Gordon McQueen: Rangers’ fall more shocking than Leeds

TWENTY years ago, Gordon McQueen watched with barely disguised pleasure as the club he supported as a boy defeated the one with which he made his name as a player.

It was the inaugural season of Champions League football and McQueen was a TV analyst as Rangers overcame Leeds United in a high profile clash of the Scottish and English title holders.

Both clubs were arguably at the peak of their powers when they clashed in that epic Champions League qualifier in 1992 and no-one could have anticipated the troubles which lay in store.

Leeds United’s financial implosion was difficult enough for McQueen to fathom, the Elland Road side sliding from Champions League semi-finalists in 2001 to administration and relegation to the third tier of English football just six years later.

But as shocking as that was, McQueen says it simply does not compare to the astonishment he felt when he heard of Rangers’ slide into administration last month.

“I look back at those games between the clubs in 1992 and that was the best Rangers team since the 1970s,” reflected McQueen. “I used to go and watch Rangers in the 1960s and although it’s hard to compare one era with another, I’d say that 92-93 team was as good as any Rangers have ever had.

“Leeds United had their own financial problems, as many clubs in England have, but you just don’t expect it to happen to Rangers. They are an institution. There are three clubs in England as big as Rangers – Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal. Chelsea are big-ish, but not huge. So for it to happen to a club like Rangers is incredible.”

Happily making a positive recovery from cancer of the larynx, with which he was diagnosed last October, McQueen remains an avid observer of developments in Scottish football from his home in England.

Back in Glasgow yesterday to launch the 2012 induction process for the Scottish Football Hall of Fame, the 59-year-old says the Rangers crisis has simply deepened the lack of respect for football in his homeland from those south of the border.

“They have never taken us seriously down there, not for a long while,” he said. “It’s because the national team haven’t qualified for a major tournament for so long. Our club sides do nothing in Europe either. They are laughing at us now, which isn’t nice.

“I used to always point out that we have Rangers and Celtic pulling in huge crowds all the time. Rangers could get 50,000 people to watch them play St Mirren. That’s like one of the big English teams playing Stoke and getting a full house. That’s no offence to St Mirren.

“Imagine if Rangers and Celtic were playing Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal every season. You wouldn’t be able to get a ticket for love nor money. There was talk of them coming down to the Premier League for years. I’d have loved it to happen, but it was never going to happen.

“I still get the Scottish newspapers every day on my Ipad and I just can’t believe what’s going on at Rangers. To go into liquidation, which it seems could happen, is shocking. How has the money been disappearing?

“I’m just glad Rangers have got somebody like Ally McCoist in charge. He is Rangers through and through. A lot of managers would have walked away, especially now he’s being paid peanuts. But Ally has the spirit and character to hold the whole thing together.”

With any recovery process for Rangers uncertain, an era of complete dominance for Celtic in Scottish football beckons. But McQueen has warned that will prove to be a double-edged sword for the Parkhead club and their supporters.

“It will be a problem for Celtic if they don’t have to raise their standards while they are playing in domestic football, with Rangers out of the picture for a while if they are liquidated. It will affect Celtic in Europe. They will go into Europe and get nowhere. People only start taking notice of clubs up here when they have European runs, especially in the Champions League.

“The Europa League is okay. Rangers reached the final in Manchester four years ago, Celtic made it to Seville a few years before that, but even an ordinary Middlesbrough side got to the final of that tournament. The Champions League is where you really make your name.

“Neil Lennon is just beating what is put in front of him at the moment. He’s doing a decent job. He’s got a guy in Gary Hooper who is scoring goals for him, which is what you need in this league.

“But the perception of Scottish football in England is the worst I’ve known. Everything I hear or read is negative and has been for a year or two now. We don’t have a lot of Scots playing at the top level in England now. We used to have hundreds. Celtic and Rangers had strong sides in the 70s too, reaching European finals. It’s a worry that we don’t have that now.

“The standards have dropped. You can judge it by what the clubs do in Europe.”