In 1999, Rangers’ massive fanbase headed to the ballot box and cast their votes to decide the greatest-ever Rangers team. The vote was limited to post-Second World War players, but the result unveiled an incredible starting XI that would likely run away with the Scottish Premiership if it could take to the famous Ibrox pitch.
According to the votes, the greatest-ever Rangers team had Andy Goram in goal and a back four of Sandy Jardine, John Greig, Richard Gough, and Terry Butcher. A midfield quartet of Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne, Jim Baxter, and Davie Cooper provided ammunition for Mark Hateley and Ally McCoist. Imagine how short-priced that Rangers team would be with the best soccer betting apps online; it would probably be favorites to capture the UEFA Champions League trophy, too.
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The voting process naturally revealed the trio of players Rangers fans believe are the best to have ever represented the club. This article looks at those three superstars: John Greig, Ally McCoist, and Jim Baxter.
John Greig
Fans voted John Greig the greatest-ever Rangers player, and it is easy to see why. Grieg started his football career as a boy with the United Crossroads youth team before spending 1959 with Whitburn. Later that year, Grieg joined Rangers’ youth setup, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Greig broke into the Rangers first team as a fresh-faced 19-year-old in 1961 and spent his entire career at Ibrox. He started life as a Ranger as a forward before moving back to midfield and then to left back. Greig racked up an incredible 755 official appearances in the league, cup, and Europe, scoring 120 goals, before hanging up his boots after the 1977-78 season. Nobody has come close to matching Greig’s number of appearances; Sandy Jardine is second in the all-time list with 674 games under his belt.
As a player, Greig won five Scottish League titles, six Scottish Cups, and the Scottish League Cup for times and was part of the 1971-72 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup winning team.
Rangers appointed Grieg as Jock Wallace’s replacement once he’d retired from playing. While Rangers did not win the league with Grieg at the helm, they won the Scottish Cup and League Cup twice. However, it is Grieg’s signing of the next player in this article that many Rangers fans remember him for.
Ally McCoist
Ally McCoist played for Fir Park Boys as a youngster and was touted as a striker who would go all the way to the top. Those sentiments were not shared by a certain Alex Ferguson, who managed St Mirren at the time and had the option to sign McCoist but didn’t think he would make the grade. St Mirren’s loss was St Johnstone’s gain, with McCoist scoring 27 goals in 68 games.
McCoist’s goal-scoring prowess didn’t go unnoticed, and Sunderland paid a then-club record £400,000 fee to take him across the border. It’s fair to say McCoist struggled in England, only scoring nine goals in 65 appearances for the Black Cats.
Rangers legend John Greig convinced the Rangers board to pay £185,000 for McCoist, and it proved to be the best business in the Ibrox club’s long and storied history. McCoist was a goal machine for Rangers, ending his 15-year career with 355 goals in 581 games; he is Rangers’ all-time leading goalscorer.
McCoist scored over 30 goals in four different seasons and more than 40 twice. During the 1987-88 campaign, the striker found the back of the net 42 times in 53 games in all competitions before scoring an unbelievable 49 in 52 during the 1992-93 season.
His goals helped McCoist become one of the most decorated Rangers players ever. He won the League title ten times, one Scottish Cup, and nine Scottish League Cups. On a personal level, McCoist won the European Golden Shoe in back-to-back seasons in 1991-92 and 1992-93. McCoist ended his playing career with Kilmarnock at the age of 38 after completing the 2000-01 season.
McCoist joined Rangers’ managerial team in 2007, initially as Walter Smith’s assistant. In 2011, he was appointed as the new Ranger manager. The talismanic striker was in charge during Rangers’ dark days of insolvency. McCoist gained promotion from the Third Division to the Championship, finishing his managerial career with a 72.46% win percentage across 167 games—a Rangers legend in every respect.
Jim Baxter
The late Jim Baxter is a legendary figure among the Ibrox faithful and Scottish football as a whole. The Fife-born left-half began his career with Raith Rovers before joining Rangers for a then-Scottish record fee of £17,500 in June 1960. Known as “Slim Jim” by the Rangers faithful, Baxter played over 250 games for Rangers, winning the League and Scottish Cup three times and the Scottish League Cup four times.
Baxter was known for his accurate passes and incredible dribbling ability, which enabled him to go past players like they weren’t there. In December 1964, he broke his leg during a European game against Rapid Vienna, which proved his downfall. Baxter began drinking heavily while recovering from his leg break and never stopped. Baxter’s excessive drinking affected his fitness and performance, yet Sunderland still paid £72,500 for him in 1965.
A £100,000 move to Nottingham Forest followed, but his off-the-field issues and rapidly declining fitness saw Forest release Baxter on a free transfer. He rejoined Rangers in May 1969 but retired a year later, aged only 31.
Baxter continued drinking heavily after his retirement, resulting in him undergoing two liver transplants in four days at age 55. He promised to quit drinking but died six years later, aged 61, due to pancreatic cancer. Baxter was a flawed genius, like so many superstars of his era, but a genius nonetheless.
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