Breaking News:Ex-Rangers hero makes Celtic manager confession and reveals big Ibrox regret

Breaking News:Ex-Rangers hero makes Celtic manager confession and reveals big Ibrox regret

 

 

Rangers

Ex-Rangers hero makes Celtic manager confession and reveals big Ibrox regret

By Graham Falk

Engagement Journalist

 

0

Published 21st Aug 2024, 14:31 BST

 

Former Rangers midfielder opens up on his memorable spell at Ibrox and his admiration for an ex-Celtic boss

Joining Rangers for a club record fee of £4.3million from Italian giants Lazio in 1995, former Rangers hero Paul Gascoigne admits his three season spell at Ibrox is still one of the most cherished periods of his career.

 

A huge success during his time in Glasgow, the England international helped the Glasgow giants lift two league titles, one Scottish Cup and one Scottish League Cup, while he also claimed the PFA Scotland Players’ Player of the Year in his debut season after producing a series of glittering performances before departing for Middlesbrough in the summer of 1998.

 

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“To go to Rangers, it was a buzz,” admitted Gascoigne when speaking to Techopedia. “I took a drop, a massive drop in wages and said I want to sign for Rangers. The press were saying I wasn’t going to do very well. I loved it, I won everything in the first year. I remember years ago, I was with my ex-wife in Tampa, and Walter Smith was there, and I went, ‘see that guy over there?’ I said ‘I would love to play for him. He’s the manager of the Rangers’. Then I had a drink with him. Four years later, he signed me. I wish I’d stayed for longer but I had the chance to play under my idol Bryan Robson.”

 

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A smiling and waving Paul Gascoigne wearing the Rangers adidas home shirt holds aloft a Sondico matchball after completing his transfer from Lazio to Rangers in 1995.

A smiling and waving Paul Gascoigne wearing the Rangers adidas home shirt holds aloft a Sondico matchball after completing his transfer from Lazio to Rangers in 1995. | Hulton Archive

The 57-year-old admitted his admiration for Smith could have resulted in his Rangers career being extended further had his Ibrox gaffer not departed for Everton in the summer of 1998. “If Walter was staying there, I would have,” he explained. “He said ‘I don’t think you’re going to get on well with the next manager’, which was Dick Advocaat. I remember saying to my gaffer, ‘I don’t know if I’ll be playing for him or drinking him [in reference to the liquer Advocaat]. So I left, but I loved it at Rangers.”

 

A fan favourite at Tottenham Hotspur during his playing years, ‘Gazza’ revealed his admiration for ex-Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou, comparing him to one of his former bosses, as he lavished praise on the brand of football the Australian is implementing in North London. “He did well at Celtic,” he said. “He’s trying to bring the attacking brand of football back to Tottenham isn’t he? Yeah, we had that with Terry Venables. What a man to play under, he was fantastic.

 

“They attack and that’s what Tottenham like. It could be they get beat 4-0 or win 5-0. I think you need to let the players go out there and express themselves, enjoy it. That’s the main thing. He seems interesting, reading some of the interviews he’s done in the paper, he seems confident so he’s got to back his words up – or the players have to back his words up as well. Now, so much of it is the papers and social media and you’ve got everyone on their phones and all that. The pressure is really on, especially at the top, it’s 24/7.”