RICHARD Gough has warned Rangers fans that the club's glory days under the ownership of Sir David Murray were an anomaly which isn't coming back any time soon.
The club's nine-in-a-row legend might have a shared South African connection with owner Dave King, and a role as global ambassador, but he is wise enough to dismiss all enquiries about the scale of the investment in new players this summer on the grounds that they are above his 'pay grade'.
What he does know, however, is that - unlike the Murray era, the excesses of which have left the Ibrox side in this predicament - the club can no longer take a shortcut to success by recruiting tried and tested players from the biggest clubs in England.
Read more: Six of the best Scottish Cup finals: Rangers 4 Dundee United 1 (1981, replay)
While there appears to be a tacit acknowledgement of a deficiency in the club's squad in targeting proven leaders like Bruno Alves from Cagliari and Ryan Jack from Aberdeen, Gough knows these are changed days indeed from times where the club could afford to double the Tottenham captain's money to make him Scotland's first million pound-player, adding him to a squad which already contained the England captain. To use their modern equivalents, that is a bit like signing Harry Kane to play up front alongside Wayne Rooney.
"When I first came to Rangers, I was the captain of Tottenham and we had already signed Terry Butcher, who was the captain of England," said Gough. "Rangers can’t go out and sign that kind of quality now. That’s a worry. It’s a completely different cycle. Scottish football is far from its heyday.
"I look at Ajax and this [tonight's Europa League showpieces against Manchester United in Stockholm] is their first European final for 21 years," he added. "I would never have believed that, given the powerhouse they were. So their system has also been decimated a lot by the English Premier League.
"In Scotland, we have to get back to how it was before, bringing young players through and selling them on to bigger English clubs. That anomaly we had between 1986 and maybe 2000 was a blip in the way British football runs. It started because English clubs weren’t in Europe for the first five years.
"Everyone says to me that I was a Rangers man. That’s true. But Rangers also doubled my money when I came up from Tottenham. Maybe people didn’t know that. There was a financial consideration as well. Imagine that happening now? Rangers signing the Spurs captain, aged 24, and doubling his money. What would that be these days? Maybe £200,000 per week or something."
Read more: Six of the best Scottish Cup finals: Rangers 4 Dundee United 1 (1981, replay)
While all this talk of leadership should not be construed as a criticism of the current incumbent, Lee Wallace, Gough feels the Ibrox side need bigger personalities and, first and foremost, better players. "I don’t think we need a new captain," said Gough. "But big clubs need big personalities. To play successfully at a big club, you need to have a big personality. Rangers have lacked that this season.
“For everyone connected with the club, it hasn’t been a great season," he added. "If you look back at the recruitment last summer, it wasn’t the best. The club have managed to qualify for Europe again, so that’s a good thing. But no-one is daft, there has to be a better standard of player coming to the club this summer. Rangers’ aim is to win the title, that’s always going to be the aim for this club. To do that, it will need a better standard of player.
“It’s not on my pay scale, to say that [whether Dave King will be able to provide enough money]," he added. "We hope there will be investment. How much? Who knows? But the one good thing about the new manager coming in two months before the end of this season is that has been able to have a good look at all the players. He will now have an idea of what he needs. It’s going to be an interesting summer.
“It’s a difficult window for him - it's a short close season and there is talk of players leaving, as well as players coming in. It’s changed days to when I played here and we had a very stable organisation. We brought maybe just two or three players in every year to strengthen us.
So I feel a bit for the new manager. He couldn’t really change anything immediately. I think we will know a little bit more about him - and the investment which is going to be put in - come August."
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