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Players we should have signed?


RatedRpoed

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I had a thread similar to this years ago. Some great names came up then too.

I always mind being linked with Kennt Andersson & Gianluca Vialli. Either one of those would have been spectacular I reckon.

Seems hard to think now that we were genuinely linked with the likes of Ronaldo; Van Nistelroiy; Van Persie & Shevcenko in the Advocaat years!!

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Players i'd love to have seen at Ibrox earlier would have been Davie Weir, Dado Prso, Michael Mols, Tugay, Ronald De Boer and Andrei Kanchelskis. Prso and Mols were relatively unknown until they joined us so there possibly wasn't the opportunity to sign them earlier but if we somehow managed to sign them in their early to mid twenties they could have become legends, they were that good. I know some already regard them as legends but my legend barometer (Laudrup, McCoist to name but 2) is slightly higher than that :). It's all about opinions though. Signing Kanchelskis (Man U) and R De Boer at their peak too would have been insane and not signing Weir earlier (Falkirk/Hearts) has always surprised me. I always liked Russell Latapy too and felt we should have signed him a lot earlier as well.

Going back to the first Smith reign, Advocaat and McLeish the ones that got away for me were Jardel, Messi, Van P and Van N. Not sure if he was ever linked to us but I always hoped PLG would bring Juninho (Lyon) with him when he arrived but sadly he didn't. He did sign The Pap though! That's another I wished we had earlier.

Realistic players we should have tried/tried harder to sign in recent years, outwith some of the names previously mentioned, and for relatively low transfer fees, in my opinion would have been James McCarthy (despite turning his back on Scotland!) and Steven Fletcher. Not world class players but 2 players I think could have enhanced our squad.

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was van Persie seriously linked with us? how old was he at the time?

From RVP himself. Not entirely sure why we didn't call though :(.

Arsenal forward Robin Van Persie has revealed he was 'desperate' to join Rangers as a teenager.

The Holland international, 25, was approached by former Ibrox manager Dick Advocaat - in his role as director of football - but the move never materialised.

He said: "There was some interest from Rangers when I was at Feyenoord.

"The problem for me was they didn't come in and make an offer. I was quite interested because I really wanted to leave my club.

"Rangers are massive, like Celtic. I speak to (Celtic defender) Glenn Loovens and he tells me lots of stories about the stadium and Scotland itself.

"My European debut was against Rangers at Ibrox and that was a fantastic moment. When I heard about their interest, I sat by the phone hoping it would ring.

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Some of the players we were linked with from about 1993-2001 were ridiculous when you think about it now, genuine football superstars. Can definitely remember Gabriel Batistuta being the one that had me most excited. Jonas Thern would've been a great signing a few years earlier even though he gave us THAT goal.

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From the Herald 1997:

AS Rangers completed the short-term signing of Mark Hateley, and failed in a similar deal for Parma striker Alessandro Melli, as they attempted to achieve cover for their immediate problems, it emerged in Italy that Ibrox manager Walter Smith is involved in a #10m signing for next season. Smith had talks with officials of Italian side Fiorentina last weekend over the future of their Argentinian star, Gabriel Batistuta. The striker, who captains the Serie A team, is treated like a god in Florence. However, Smith has been quoted a transfer fee of #10m and this is currently being discussed between the Rangers manager and his chairman David Murray. Batistuta is his country's record international scorer. His total of 35 is one more than Diego Maradona. He has been a huge success in Italy, although this season his form has dipped as he has been closely marked. Fiorentina would agree to the sale only if Rangers could meet the enormous asking price. Batistuta would be part of the new-look team manager Smith is putting together for next season. Already Swedish World Cup captain Jonas Thern has agreed to come to Glasgow when his contract with Roma ends in the summer. Batistuta would be another major part of the jigsaw. It would be a high-profile signing and would take a sizeable portion of the budget that has been laid aside for Smith from the cash which has been pledged to Rangers by the Bahamas-based millionaire Joe Lewis. Murray has already indicated - as recently as last month's agm which was called to approve the Lewis deal - that most of the #40m coming to the club would be spent on strengthening the team. Batistuta played in the same Fiorentina side as Brian Laudrup, in unhappy times, when the side was relegated from Serie A.

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Tin hat on - Henrik Larsson.

He had no OF affiliation before he signed for them. Imagine him Laudrup and Gazza in the same team.

No tin hat needed I think totally agree, as for GEC's comment about PLG's war chest, apparently he did have a war chest but he himself chose not to spend it all as he felt he was buying suitable enough players.

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