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The truth about the De Boer signing

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Contrary to the misty eyed view being put forward by BBC Scotland Andrei Kanchelskis has revealed that Ronald de Boer was a virtual crock when he signed for Rangers (IL).

Things were so bad with de Boer in the side that the former Manchester United winger felt as if his side were a man down whenever the Dutch golden boy was on the team-sheet.

De Boer left Barcelona and snubbed Manchester United to sign for Rangers (IL) in 2000 with half of his money registered in contracts with the SFA and SPL with the other half paid through a Discount Option Scheme kept quiet from the authorities.

At the time money seemed virtually no object as Dave Murray tried to keep up with Celtic who were now under proper corporate management with a stadium that held 10,000 more fans that Rangers (IL).

De Boer arrived at Ibrox in the wake of a 6-2 hammering from Celtic, while John Hartson failed the club medical performed by the Dutch doctor the former Ajax star passed with flying colours.

Kanchelskis was already inside Ibrox at that stage but as part of the non-Dutch contingent was sceptical about the arrival of yet another Netherlander.

In the Evening Times he recalls: “Towards the end, when Rangers’ debt was becoming a real concern, he (Murray) tried to rein Advocaat back because he was buying players the club did not need, want or could afford. Ronald de Boer was one of them.

De Boer had arrived at Ibrox from Barcelona with a huge reputation. However, he was thirty when he signed and had constant problems with his knees.

After every game he was unable to train for two days and you often saw De Boer in the dressing room with ice-packs on his knees.

Advocaat’s obsession with Dutch footballers meant that sometimes it felt we started with nine men because one, Konterman, was not good enough and the other, De Boer, was not fit enough for regular first-team football.”

In four seasons at Ibrox de Boer started 81 league matches and retired from football at the end of his contract.

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