HE has watched his club descend in the most humiliating fashion from the rarefied atmosphere of the Champions League to the bottom of a deep, dark hole from which there has often seemed to be no escape.

He has witnessed money being thrown around like confetti, lived through the agonies of administration and despaired at what he refers to as a collection of "bad owners, bluffers and con men" ripping out what remains of his team's heart. Now, he feels he has little other option than to place his faith in the hands of a wealthy individual with no connection to his team or its supporters and a reputation for absolute, money-driven ruthlessness.

Peter Lorimer, who was inducted into the Scottish Hall of Fame on Sunday, has a very personal understanding of the dark journey Rangers supporters have endured since Craig Whyte spirited the club out of the hands of Sir David Murray three years ago. He has been where they have been. It is tempting to say he finds himself exactly where they are now.

Where followers of the Glasgow club are struggling to come to terms with the implications of Mike Ashley gaining effective control at Ibrox, their counterparts at Leeds United are finding it equally difficult to work out what on earth their president and majority shareholder, Massimo Cellino, is all about.

Cellino spent over two decades in charge of Cagliari. He got rid of 36 head coaches there, earning the nickname 'The Manager Eater'. In the six months since taking over at Elland Road, having initially been turned down by the Football League after being found guilty of failing to pay import duty on a yacht in his native Italy, he has been through another three after Darko Milanic became the latest to bite the dust, just six games into his reign.

Johnny Giles is now leading the calls for Cellino to sell up and ship out. Lorimer, a former team-mate and fellow Leeds legend, disagrees. After so many false dawns, he feels Cellino must be given time to prove his worth and believes those with Rangers at heart must also afford Ashley time to detail his own vision for another fallen giant of British football.

"I want to see Rangers sort out their problems," said the Dundonian, currently a club ambassador for Leeds after a spell serving on the board. "They are in a similar situation to Leeds and it can happen to any football club.

"You get carried away and think success will go on forever. When we were getting into the Champions League, we had Mark Viduka, Robbie Keane, Alan Smith, Michael Bridges, Darren Huckerby and Harry Kewell. Six top-class strikers. Peter Ridsdale then walked into David O'Leary one morning and said: 'I've bought you a present'. He got him Robbie Fowler for £12m. That was massive money and we all wondered where it was coming from.

"We were £130 million in debt. It's bad housekeeping. We've now got Italian owners and Massimo Cellino, who is an extremely wealthy man and owned Cagliari for 21 years. He sold them and wants to make Leeds big again. The difference with this guy is he won't spend silly £12m transfer fees on players because it's his money and he's going to run the football club as a businessman as well as wanting it to be successful.

"Without him, we don't have another chance at this particular time. We've had bad owners, bluffers, con men. We've had them all. Now, we've got a serious chance and I hope Leeds fans realise you don't find many people like this. I hope they have the patience to give this man a chance and I definitely think Rangers fans should give Ashley a chance if he's serious.

"He has the wherewithal to sort their problems out and it will be for a fraction of his Newcastle investment. Newcastle fans might chase Ashley because they're on at him all the time. If I'd put that type of money in, I'd stick two fingers up.

"His business is still successful, so he can generate big finance. What Rangers can give him is great exposure because they're a huge club. Newcastle have found a diamond in Mike Ashley and I hope, at Leeds United, that we have done the same.

"I just wish fans would realise what is needed to rebuild a club to the stature it once enjoyed. If you find a diamond who is prepared to put money in, you might have hard times and it might take time, but you must give these people a chance and not drive them away or else people become frightened to get involved.

"There are loads of wealthy people in Leeds but they're terrified because they've heard so many owners getting a hard time and fear it could be them if they invest.

"Mike Ashley is a Londoner but he's gone up to Newcastle after seeing a bit of potential. I don't know him personally, but I'm sure he'd feel aggrieved at the lack of appreciation for what he's tried to do for the club.

"He doesn't spend wildly because he knows Newcastle United must have been in a terrible situation to have to pay the money he did to sort the problems out. He's now running it as a business."

As all Newcastle supporters will testify, Ashley's company, Sports Direct, benefits greatly from its association with their club. Many of them believe the exposure and commercial benefit the leisure wear firm receives is the only reason the 50-year-old remains involved.

Despite owning less than 10% of Rangers, Ashley already has an agreement to put two men on the board, a stronghold on the retail side of the business and the rights to rename Ibrox, a deal struck for £1 in a deal struck with the former chief executive, Charles Green.

Newcastle fans are already warning those on the blue half of Glasgow to be ready for the worst, but Lorimer is unconvinced by the abuse Ashley receives on Tyneside for having Sports Direct intertwined to such a degree with Newcastle.

"He's entitled to some form of return," said Lorimer. "I know nobody wants to see the name of St James' Park or Ibrox changed, but can you not have both with Sports Direct part of the title too?"