Search the Community

Rangers’ crisis club reputation hampers bids to sign players Mark Warburton says young players have been put off coming to Rangers because of the club's 'crisis' reputation. Picture: Andrew Milligan/PA Wire Mark Warburton believes his efforts to sign players from England have been hampered by an ongoing perception of Rangers as a club in crisis in the aftermath of their financial collapse in 2012. But the Rangers manager is confident this season’s success in winning promotion to the Premiership and the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic can finally shed them of that image and persuade higher quality players to sign on at Ibrox this summer. The on-field progress achieved by Warburton in his first season in charge has come in tandem with a more stable environment off the pitch which he hopes will make them more attractive to potential transfer targets. “There are a generation of younger players who have grown up thinking of Rangers being in financial trouble and administration,” said Warburton. “The hardest job we have got is getting them even to come to Glasgow to speak to us, as bizarre as that might sound, because they have got this impression of the club in their minds. “Once we can get them to the training ground and show them Ibrox, then it’s done. But this season, because we were in the Championship, some of them just didn’t want to play here. “They question whether the league here is good enough. If they have got English Championship clubs after them, offering more money, then we have got a hard sell. But once we get them here, we can absolutely sell Rangers to them. “It will be better now that we are going back into the Premiership. It is better after the Old Firm game. The beauty of that massive TV audience was that it gave Rangers a fantastic stage to show what we are about – the fans and the whole atmosphere. “I think it did a world of good for Scottish football but it also helped us in terms of recruitment. We can say ‘this is what we are about, we want more of this and there will be a minimum of four of these Old Firm games next season’. Hopefully that really helps with recruitment.” Warburton, however, recognises that the size of Rangers and their support will not be enough to convince some players to choose them ahead of relatively smaller English clubs with greater financial muscle. “They are working men, don’t forget,” added Warburton. “I laugh when supporters talk about so and so being greedy. He is a working man. If he has got a wife and two kids and is offered ‘X’ in Scotland and three times that down south, what is he going to do? “It is not greed, it is just looking after your family. We have to recognise that. If we lose a player because he is being paid three or four times the money, that is it. We can’t compete with that. They have got access to TV money that Scottish clubs, at the moment, haven’t got access to. So it is a recognition of that fact and move on. We are going to lose targets simply because of the fact that club X comes in and pays them three times what we can afford to pay.” The former Brentford manager also accepts that he and his more successful players could attract interest from some of those bigger-spending English clubs if Rangers continue to progress. “It happens to everyone,” he said. “I’m not disputing that fact. But any manager will only get touted for jobs if his players do well. “So you’ve almost got a vicious circle. The players do well, they get linked to other clubs. Then the manager gets told he’s going somewhere. I was told five guys had me going to one club last week. It was news to me. But that’s just how the game works. “Everyone involved is a working man. If one of our players with two young kids is offered that kind of money, it’s hard for them to say no. “What we have to do, from Rangers’ perspective, if we lose one of our players is to make sure we lose them on our terms, in terms of the transfer fee. And if we lose out on a signing target, then make sure you have other options.” Regardless of the market in which Rangers can afford to trade as they look to strengthen their squad for their return to top flight action, Warburton insists he will not compromise on the type of player he signs or the style of football he has adopted at the club. “Someone on radio the other day said they wanted a 6ft 4in centre half who could head it and kick it and a 6ft 5ins centre forward who could head it in the goal,” he said. “That’s not us and will never be us. As long as we are here, we will never play that way. We will keep playing our way and do what we have to do. We have to keep fine tuning it, find solutions and find better players. We will continue to improve our training, because we will find tough defences in the future. But I think we can go into next season full of confidence in our style of play. Our philosophy won’t change. We just have to be brighter with it and better at it.” Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/rangers/rangers-crisis-club-reputation-hampers-bids-to-sign-players-1-4114092#ixzz47AgZDVpJ Follow us: @TheScotsman on Twitter | TheScotsmanNewspaper on Facebook

THERE must always be a dividing line in assessing the travails of Ally McCoist. There is no question that he has required to manage the club in extraordinary – and extraordinarily difficult – circumstances. The crass, constant calamities perpetrated by those charged with the governance of Rangers have made his management permanently of the crisis variety. Yet, by failing to forge a team with any aesthetic value, and – as it stands – any wherewithal to cut a swathe through a whole collection of far lesser-financed Championship opponents, he has only succeeded in inflicting on the club on-field crises to exacerbate the off-field ones. What McCoist expected when he tendered his resignation on Thursday afternoon continues to baffle. Uncharitably, it could be read as no more than a diversionary tactic as his team have been found out in the second tier of Scottish football. It is understood he is willing to accept a £400,000 pay-off to bring matters to a head. This sum represents the cut in his £850,000 salary he accepted a year ago. Essentially, then, it could be argued he is willing to walk away without the 12-month earnings to which his one-year rolling contract would ordinarily entitle him. Maybe that is his perception of a selfless gesture as the financially-ailing Ibrox club lays off members of staff and scrabbles around to find the £8 million required to prevent them going under. Certainly, whatever else might be said, it must always be acknowledged that he has been selfless with his time, and a delight to deal with, for we in the press. Ultimately, though, judgments should always be made on McCoist’s three-and-a-half year tenure by restricting assessments to the footballing domain. When that exercise is performed, the question that requires to be asked is: would other managers have made more of the advantages a £6m first-team wage bill has afforded Rangers in the lower leagues? Or, to put in another way, would any other manager have done any less than McCoist has with the resources at his disposal since Rangers started out again in the fourth tier following liquidation in 2012? It is a struggle to identify one of the 23 signings made in the past two-and-a-half years that could be deemed an unqualified success. It is a struggle to identify instances when alterations of tactics and personnel have materially changed games in which Rangers have toiled. It is a struggle to identify the basis on which McCoist could make a case for himself as a prospering football manager. Not least because of a horrendous trophy-free cup record that is underpinned by three failures in the Challenge Cup, a tournament contested mainly by part-time teams. In normal circumstances, McCoist would have already agreed his severance package and been thanked for his efforts. Of course, there is no such thing as “normal circumstances” down Ibrox way. However, this point may still arrive, and as early as this week it has been suggested. That outcome would mean McCoist’s last game in charge would have proved to be the 2-0 filleting by Queen of the South on Friday night at Palmerston, a loss which left his team nine points behind a Hearts side who have a game in hand. The match in Dumfries was emblematic of all that has been wrong with Rangers under McCoist as the home side outpaced, out-thought and outplayed their more illustrious Championship counterparts. Forget all else. Results over the past month alone have been enough to make his position at the club untenable. In that period the Ibrox men have been well beaten by the two teams closest to them in the Championship. Even more unforgivable was that they shipped three goals across 20 minutes away to Alloa to dash their hopes of a final appearance in the Petrofac Training Cup. It was a mortifying experience. What McCoist did in the league encounter against Cowdenbeath that followed just days after the inept defensive display at Alloa only served to highlight the deep-seated issues over his stewardship. He put out the same back four at home to Cowdenbeath, which meant inexplicably retaining at centre-back Bilel Mohsni, pictured, and therefore Darren McGregor. The late withdrawal of Lee Wallace because of a bereavement did not help, but his unwillingness to drop players who have let him down, and his club, just makes no sense and further fuels fans’ frustrations. The supporters who want to remember McCoist for his record goalscoring feats at their club, and will always respect him for the figurehead role he accepted as Rangers financially imploded, now no longer want him helming their team. The notion that it is all too pally-wally with Ally at Murray Park is a charge often levelled against the manager. When he conducted his Sunday press conference on Thursday morning he was adamant that he has not been too close and too forgiving when it comes to his squad. “Make no mistake about it, there is no way my loyalty is blinding my general outlook on selecting a team to win a game,” McCoist said. “I pick a team to win a game. That is my priority. If players deserve my loyalty then they will absolutely get it. Loyalty will not affect my decision. It goes out the window with anybody if you have to make some decisions to win the game. “I don’t really accept that I am really friendly with the players. I would like to think there is a mutual respect between us. I am maybe in the dressing room once a fortnight if I am lucky. That is not my domain now. I am not sure friendly is the right word. I have utmost respect for my players and I hope they do for me. “You can only make changes if you think they are going to better the team. Lee Wallace would have automatically been a change. If there is somebody better then make no mistake they will play. I can assure you if I had Terry Butcher or Richard Gough available then they would play.” There is a simple riposte to that his detractors would offer up; were these titans available, would McCoist get the best from them?

Ally McCoist: My Rangers job is not ‘bombproof’ Rangers manager Ally McCoist stretches off during training. Picture: SNS Published on the 03 October 2014 17:45 Print this 13 comments Have your say! ALLY MCCOIST today insisted his job is not “bombproof” as he dismissed suggestions Rangers’ desperate financial position is the only thing preventing him from being sacked. But he did admit he will accept any road back to Scotland’s top flight - even if it means using the play-offs to finally reclaim the Ibrox side’s Premiership place. McCoist has come under a wave of flak from supporters since Monday’s dismal 3-1 defeat to Hibernian. His team have already lost at home to Hearts this season and now trail their Scottish Championship rivals by six points. But the Light Blues boss hit back at claims the hefty settlement package he would be due as part of his £400,000-a-year contract had made the Ibrox board think twice about handing him his P45. Rangers were forced to launch an emergency share issue last month in order to pay September’s wages and will have to do the same again before the year is out. “I don’t think anyone is bombproof,” said McCoist. “I wouldn’t sit here for a minute and say I’m bombproof. I’m still wearing the flak jacket but nobody is bombproof.” Asked if he would consider quitting if he lost the support of the Gers faithful, McCoist replied: “That’s a hypothetical question which I wouldn’t answer.” Neither did the club’s all-time record goalscorer let himself be riled by the barrage of complaints which have poured in his direction since losing to Alan Stubbs’ men. Former Scotland midfielder Michael Stewart even claimed in a national newspaper column this week that McCoist was failing as a manager by not training his players properly. But the Ibrox boss said: “I will tell you the truth, I genuinely don’t care about the criticism and I’ll tell you why. If Walter Smith can get stick here winning nine (SPL titles) in a row and getting to the UEFA Cup final, then it’s fair to say I will receive a certain degree of criticism. “I respect everyone’s opinion but I don’t necessarily agree with it. I’m always under pressure. I have never felt under more pressure or any less pressure. I just want to get the job done.” Monday’s display may have been woeful but Rangers still sit second in the promotion battle. With three further matches against Robbie Neilson’s unbeaten Gorgie troops to come, the League One champions could yet fight their way back into contention. But McCoist claims he would take promotion by the play-off back door if his side fail to reign in their title rivals. “Relying on the play-offs is not out of the question because getting out of the division is the most important thing,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to Livingston. “We will take whatever we can to get out of this division because it is so important for the club to get back into the top flight as soon as possible.” Rangers will head along the M8 to the Energy Assets Arena without defender Bilel Mohsni after he was given a two-game ban for lashing out at Hibs defender Liam Fontaine in the seconds after Nicky Law had struck the hosts’ consolation effort. It was the Tunisian’s second moment of madness in little more than three months after he headbutted Derby’s Chris Martin during a pre-season friendly. But McCoist insists Monday’s incident came after his player was provoked. “He should not have reacted when the Hibs player punched the ball out of his hands and grabbed him round the waist,” said the boss, who admits he is also “hopeful” that Kris Boyd will win his appeal after he was charged with headbutting Jordan Foster. “But I don’t think there is any doubt he was provoked. “He has let himself down a couple of times recently, particularly at Derby, but I have got more sympathy for him from Monday’s incident than I did at Derby.” Meanwhile, McCoist believes Rangers should take any investment made available to them - including from Mike Ashley. The Newcastle United owner splashed out £850,000 on Tuesday as he doubled his Ibrox stake to 8.92 per cent by buying four million existing shares from investment group Hargreave Hale. But the Sports Direct tycoon’s purchase came just weeks after he snubbed the opportunity to invest directly in the club when it put 15 million fresh stocks up for sale. McCoist, however, said: “It’s fair to say we could do with investment. It’s not my job to get that investment but with my manager’s hat on I would gladly hope we can get investment from whatever quarter. “I don’t know the ins or outs of the shares being bought this week but all I would say is that we definitely, definitely will need investment.”

Rangers will always give youth chance - McCoist Ally McCoist: Proud of academy. Picture: Robert Perry Published on the 10 June 2014 00:00 Print this 54 comments Have your say! RANGERS manager Ally McCoist has mounted a defence of his record in promoting young players to first-team level at the club following the contentious loss of highly-rated teenager Charlie Telfer to Dundee United. The 18-year-old midfielder’s move to Tannadice last week, which looks set to be the subject of a transfer tribunal, has caused disquiet among a section of the Rangers support who believe Telfer should have been given more first-team opportunities by McCoist last season. The Scotland under-19 international, regarded by SFA performance director Mark Wotte as one of Scottish football’s brightest prospects, made just one senior appearance for Rangers as a late substitute in a 4-0 win at Stenhousemuir in April. Telfer rejected the offer of a new contract with the League 1 champions, instead opting to join United where he has stated he believes manager Jackie McNamara will offer him the chance to develop his career as a first-team player in the SPFL Premiership. Speaking for the first time about Telfer’s departure, McCoist expressed regret at the move but insisted products of the youth academy at Rangers have been offered a path to first-team football under his management. “We wish Charlie all the best but we were obviously very sad to see him go,” said McCoist. “He trained with the squad and came on against Stenhousemuir last season and we feel he is a great prospect. He still is a great prospect but sadly for Dundee United now. “We offered Charlie terms which he was well within his rights to decline and turn down and he did so. He has moved to Dundee United with our best wishes. The first thing people have to realise is it was Charlie’s decision. We wanted to keep Charlie but he obviously decided to turn down the offer that was put to him by the club. “I can understand people questioning why would Charlie want to go to Dundee United rather than stay at Rangers. He can answer that, he has been quoted in the newspapers recently. But we have been delighted with some of the younger boys that have come through. Last year alone we had 13 academy graduates who played for the first team. Some of them will develop quicker than others. Look at boys like Lewis Macleod, Calum Gallagher, Barrie McKay, Fraser Aird and numerous more who have come through the academy. “We are delighted with the academy, we want to get as many coming through as possible but 13 last year is good and we will never rest on it. “Jimmy Sinclair and the lads in the youth department are very pleased that myself, Kenny McDowall and Ian Durrant have told them, and we stand by it, if we feel the kids are due an opportunity and deserve an opportunity then they will certainly get one. “They will always get the opportunity. Even further back Allan McGregor, Barry Ferguson, Charlie Adam, Chris Burke, Stevie Smith – international footballers a lot of them – have come through the academy at Murray Park. Perhaps the whole thing has been blown up a little bit because Charlie has exercised his right to move on but we will continue to work hand in hand with the academy. The boys that warrant and deserve their chance, I can reassure everybody, will get it.” Rangers chief executive Graham Wallace, meanwhile, says McCoist will be in a position to make further additions to his squad over the summer following the acquisition of former Scotland striker Kenny Miller last week. “Things are going well,” Wallace told the official Rangers website. “We spent some time with Alistair working out what he wanted to do with the squad for next season. “We’ve announced the signing of Kenny Miller, who is joining the club for the third time, and we are delighted about that. We have several other things we are in the process of working on so I think the fans can expect to see some further new faces coming to the club in the near future. “We want to make sure we’ve got the capability to get the job done next season and get us back in the top division. “We are constantly looking to improve the calibre of what we’ve got. “We have been careful to balance the needs of the immediate term so that we’re successful in the Championship with the medium-term requirements. We’re looking at players who will have a part to play next season but who will have a bigger part to play in the seasons to come. “I’m sure people realise we’re building and blending the squad and there’s a mixture of needs. We’re very comfortable with our plans there in terms of moving forward. “Alistair and I are constantly speaking and we’re talking several times a day at this time of year as we look at the needs of the team and we are well positioned.”

Gers boss keeps focus on the park ALLY MCCOIST insists Rangers have far bigger concerns right now than whether Celtic might win 10-in-a-row. Published: Sun, March 2, 2014 0Comments McCoist is only thinking about his team [WILLIE VASS] Dave King this week warned of the potential for a decade of dominance by the Hoops in the top flight if there is no significant fresh investment at Ibrox. The South African-based businessman – who lost his own £20million investment when the Gers were liquidated two years ago – also urged fans to seek guarantees from the board before buying season tickets. We have to keep rebuilding Ally McCoist Former director King spoke out after it emerged that the League One leaders secured loans totalling £1.5m from major shareholders Laxey Partners and Sandy Easdale. Asked if it would hurt to see Celtic go on to smash the nine-in-a-row run he contributed to as a Rangers player, McCoist said: “Of course it would. From a Rangers point of view it wouldn’t be an ideal situation, but in the grand scheme of things our concerns are very much the last 24 months and the next 24 months. “That’s the most important thing for our club. We can’t forget what’s happened, we can’t let it happen again, and we have to keep rebuilding. “We can’t stop Celtic doing 10 in a row where we are at the moment, and we won’t be able to do it next year either. “But you keep your fingers crossed and stay positive that in two or three years’ time we will get back. “We’ll obviously have to improve massively to get back, because I think it’s safe to say, unless there’s a dramatic change in Scottish football, Celtic are everyone’s favourites for the foreseeable future in the top flight.” Rangers are within touching distance of the League One title and could still win two cups this season and McCoist is reluctant to see fresh off-field turmoil detract from the achievements on the park. He said: “The feelgood factor was high and it’s my job to keep it up there. “On the football side, we’re hopeful in the next three or four games we can clinch the championship. “We’ve got the Ramsdens Cup Final, the Scottish Cup quarter-final, with an incredible incentive to win to get a home tie in the semi-final. “So, for the first time in a couple of years, there are real positives that we can look at.” Robbie Crawford claims Rangers players are so used to off-field drama at the club now that it’s no longer even a topic of conversation. The midfielder said: “I don’t think it’s anything new to the boys who have been here for the last 18 months. “We’ve not really paid much attention to the off-field stuff. It’s hardly been mentioned in the dressing room and we are just trying to focus on the football.” Crawford, 20, is more interested in nailing down a place in McCoist’s plans following limited game-time. He said: “The manager has spoken to me after a couple of the reserve games and told me to keep working hard. That’s all I can do.”

From The Scotsman: 'SFA chief executive Stewart Regan has backed his counterpart at Rangers, Graham Wallace, to get the club back on a sound financial footing, admitting that he hopes the remedial work at Ibrox is successful for the sake of Scottish football. Wallace has undertaken a 120-day business review charged with establishing ways to plug the holes that are resulting in monthly losses that may be as high as £1 million. This week the former Blackburn Rovers chief operating officer hired Philip Nash, who was financial director at Liverpool for five years until last February, as a consultant. Regan said yesterday he had met Wallace at matches and spoken to him informally on numerous occasions since his arrival at Ibrox in November. Their next correspondence could be of the formal variety, as all SFA member clubs must submit audited accounts to Hampden by 31 March as part of their application for a licence for next season. The SFA tried to help Rangers after the oldco went into liquidation in June 2012 by recommending to the now-defunct SFL that the new incarnation of the club be granted permission to re-enter the game in the second, rather than fourth, tier. That plea fell on deaf ears but Regan remains acutely aware of the value to the product he oversees of a Rangers resurgence. “As far as Rangers’ position is concerned, clearly there is a lot of work that Graham Wallace is putting in place to get the club back to a stronger place and I sincerely hope he’s successful, as it’s good for Scottish football to have the club back on a firm financial footing,” said Regan yesterday. “He needs all the support he can get to get that in place. It’s a big challenge. But Rangers together with the other 41 clubs in the SPFL will go through the audit process. The audit takes place at the back end of the year and they then have a licensing meeting at the back end of March and by 31 March they have to have submitted all the audited management accounts and so on in order to comply. “We’ll wait and see what comes in. I know Graham’s got a big job on and I hope he can get the success that he obviously requires. We’ve spoken to Graham in the way you would speak to most of the clubs that have got challenges ahead of them, and I’ve seen him at games. So we’ve had an opportunity to talk about some of the challenges he faces. You can’t underestimate the work he’s got ahead of him.”' http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/spfl-lower-divisions/regan-backs-wallace-to-sort-rangers-finances-out-1-3268644 back page of the record running with a similar headline.

2 months to the transfer window and the Kenny Miller transfer raises its head yet again............. Kenny Miller could make Rangers move Kenny Miller in action for Scotland in January. Picture: Robert Perry Published on the 31 October 2013 10:11 Published 31/10/2013 10:11 Print this FORMER Rangers and Celtic striker Kenny Miller could be set for a return to Ibrox after the Scottish coach who signed him to his Canadian team was fired. Martin Rennie, Miller’s boss at the Vancouver Whitecaps, was let go by the Major League Soccer side this week after they failed to make the play-offs. Rennie played a key role in signing the former Scotland international, who is one of the highest-paid players in the MLS. Miller, 38, was a transfer target for Rangers manager Ally McCoist earlier this season. McCoist said at the time: “If there was an opportunity to get him I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t explore that.” Miller has played for Hibernian, Derby, Cardiff, and Wolves as well as Rangers and Celtic, and scored 18 goals in his 69 international appearances.

http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/top-football-stories/dr-jimmy-paterson-the-good-doctor-of-rangers-and-arsenal-1-2912036 “ARE you not playing for the wrong side?” There are some things a Scottish footballer can never be prepared for, and one of them is playing for England. Such was the fate of Dr Jimmy Paterson, who was born in London where his father, a Presbyterian minister, was preaching. In all other respects, the talented winger was a Scot through and through, and 100 years ago this month, Paterson won the first of his Scottish League titles with Rangers. He repeated the exploit after being decorated for bravery in the Great War and would surely have won Scotland caps were it not for the accident of his birth. International recognition came instead in the white shirt of England: as his career seemed to be heading to a close, he had returned to London and signed for Arsenal as an amateur. He did so well that he was selected to represent the English League against their Scottish counterparts. He was greeted by his former team mates with affection as well as a ribbing that he was not really English. And, as if disorientated by wearing an England shirt, when Paterson was presented with a bunch of flowers by a young girl just before kick-off, he still had them in his hand as the referee’s whistle blew. Too polite to throw them on the ground, he ran up and down the wing clutching them for several minutes until he found someone he could hand them to. It was a measure of the man. Brought up in Glasgow, he was sports champion of Bellahouston Academy, and his performances in the team that won the Glasgow Secondary Schools League attracted the interest of Queen’s Park. Soon rising to their reserve team, the Strollers, he then caught the eye of Rangers manager William Wilton and signed at Ibrox in September 1910. Although he made his debut that month because of an injury to the veteran Alec Smith, Rangers let him develop in the reserves as he embarked on his medical studies at Glasgow University. Paterson broke into the Rangers first team in November 1912, two months after his father’s death, replacing Billy Hogg at outside right. He made an immediate impact and was widely heralded in the press. Rangers duly won the league by four points and Paterson made his first trip abroad on the club’s tour of Denmark. The following season, he switched to the left wing, where he developed a prolific partnership with Tommy Cairns that lasted until his graduation as a doctor in 1916. In the depth of war, there was a severe shortage of doctors, and he was appointed Medical Officer to the 14th Battalion the London Regiment, the London Scottish. With the rank of Major, for the next two years he had a torrid time on the front line, where ‘Doctor Pat’ earned enormous respect from his fellow soldiers. One of them wrote in the Regimental Gazette: “We loved him for the trouble he took. We loved that kindly word of encouragement that did us more good than all the ‘number nines’ ever issued ex-stores. If that little medico works as hard in the football field as he worked that night, heaven help the opposition!” There was formal recognition, too, and he was awarded the Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in 1917: “Under an intense hostile bombardment, he hastened to the spot, dressed the wounded and cleared them from the road, personally seeing to their removal to the aid post. He then returned and cleared the dead from the road, setting a fine example of coolness and disregard of danger.” When hostilities ceased, after three years away from football, he made a surprise return to Glasgow. A journalist later recalled: “One day in September 1919, I learned from Jimmy’s younger brother Bobby that Jimmy had been posted to a Glasgow hospital. He added that, if I turned up at Ibrox Park the following evening, I might see Jimmy playing against Raith Rovers or, on the other hand, I might not. Jimmy had just arrived in Glasgow, untrained, and carrying too much weight, and was scared stiff at the idea of being thrown into action so soon. “His homecoming had not been made public but, quickly recognised by the Ibrox clientele when he ran on to the field, he was given a reception that nearly took the lid off the south stand. Despite his extra ‘tonnage’, he was at his brilliant best that evening, including a bonny goal that earned him another deafening ovation.” Paterson’s wing partnership with Cairns was restored and Rangers romped to the 1919-20 league title. However, he had a medical career to think of and, as early as December 1919, there was press speculation that Paterson intended retiring at the end of the season to join his brother-in-law, John Scott, in a London medical practice. Several city clubs were reported to be chasing his signature, but the decision was effectively made for him as Scott was Arsenal’s club doctor. Before he left Glasgow, Rangers supporters showed their appreciation by presenting him with a solid silver coffee and tea service, valued at 100 guineas (equivalent to about £3,000 today). In the autumn of 1920, he signed as an amateur for Arsenal but continued to be rewarded by the club, although the form of reward was somewhat different: he was presented with ‘gifts’, such as a baby grand piano from Harrods, a diamond-studded tie-pin and a fine Venetian vase. Following a series of outstanding performances on the wing, in March 1921 he was selected for the Football League against the Scottish League, coincidentally played at his new home ground of Highbury. Before the match, he came into the Scottish dressing room to shake hands with all the players, and was photographed with three of the Scots, but the sentiment ended there and his cross led to the game’s only goal, by Charles Buchan in the second half. He clocked up more than 70 appearances for Arsenal in four years, although, as an amateur, he had to balance his football with work as a doctor. He retired from football in 1924, but had a curious swansong two years later. Arsenal had an injury crisis in February 1926 and signed Joe Hulme from Blackburn, but he was cup-tied, so manager Herbert Chapman turned to Paterson for a surprise recall in the FA Cup. He showed he had lost none of his magic by scoring against Aston Villa, and newsreel film of that goal can be seen online. Not long afterwards, he left London and moved to a country practice at Bramley in Surrey, staying there until he retired to Ayrshire in the 1950s. His daughter Mhairi, who now lives in Edinburgh and recently saw that newsreel footage of her father for the first time, recalls him watching wistfully as soldiers prepared for D-Day: although he said nothing about his own wartime experiences, he knew what horrors lay ahead for them. Dr Paterson died of a heart attack in 1959, aged just 68. Despite being considered one of the outstanding talents of his day, he was never given the recognition he deserved with a Scotland cap, through no fault of his own. But, in true amateur spirit, he had no regrets and, despite playing for two of Britain’s most glamorous teams, he recalled shortly before his death: “My happiest football days were at Good Old Bella.”