It says everything about the financial decline of Scottish football and the modern rise of the Red Bull ownership model that Rangers’ record signing, Tore Andre Flo, arrived at Ibrox nine years before RB Leipzig were formed.
Leipzig, the new wheeler-dealers of European football, spent £97m on transfer fees last summer, roughly the same as Rangers have since 2006. They also sold players for fees totalling £102m. Rangers can match that total over their last 20 seasons combined.
Rangers were in a state of near emergency when Steven Gerrard left for the Premier League. They had repeatedly insisted that there had been no contact from Aston Villa but it became clear that Gerrard was keen to leave and take assistant Gary McAllister with him.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst, out of work since leaving Guangzhou R&F, was a leftfield appointment but a familiar face. Gerrard left a four-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership having won the title by 25 points in 2020-21 and established the first ever Invincibles season in Rangers’ history.
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Everything is inevitably viewed and skewed by the rivalry with Celtic. Van Bronckhorst has lost two league games, both to Celtic. The Scottish Cup win over the same opponents helped to ease domestic pressure, but they head into the last Old Firm fixture of the season this weekend knowing that even a win at Celtic Park probably won’t be enough to catch Celtic.
Instead, it is the two fixtures that sandwich the weekend that are Rangers’ biggest of the season. If the jury remains out on Van Bronckhorst domestically, he has built something truly remarkable in Europe. Rangers are three games away from their second-ever continental trophy and their first in exactly half a century.
To say this has been produced out of nothing, the trick of a sleight-hand magician, is an understatement. Under Gerrard in the autumn, Rangers crashed out of their first Champions League qualifying round to Malmo, losing home and away. They edged past Armenia’s Alashkert in a Europa League playoff and then lost their opening two group games to Lyon and Sparta Prague.
But under Van Bronckhorst, Rangers have become the free-scoring, free-wheeling Europa League underdog diamonds. They peaked with four goals in 18 minutes against Borussia Dortmund in the Westfalenstadion, arguably Rangers’ best individual result since beating Lyon 3-0 in France in October 2007 (and some would go back to a 2-1 win at Elland Road in November 1992).
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The links with 2007-08 – when Rangers reached the Uefa Cup final – are impossible to ignore. Then they also finished second in the league despite losing only twice between November and the end of April, both to Celtic. Then they sold a marquee full-back to the Premier League in January (Alan Hutton then, Nathan Patterson now).
Then they prolonged their dream with wins over Bundesliga sides (Dortmund now, Werder Bremen then) and second-leg quarter-final victories against Portuguese opposition (Sporting then, Braga now). They also relied upon surprise goalscorers in the same way: Kris Boyd scored 25 goals in 07-08 but didn’t score in Europe. Right-back James Tavernier, the penalty king, is their top scorer in Europe this season.
Rangers are emphatic second favourites against RB Leipzig for a reason. Since Domenico Tedesco was appointed in December, their away form has been supreme. Atalanta and Real Sociedad were brushed aside in Europe, while in the Bundesliga Leipzig have won 6-1 away from home twice. They also have their own statement win in Dortmund, 4-1 at the beginning of the month.
But if this is where it ends, so what? Old Firm seasons are viewed so vehemently through the prism of one domestic opponent that anything that broadens horizons is to be cherished. As with West Ham’s elimination of Sevilla, the win in the Westfalenstadion allowed an unfancied European challenger a new-found freedom to attack the latter rounds of a competition that can become self-fulfilling.
Rangers cannot match Leipzig for quality or budget or global scouting network. They do not possess Europe’s next big things like Christopher Nkunku, Dani Olmo and Dominik Szoboszlai. Think that they are convinced any of that matters? You haven’t been watching Van Bronckhorst’s team in Europe this season.
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