indeed succeed him at the end of the season
Rangers' first match under Le Guen was a friendly against Irish Premier League champions Linfield on 6 July 2006 at Windsor Park, Belfast. Rangers won 2-0 with first half goals from Kris Boyd and Thomas Buffel. By mid November, Rangers found themselves in third place, a full 15 points behind leaders Celtic. Rangers did, however, start promisingly in the UEFA Cup. And won 3-2 against Livorno Calcio marking the 1st victory for a Scottish club on Italian soil. Soon Rangers were the first Scottish club to qualify from the recently created UEFA Cup group stage. But Rangers results were not good enough more defeats by Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Dundee United, and draws with more, and their defeat to 1st Division St Johnstone 2-0 at Ibrox, saw Le Guen remain unpopular to the end of the year. With booing after draws and defeats increasing and some protests, they fell behind Aberdeen around Christmas. It was the case that Hearts had self imploded as of sackings of players, and dissent so fallen down the league. So it was only luck in a sense that saw Rangers not further down the league. Aberdeen had been knocked out of the League Cup by Queens Park at the start of the season, and although it is certain the Aberdeen team are recovering from a trough in the early 200s, and late 1990s, their team was still not that respcted by Rangers fans. So when the Rangers team beat Aberdeen, at Pittodrie, and then saw Aberdeen draw and make a Rangers win via a penalty push Rangers a tiny bit above Aberdeen this was not impressive enough for Rangers fans. So despite this, what really counted was how Barry Ferguson, was said to not be that important at the club as of his captaincy being unimportant, so he fell out, the star player with Le Guen, and other Scottish players did too, indeed Boyd the top scorer last season as of goals for Kilmarnock, then Rangers, whose goals had helped Rangers pull back on Hearts near the end of the season, expressed support for the former captain after scoring the Motherwell goal, then everybody knew that Le Guen had lost all support. Especially as Boyd was not his first team choice but was scoring more and better than the signing he made, so Le Guen was forced to quit and Walter Smith became as of his successes at Scotland of 1-0 wins over France the last year and making Scotland rise up from the defeats of the Berti Volgts years after a just surviving off relegation period at Everton saw Smith go back to Rangers with Ally Mcoist who was doing well at Scotland as a virtual cheer leader style guy. In 2008-09 season Rangers won the SPL title and the Scottish Cup bringing home Scotlands top 2 trophys. |
