Not all signings are a success, here’s my full team of flops…
#1 In goals we have French shot ‘stopper’ Lionel Letizi. Signed by infamous Rangers manager Paul le Guen in the summer of 2006, Letizi was a huge flop. After a horrendous fumble that gave Inverness a shock 1-0 victory at Ibrox which left us trailing Celtic by 10 points after just 10 games into the season, surely Lionel is the perfect perpetrator to put between the posts for the worst Rangers team.
#2 Wearing number 2 has to be Greek right back Anestis Argyriou. After impressing then Rangers manager Ally McCoist during at trial he signed a two-year contract on the 25th of August 2012. After making 27 appearances Argyriou flopped and as a result was released the following summer. Is there anything left to say? Nope, moving on.
#3 Our first centre back for the worst Rangers eleven is Karl Svensson. Similarly to Argyriou the substandard Swede also played a grand total of 27 times for Rangers. He arrived from IFK Goteburg for a fee of £600,000, signed by Paul Le Guen. Yet with the arrival of Walter Smith marked the end of Svensson’s Rangers career and the long-haired Swede was shipped off to Caen.
#4 Beside Svensson we have Emílson Cribari. The Brazilian made a good impression with the Ibrox fans when on arrival at Ibrox, revealing “The club is famous in my country because it has such a strong history”. Unfortunately, he failed to live up to his rather impressive CV, having played for teams such as Lazio and Napoli and after his 2-year deal expired he left the ‘Gers. It comes to no surprise that to this day he remains a free agent.
#5 Taking the left back position is Olivier Bernard. He made his name at Newcastle in the early 2000s and arrived with great expectations. Needless to say, he flopped, big time. He played 15 times for Rangers and failed to display any resemblance to the player Sir Bobby Robson signed in the year 2000. Following the same pattern as much of the team, Bernard, lasted one season at Ibrox and was sent packing.
#6 One of the several terrible Alex McLeish signings was Brazilian born Emerson. Having forked out £4 million for him, again much like Bernard, Rangers fans were expecting him to be a star. He was so dreadful he was dropped by February of his first season and in doing so never lived up to his ridiculous transfer fee. The next summer he was shipped away to Greece. Cheerio.
#7 Occupying the slot beside Emerson is Dragan Mladenovic. Remember him? Another McLeish signing, Mladenovic cost Rangers a cool £1 million in 2004 and was expected to be the quality midfielder that Emerson wasn’t. Sadly for McLeish and Rangers fans he was even worse. Mladenovic barely lasted 6 months and offered less than nothing. Incapable of the most basic of midfield tasks, Mladenovic, was sent packing after just 6 months before returning to Serbia never to be heard from again.
#8 On the right-wing we have young Spanish starlet Aarón Ñíguez signed from Valencia on an initial 2 year loan deal, with an option to buy. He made his debut in the 7-1 thumping of Hamilton Academical on 6 December. Ñíguez scored against third division side Forfar Athletic in the Scottish Cup and took his top off after scoring and subsequently never put it back on. On 7 June 2009 his loan deal was terminated and he returned to Spain. Adios.
#9 Playing on the opposite flank we have the captain of our team, Jérôme Rothen. After a quite impressive Emirates cup in 2009, in which he played against Rangers, Walter Smith snapped up the tricky winger on a one-year deal. Unfortunately he never lived up to expectations. After alleged swine flu, the former France international, he failed to establish himself in the SPL without a doubt he deserves the armband. Rothen by name, rotten by nature.
#10 Egil Ostenstad will lead attack for the worst ever Rangers team. Signed by Alex McLeish in what can only be described as Rangers worst ever transfer window (Summer 2003) Ostenstad goes down as one of our worst ever signings. How he made a name for himself down south is perplexing. The Norwegian made no impact and as a result had his contract torn up before the end of the season. Taxi for Egil.
#11 Finally the number 9 jersey goes to Slovak striker Filip Šebo. Funnily enough he was signed by ex manager Paul le Guen for a fee of £1.85m. In fairness he did have a decent start to his career bagging a goal on his debut yet his fourth and final goal game 10 months after his third. But he has a chant named
after him I hear you say. Yes, however the “Šebo” chant is used all across Scotland whenever an opposition player hits a poor shot. In addition the fact that he’s been without a club since 2012 shows why he was only at Ibrox for 12 months. Teaming up with former Rangers star Vladmir Weiss, Sebo has become a social media hero. Sadly for him though, he is better on twitter than he ever was on the park.
