Andrei Kanchelskis has provided the real insight into why Rangers ended up in liquidation in 2012.
While BBC Scotland apply the soft soap approach in interviews with Michael Mols and Ronald de Boer, former Ibrox winger Kanchelskis has explained the downfall in easy terms- OVER SPENDING.
Back in the summer of 1998 barely an eyebrow was raised as without Champions League football Kanchelskis, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Arthur Numan and Gabriel Amato were signed for over £20m.
The previous summer Walter Smith had gone Italian to bring in Lorenzo Amoruso, Sergio Porrini, Marco Negri, Jonas Thern, and Joakim Bjorkland topped up with Sebastian Rozental in mid season for another £20m.
That level of spending prompted the club to bring in the Discount Option Scheme followed by Employment Benefit Trusts but it would be naïve to think that all of the transfer fees and wages for the players above were done in the conventional manner.
Demolishing the mythical ‘no sporting advantage’ claim that is entirely irrelevant to fielding ineligible players Kanchelskis explained the only reason for the trophies won under Dave Murray.
“What gave Advocaat the edge over Celtic were the huge financial resources that David Murray made available to him,” the former Manchester United and Everton winger explained in the Evening Times. “He paid a Scottish record transfer fee for me. He spent only slightly less – £4.5m – to bring Arthur Numan from PSV Eindhoven.
He bought Ronald de Boer from Barcelona. He paid £5m to Feyenoord for Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Another £3.75m to AZ Alkmaar brought Fernando Ricksen to Ibrox. For what was a moderate league, that was a lot of money.
“Their goalkeeper, the German Stefan Klos, who had won the Champions League with Borussia Dortmund, had a salary of £4.5m, which made him one of the highest-paid players in world football.
“You cannot spend £80m with the kind of revenue streams that Rangers had at the turn of the century. The rot that led to the downfall of Glasgow Rangers began here.
“There were some good games but, given how much Murray had invested in the squad, there was not much of a return. The money that Advocaat spent was directly responsible for the club’s bankruptcy.”
Today the new Rangers are unable to afford Kenny McLean of Aberdeen or Hearts winger Jamie Walker.
