5 hours Ago By [email protected] (Tom Sunderland, Harry Brent)
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Glasgow giants Rangers have plenty of reflecting to do in the wake of Philippe Clement's sacking , with a big summer restructure awaiting at the end of this season.
Decision-making at Ibrox has been heavily scrutinised in recent seasons, and that looks set to continue with a possible sale to 49ers Enterprises on the horizon. But with the Clement era now behind them, Rangers need to learn from their lessions when it comes to recruitment - and free agency could be their friend this summer. Exactly how much will be in the club's transfer kitty remains unknown, and they may have to get creative in the market if money is as tight as expected.
The Daily Record has examined a number of stars who made it big at Rangers despite coming in at no cost, with the club looking to repeat the same heroics. After scoring 128 goals in 191 games for Rangers, Kris Boyd tried his luck south of the border by signing for Middlesbrough in 2010. He moved to Turkey after just one year in England, however, then took his talents to the US before returning to Scotland with Kilmarnock in 2012.
Rangers - who had just been promoted to the Scottish Championship - then re-signed the striker on a free transfer after watching him blast 22 Premiership goals in one season at Rugby Park. But his second spell wasn't nearly as fruitful as his first. Boyd only managed three league goals in 29 appearances, and Rangers failed to achieve promotion back to the top flight after losing in the play-off final to Motherwell.
He returned to Kilmarnock that summer and spent another four seasons in Ayrshire prior to his retirement. After spending the best part of two decades tearing it up in the Premier League, Jermain Defoe signed for Rangers midway through the 2018/19 season. He followed former England team-mate Steven Gerrard - who had signed on as manager six months earlier - initially on loan, though he made the move permanent at the end of his debut campaign.
The Tottenham icon went on to score 32 goals in 74 games for the Gers, including a 17-goal haul in his sophomore season. He was also part of the club's first Premiership title-winning team in a decade the following campaign. Following Gerrard's departure in 2021, Defoe was named as part of a four-man caretaker team prior to the appointment of Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
A few months later, he left to re-join former club Sunderland, then hung up his boots at the end of that term. Another Three Lions international, Jack Butland arrived at Rangers from Crystal Palace in 2023 following an uneventful loan spell at Manchester United. He'd spent the bulk of his Palace career on the bench but slotted straight into Rangers' starting line-up and has been there ever since.
The 31-year-old - best known for his seven-year spell at Stoke City - is closing in on 100 appearances for the Light Blues. He featured in a whopping 58 games last season, with Rangers reaching the final of both domestic cups, as well as the last 16 of the Europa League. Many fans are made up their No1 has been such a success story thus far.
Just like his style of play, Gennaro Gattuso 's arrival at Ibrox was anything but simple and got a little dirty at times. But despite Perugia's best attempts to lodge an appeal with FIFA over the transfer, his free arrival at Rangers was confirmed in the summer of 1997. Just 19 at the time, the would-be Italy general was far from the two-time Champions League and World Cup-winner he became at AC Milan.
However, it's a credit to the Rangers scouting department that they identified his talent before many other European giants at the time. Gattuso - now coaching Hajduk Split in Croatia - later revealed he didn't want to move to Glasgow but relented after his father threatened to punch him otherwise. He scored five goals in 43 appearances during his sole season with Rangers but was sold to Salernitana in 1998 after Walter Smith's replacement, Dick Advocaat, didn't take to the Italian enforcer.
There are few rivalries in football as deep as that between Rangers and Celtic - but that didn't stop Kenny Miller from crossing the Glasgow border on several occasions. Having first joined the Gers from Hibs in 2000, he spent a single season at Celtic before re-joining Rangers (the second of three stints) in 2008. He scored 111 goals in 294 outings for Rangers altogether and wasn't quite as prolific as the aforementioned Boyd.
It was his third spell at Ibrox that came with no transfer fee in 2014, racking up 49 goals over four seasons and helping the club clinch the Scottish Championship crown in 2016. Speaking of Rangers hard men, Kevin Muscat was another who spent just a single season with the club but made a significant impact. And it's a timely twist of fate that the Australian has found himself in the conversation as a possible Clement replacement after winning silverware in three different countries.
Muscat, 51, has made his latest surge to managerial success at the helm of Chinese club Shanghai Port, where he won a domestic double last term. That's after clinching trophies with Melbourne Victory and Yokohama F. Marinos in his native Australia and Japan, respectively.
The Crawley-born defender spent five years at Wolves before joining the Gers on a free in 2002, winning a domestic treble during his sole season in Glasgow. It's been speculated Muscat's temperament was the reason he was never involved in an Old Firm derby during his short stint north of the border, where he thrived before moving to Millwall in 2003..
