Your favourite player?

[Franc Ergs 1,754]

[Whosthedado 1,773]

So there is a thread about favourite player and no one has mentioned our greatest ever goalscorer?????????????????????? I dont mean the guy above  

Edited yesterday at 19:52 by Whosthedado

[CammyF 8,892]

Favourite player - Davie Cooper

 

Favourite 11 - based on who I've seen play.

 

Woods

 

Stevens 

Gough

Butcher

Numan

 

Cooper

Gazza

Durrant

Laudrup

 

McCoist

Hateley

 

Missed so many players out of that 11 but it's not a bad team 😀

Edited yesterday at 21:26 by CammyF

[Tannochsidebear 2,453]

7 hours ago, Scott7 said:

Despite my username, l cross to the other wing for my favourite player, Davy Wilson.

 

Favourites are not necessarily the best. The favourite in every position(2-3-5)

GK: Billy Ritchie

RB: Eric Caldow (also the best) On second thoughts, Sandy Jardine.

LB: Eric Caldow (moved him to let SJ in. EC also the best LB)

RH: Ian McColl

CH: Ronnie McKinnon

LH: Jim Baxter (the best)

RW: Alex Scott

IR: Ian McMillan

CF: Jimmy Millar

IL: Ralph Brand

OL: Davy Wilson

 

For the best XI, see my many previous nominations. I don’t think I’ve had the same team twice

Very interesting line up, obviously the era you grew up with. But are you really saying there is not one player in the last 40-50 years that you have liked more than that 60’s era? Can’t make my mind up if that is really amazing, really sad or just staunch😂

[Tannochsidebear 2,453]

Fav player Godrup

 

fav players to make a team

 

McGregor

Stevens Weir Gough Numan

Laudrup McCall Gazza Albertz 

McCoist Boyd

[JohnMc 2,962]

[compo 7,535]

Goram

 

Jardine

Woodburn

Butcher

Shaw , captain

 

Henderson

McMillan

Gazza

Baxter

 

Forrest

Millar

 

 

Edited 13 hours ago by compo

[JohnMc 2,962]

My formative years following Rangers were like many of us I expect. Catching 'football specials' to Paisley and Dundee, standing outside a pub you were too young to enter while waiting for a supporter's bus, you and a mate deciding at 1.30 on a Saturday you'd go to the game that afternoon and not worrying about tickets or anything like that. Scottish football was different then. The football was better, a better standard of player overall, much more competitive, with some genuinely world class managers pitting their wits against each other on a much more level playing field than we have today. The grounds though were terrible. While nostalgia brings a rose tinted memory of standing on terraces across the country, feeling the involuntary sway of the crowd, trying to find your way back to your pals if you left to visit what passed for the toilet, often little more than holes in the ground. Good time, but in truth many were crumbling death traps, we were literally treated like animals, herded, shouted at, regularly attacked and demonised by the media and popular culture, how more people weren't seriously injured, or worse, is simply down to luck. Add to this Dickensian picture the fact that Rangers weren't very good. I hear the cries of anger about our current state and remember back to when I was a teenager, watching clubs like Aberdeen, Dundee Utd, even Hearts for a spell, dominate us, far less Celtic. 

 

For various reasons we simply didn't have a good enough team. John Grieg, perhaps our greatest ever player, was unable to rebuild an aging but very successful side (why is a debate for another day), his successor, Jock Wallace, was a giant of a manager, the man who'd stopped the greatest Celtic side of all time, who'd delivered two trebles. Even he couldn't sustain a challenge and against a backdrop of massive industrial decline, high unemployment, social unrest and a city that was covered in soot, slowly being demolished and left to rot our Rangers side was devoid of class, of guile and of hope. Davie Cooper, our only true spark of brilliance was disillusioned and out of form, Bobby Russell and Robert Prytz simply weren't at the level we needed, as popular as they were. This was my Rangers, they'd last won the league when I was 8, I was barely aware of it. Rangers were also rans, workmanlike players struggled and and fought but were regularly bettered. I didn't really know any different. 

 

Against this background a waif was introduced to the side. I use that word deliberately, Durrant was neither tall nor strong, he genuinely looked like he was about 14 years old, in truth he was 18, so not much older. His sprite like appearance was accentuated by a shock of long curly hair, fashionable at the time, but unusual on a Rangers player, our team seemed to made up of guys for who fashion was something to be avoided, like winning trophies...

He seemed to come from nowhere, his friend, Derek Ferguson, had been known to most of us since he was a schoolboy. He'd made his debut at 16, our youngest ever if memory serves correctly, he's featured in countless Rangers News features and as a support we were anticipating his greatness, but Durrant seemed to appear from stage left, unheralded and without fanfare. It was a side that featured many home grown players; Kenny Black, Hugh Burns, Dave McPherson, Robert Fleck were all regulars, some of who we had high hopes for. Durrant looked the least likely to succeed, and yet he very quickly showed us what we'd been missing. His speed of thought was only matched by his sureness of touch. Stamina made up for his lack of strength and he was fearless when facing tackling that was encouraged in those days but would see you banned for months now. The bigger the stage the greater he shone. 

 

I'd been waiting for Ian Durrant my whole life without realising it. As an ugly, lanky, spotty teenager with no patter and even less confidence here was someone who seemed to have everything I didn't and he was pulling on the the light blue or Rangers too. The media had fixated on Celtic's young 'stars'; Charlie Nicolas, Paul McStay, Peter Grant, but now we had someone who was more than their match. 

 

He cemented his immortality for me in two games against Celtic. The first Old Firm at Ibrox under Souness when he read a revitalised Davie Cooper weaving run and flick to bury the winner past Bonnar in front of the Copland Road. Rangers were back, and this time it was for real. Later he dominated a League Cup Final against Celtic, scoring our first and running the game against a very good Celtic side. There was a moment when Celtic were attacking, the ball was half cleared and fell to Durrant inside our box, instead of hoofing it first time into the stand, he let it roll through his legs, catching it with his heel while turning quickly, suddenly he was facing away from our goal, with every Celtic attacker wrong footed and we were on the attack. It was a sublime moment, one I expect most present have long forgotten, but I never will. It was a moment of skill perfectly executed in the most brutal of fields, a slip or error would have left us exposed and probably a goal down. We need not worry, we were in the presence of greatness, if only for a short time. I had never been in awe of a Rangers player like this before.

 

I could write more, but most probably know how his career was derailed. In truth despite some great moments, he never regained his previous levels. But for a few years in the bleak 1980s nothing shone as brightly as Ian Durrant. 

Edited 12 hours ago by JohnMc

[Scott7 6,372]

27 minutes ago, JohnMc said:

My formative years following Rangers ……..

Brilliant.

[Scott7 6,372]

12 hours ago, Tannochsidebear said:

Very interesting line up, obviously the era you grew up with. But are you really saying there is not one player in the last 40-50 years that you have liked more than that 60’s era? Can’t make my mind up if that is really amazing, really sad or just staunch😂

Favourites, i.e. the players most liked not necessarily the best though Caldow and Baxter indisputably were the best. I didn’t think about it, just went through the positions and put down the name that came into mind. 
 

Your team would likely beat mine.