Stuart Munro. Arthur Numan. Davie Robertson. Sasa Papac. We’ve had players at left back in the last 30 years who have been excellent Rangers players.
But as you’ll see from the below, we’ve also had some who invoke real nightmares at the mere mention of their name. Have a look, and let us know who you think should be the left back in the Rangers Worst XI…
GARY BOLLAN, 15 APPEARANCES
Bollan was signed alongside Alex Cleland from Dundee United, around the time when Jim McLean would get his players to sign up to 10-year contracts from which Houdini would have had issues escaping from.
I think many Rangers fans will be surprised that Bollan only made 15 appearances for us. When you hardly play over the course of a few seasons and you’re remembered with such infamy, that’s quite damning. Whilst Cleland did pretty well for us, Bollan really struggled, consistently injured and never playing very well when given the chance. He started a game against Juventus at a time when we were really struggling for numbers, and nutmegged Alessandro Del Piero. That’s the only positive memory we have of him!
STALE STENSAAS, 30 APPEARANCES 2 GOALS
In the 97/98 season, as we were chasing 10 in a row, we made big noises about our signings. One of them was a Norwegian left back from Rosenborg for nigh-on £2m who we were told was a cracking player. As this was at a time when not as much football was accessible on TV, we knew little about him, so there was a fair amount of intrigue around Stensaas.
He was very poor. A couple of decent games in his first few appearances very much flattered to deceive. Almost all of his appearances came in that one season (he started a game under Advocaat, of which I have no memory at all!) but we never got rid of him fully until 2000. He went back to Rosenborg for around a quarter of what we paid for him, which was still too high a fee.
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PAOLO VANOLI, 42 APPEARANCES 1 GOAL
Vanoli was signed from Bologna on a free transfer, having spent his career playing in Italy. At 31, he was coming in with a seemingly good CV and experience of winning the UEFA Cup with an amazing Parma side. He’d actually played against us for Parma some years beforehand. We were struggling to replace the great players from the Advocaat era with limited funds at the time. Vanoli was seen as a shrewd purchase…
Until we saw him play. He was ponderous at best, and whatever had kept him playing at a top level for so long was gone. He did have a cracking attitude and was the sort of guy you hoped would do well. That wasn’t even enough to get him a cult following because of his performances. His goal against Dundee was an absolute screamer, mind you…
OLIVIER BERNARD, 15 APPEARANCES
The names so far have had little moments, very fleeting, where they gave us something to enjoy. I can say with absolute confidence that Olivier Bernard gave us nothing. When he signed from Southampton, we all hoped we were getting the player that had done well at Newcastle. What we got was someone who genuinely looked like he’d won a competition to play in the team, yet somehow managed 15 games, some of them in the Champions League. Overweight, disinterested, and someone you couldn’t understand just how they’d made a career in the game so far.
Bernard was 25 when we signed him. You would have been excused for thinking he was 10 years older than that and his legs were done.
MICHAEL BALL, 76 APPEARANCES, 2 GOALS
I’ll be honest – I’ve included Ball purely as a fifth option, and I don’t expect him to pick up a single vote. He did ok for us, but the reason he’s worthy of inclusion is his hefty transfer fee. We paid £6.5m for him from Everton, and whilst he won some silverware with us, he seems to be best remembered for fighting with Advocaat that time he was subbed against Celtic. Ball was hampered by injury and it certainly wasn’t his fault that we paid so much for him. He did have a lot of promise at the time and he has done not too bad after his time at Rangers as well. As a left back, he never looked very natural, certainly not going forward. His preference on the ball was a very annoying chip into the channel to no one most of the time. As I said, though, he’s not as poor as those already mentioned.
Vote below for the Worst Left Back and let us know @rangersnewsuk if there’s anyone we’ve missed, or what your thoughts are!
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