Rangers cult hero lands La Liga top job a year after Serie A exit

Former Rangers midfielder Rino Gattuso has been appointed new manager of Valencia.

The tenacious Italian, signed by Walter Smith in a protracted transfer deal from Perugia in 1997, spent little over a year at Ibrox before being sold by Dick Advocaat but went opn to lift the World Cup with his n national side and the Champions League with AC Milan.

He also moved into management and coached at the San Siro as well as stints in charge at Napoli and in Switzerland and Greece. He almost took over at Fiorentina last summer before the deal broke down and has now taken over the reins in La Liga, signing a two-year deal at the Mestalla Stadium. Valencia finished ninth in the Spanish top flight last season.

Gattuso’s links to Scotland remain however, through his Glaswegian wife Monica, and the 44-year-old was linked with the vacant manager’s job when Steven Gerrard left last year, a position eventually filled by his former Ibrox team-mate Giovanni van Brocnkhorst.