Zappa

I chose Rangers over Barcelona - Brian Laudrup By Tom English 6 September 2015 Last updated at 12:56 In his mind's eye he's back in that car heading for Loch Lomond; Walter Smith in the driver's seat, telling him how good his life will be if he'd only sign for Rangers. It was 1994 and Brian Laudrup smiles at the memory of it. A pivotal moment in his life, he says. On that journey to the Cameron House hotel, where Smith would make his pitch in full, he remembers two words above all others. "I've been following you for years," the Rangers manager told him. "And in my team you'll have a free role." "Free role" - the words Laudrup had longed to hear at Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Fiorentina, but never did. "I know how to use you," said Smith. Even before the car was parked in the grounds of the hotel, Laudrup was convinced that what Smith was telling him was true. We are sitting in a hotel overlooking the water in his picturesque town of Vedbaek, north of Copenhagen. The chat will turn to Rangers soon enough, but for now Laudrup is talking about where it all began, the first steps on the road that would eventually take him to Glasgow and into the pantheon of Rangers greats. He is talking about his father, the celebrated Finn. "For any boy, your dad is something special," he says. "He was a huge influence, a fantastic player in his day in Austria and for the Danish national team. I watched him every week. "He started off like myself and Michael but as he grew older he developed more into a number 10. He was like (Michel) Platini, lying in midfield, not running too much, but great feet." A famous father had a famous son, Michael, soon the darling of Denmark. In his shadow, was the younger Brian, forever being asked if he was going to live up to the family name, forever being hit with questions about his place in the family pecking order. "Having to live up to these expectations was very tough and I have to admit that at times I was flirting with the thought of giving up football and doing something else," he says. "People always asked me: 'When are you going abroad? When are you becoming a professional? Are you as good as your brother? Are you as good as your dad?' At times, newspapers would write that he is going to be the 'best of the lot' and other times 'he's rubbish'. "To have to deal with that when you're 11 or 12 years old is tough, but my family were great. I quit football at the age of 15 - for about 10 days. Then I came back and said, 'OK, Brian, let's see how far we can go.'" He went to Germany with Bayer Uerdingen at the age of 20, excelled for a season and then signed for Bayern Munich. He had a young son of his own by then and a whole heap of pressure. He was the most expensive player in the Bundesliga. He recalls: "In Bild Zeitung, the big newspaper, every time I didn't play well I was a six million flop and when I played well it was, 'Well, this is what you expect for that kind of money.' I couldn't win." Laudrup was searching for something elusive - a freedom to express himself, just as his older brother was doing at Barcelona. He played well in his first season at Bayern but they finished second in the Bundesliga. "Second is nothing at Bayern." How about tenth? That's where Bayern finished in his second season, much of it spoiled by a horrendous knee injury. It was approaching the summer of 1992 and Laudrup was lost. Unsure about his fitness and uncertain about where he was going to be playing his football. Not at Bayern, he was sure of that. He came home one evening to find his wife at the doorstep, telling him he needed to report to a Denmark international camp immediately. Something about Yugoslavia, she said. Something else about their dismissal from the upcoming European Championships. "I said, 'I'm not ready for that yet.' I was like, 'I'm not doing it, I'm not fit, I'm not ready for a tournament.' In eight days we were playing England. A joke among the players was that we were ready for 90 minutes - 30 against England, 30 against Sweden and 30 against France - our group opponents. "That was the joke because we had players who hadn't played for a while. Guys had been on the beach." The ambition in the Denmark squad was to win one point. One point would have been one point more than their predecessors - the so-called Danish Dynamite - had achieved at Euro '88. They got that point in a 0-0 draw with England. "We celebrated like we'd won the tournament." A few weeks later, they did. It was a footballing Cinderella story to beat all Cinderella stories. He says: "We had no preparation, but we had no fear. It's amazing what you can do when you have no fear." The Laudrup story carried on to Fiorentina. As a young man he thought of Serie A as paradise. In reality, it proved anything but. Fiorentina began the season among the favourites for the title and ended it relegated. "The fans were very upset. I wouldn't say I feared for anybody's life but at some point we were told to send our families back home because they didn't know how the supporters would react," Laudrup says. "I sent my wife and my son back to Denmark for the last two or three weeks of the season. "It was a shocking experience. Foreign players in Italy are idolised, but if things are not going well they are hated." Laudrup moved to AC Milan on loan when Fiorentina went down. Every day in training he played down the right and up against him was Paolo Maldini, a colossus that he learned from but could never get the better of. "We won Serie A and we won the European Cup but I never really felt that I was part of that team," he says. "I played seven games in Europe, so I did my bit. I'm proud of the medals. They're part of my history." After he had that chat in the front of Smith's car heading for Loch Lomond, Laudrup spoke to his father. Finn Laudrup told him that this was a critical moment in his son's career, a move that had to work. "He said that if it didn't happen in Glasgow then maybe I was looking for something that was impossible," Laudrup admits. "But I found it. At last." So much so that early in his time at Rangers he declined a move to Barcelona. He continues: "I'd found stability and it would have been crazy to give it up. I thought, 'Spain? Oh my God, that could be like Italy.' "I spoke to Walter and said, 'before you read anything in the papers I've just had an offer from Barcelona and I've turned it down'. He didn't say anything for a minute and then he said, 'So you'd prefer to play Falkirk on a Tuesday night?' I said, 'Yeah, I love it' and he laughed and shook my hand. 'OK, let's get on with it,' he said." He was cast into a mad world, a world where Rangers people stopped him in the street and started talking about the nine-in-a-row like it was a holy grail. He didn't get it. Not at first. "In terms of importance, the nine-in-a-row game was up there with the final of Euro '92," he says. "I was told about Celtic's nine-in-a-row. Strangers would tell me. They said that if I could be part of that I'd be immortalised. The day we did it I remember Richard Gough crying. At that point I fully realised what it meant to people." Four seasons and a lifetime of memories. The happiest years of his footballing life. Laudrup is 46 now and a picture of health, which is a relief given that in 2010 he had a cancer scare. He says: "I haven't spoken about it, but I feel fine. With every cancer sufferer, you're never quite sure about yourself and you're always looking for symptoms. "I'm what you call in remission and doing well and I go for scans and so far, so good - nothing has come up. Doctors nowadays are very good so fingers crossed." He works for Danish TV and runs street football schools for kids, a huge passion. From time to time his son will ring him up and tell him that he's watching a Rangers of old on YouTube and that his old man is looking good. "He loves watching those games," says Laudrup. "A while ago we shook hands and said we'll go and see Rangers in the Championship and support them on their way back to former glory." There will be a welcome as wide as the Clyde when he does. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/34165988

I'm loving the way the team is playing, it's an excellent start to the season and things seem to be shaping up very nicely for us, but I'd like to enjoy it game by game without getting too carried away at such an early stage. Obviously I agree that at the moment we look like an absolute certainty to win the league, but I think it's worth taking into account that our 9 match winning streak is over a period where most of our games have been played in good conditions. The good playing conditions aren't going to last too much longer though. We've basically got another couple of months if we're lucky before weather dictates that some of the pitches start turning to shit and when we go out on poor pitches with rain battering down or frosty, icy conditions that's when it won't be as easy for us to play this style of football. Quick turns become slips and slick quick passing on the deck becomes a lot more difficult. In fact the weather can easily change the whole complexion of a game or an entire run of games, so it's going to be very interesting to see how well our new look team deals with it over the winter months. Based on these uncertainties I can't subscribe to getting too carried away about Cup runs or winning any Cups apart from the Challenge Cup. I know Mark Warburton will repeat what he's already said which is that Rangers are going into every competition and every game to win it and that's exactly the way it should be from the Club and the team's point of view, but from my own point of view I just want us to win the league as quickly as possible to guarantee promotion.

I was in CD1 and heard quite a few German voices. They must have went away impressed and thoroughly entertained.

Folk are going nuts about Oduwa's performance yesterday, but based on the whole game the lad Zelalem would probably have been my pick for MOTM. He is total and utter class. I really hope we can keep him for the full season!

Excellent team performance again. In fact, it was outstanding.

There seems to be a pattern here. Thread locked.

It's not a sell-out yet for this one, but it should be another great crowd. Hopefully we get another great game and result! Shit > shave > shower > Ibrox

Last call !!! Don't forget to post your predictions before the 3pm kick-off this afternoon! Do it here - Predictions for Rangers v Raith Rovers

I only watch RangersTV occasionally to catch some of our away games, so I don't know what all of the rest of the content is like, but apparently the media, digital content and RangersTV teams work tirelessly to provide the content and they're currently in a process of trying to improve all of the Club's digital content. The problem with RangersTV though, is that it needs a lot more subsrcibers in order for them to have a better budget, so it's a bit of catch 22 situation. What I will say is that DJ's patter during the match commentary is absolutely terrible and his jokes are cringeworthy.

It was the SFL vote on 13 July 2012. The member clubs held two separate votes at Hampden that day. The first was a vote on whether or not we should be put straight into the old 1st Division and the second was a vote on whether to grant us admission into the 3rd Division. Only one SFL club voted 'no' to our admission into the SFL's 3rd Division and I thought it might have been Raith, but I might well be wrong and you may be right that it was Albion Rovers. If it was indeed Albion Rovers, then the irony of it is astounding because there man Frank Meade was creaming his pants about the financial windfall for his club when they drew us at Ibrox in the Scottish Cup 18 months ago.

Don't forget to post your predictions between now and kick-off tomorrow afternoon! :drum: Do it here - Predictions for Rangers v Raith Rovers

That's your preview now published John, thanks again mate! - The Renaissance Men

Good luck getting an apology out of Mr illegal transfer embargo. It's unlikely to happen, but I'd love to see our traveling support boycott Starks Park. Were Raith the club who voted against us joining the SFL to play in the old 3rd Division?

Cops are barging through photographers, knocking them to the ground and trampling over the top of them and Spiers thinks the completely unsurprising presence of Craig Houston is more worthy of comment. What a clown the man is.

Great preview, thanks John! We'll get it published tomorrow.

Excellent article mate. Should be another good crowd on Saturday, although I'm not sure if we'll have another total sell out or not. We'll have a better idea tomorrow night.

Don't forget to post your predictions for our game at Ibrox against Raith Rovers on Saturday afternoon! Do it here - Predictions for Rangers v Raith Rovers

Ex-Rangers chiefs Craig Whyte and Charles Green charged after court appearances Rebecca Gray, Wednesday 2 September 2015 Former Rangers owner Craig Whyte and ex-chief executive Charles Green have been charged with serious organised crime offences in relation to the acquisition of the club in 2012. Motherwell-born Mr Whyte, 44, has been charged under Section 28 of the Criminal Justice Licensing Act 2010 which covers serious organised crime offences. He also faced a charge of conspiracy. Mr Green, 62, has been dealt the same charges as well as fraud and an offence under Section 190 of the Companies Act 2006. The pair were joined in the court by David Whitehouse, who was the club's co-administrator in 2012. He has been charged with conspiracy and serious organised crime offences. All three men made no plea or declaration and were granted bail Fans shouted at Green as he walked out the main door of the court, accompanied by around a dozen police officers. He looked shocked and refused to say anything as he was escorted to a waiting car. Administrator David Whitehouse emerged around 20 minutes later to similar scenes. He was surrounded by personal security guards as angry supporters shouted abuse at the businessman. Whyte emerged from the court building and was met by scores of furious Rangers fans. They hurled abuse at the former Light Blues owner as he fought his way through the crowds to a car. Like Green and Whitehouse, Whyte was surrounded by police officers. Whyte took control of the Ibrox club in May 2011 but it went into administration in February the following year. Green, a former chief executive of Sheffield United, took control at the Ibrox club in 2012 after completing a purchase of Rangers’ assets after it went into administration. Whitehouse, of Duff and Phelps, ran the club's administration in 2012. Green stepped down as chief executive in 2013. Police confirmed three men were arrested yesterday in connection with "an ongoing investigation into an alleged fraudulent acquisition of Rangers FC in 2012." A Police Scotland spokeswoman added: "A report will be submitted to the procurator fiscal." Whitehouse, who worked for administrators Duff and Phelps, arrived at Rangers after Whyte put the club into administration. Meanwhile, Green led the consortium who bought the Ibrox club from the administrators. Whitehouse was arrested early yesterday in Cheshire by Police Scotland anti-fraud officers. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13639614.Ex_Rangers_chiefs_Craig_Whyte_and_Charles_Green_charged_after_court_appearances/

I'm happy with the squad as it is. Ok, so we've already got mounting injuries throughout the squad. Bell's still not back, but apparently not too far away. Not sure how badly, but apparently Liam Kelly injured himself in the U20 fixture with Motherwell last night. Templeton will no doubt be out for a while, but hopefully Wallace and Clark won't be out for too long. Other than that, yes, we're very light in terms of back-up across the back 4, so we need to hope we don't get a bunch of injuries in that department. If we do, then the manager will need to either play young lads or bring in some cover.

Don't forget to post your predictions for our Raith game at Ibrox on Saturday afternoon. Do it here - Predictions for Rangers v Raith Rovers

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Confirmed.... It's definitely open to the public and it's FREE entry!

Aye, it should definitely be open mate. Not sure if there's a small charge or not though.

As usual, there might be some text commentary via @RFC_Youth on twitter - https://twitter.com/RFC_Youth/with_replies

I'd imagine that guys like Gary Withey, David Whitehouse and Paul Clark could end up in a lot more trouble than Donald Muir.