Rangers used to be a British football powerhouse, capable of competiting with England’s top sides both on and off the pitch as the signing of Tore Andre Flo in 2000 confirmed.
As far back as 1993 before the Premier League spending power really kicked in, it was the Ibrox outfit who were pushing Man Utd at the top of the revenue tree, not Man City, Liverpool or Chelsea.
With Michael Mols suffering a virtual career ending injury, Rangers boss Dick Advocaat looked elsewhere for a new number nine and, in Tore Andre Flo, he broke the Scottish transfer record to do so.
Rangers record spending days are done after Tore Andre Flo
On the 23rd of November 2000, the Norwegian international arrived at Ibrox to something of a fanfare.
An infamous transfer fee of £12m paid to Chelsea saw the towering striker head to Glasgow leaving behind a goal scoring record of one every three games although his ability to link play and be a creator were equally as impressive.
When Rangers sold Tore Andre Flo two seasons later, he left with a goal every two games and countless other assists for Peter Lovenkrands, Kenny Miller, Ronald de Boer, Claudio Caniggia and Shota Arveladze to name but a few.
Put his record next to the name of any of the forwards named, or almost any other in the last 20 years and we would all be quite happy except for the 12 million elephants in the room.
Had Rangers paid £6m for Tore Andre Flo, he probably wouldn’t be labelled as a flop at a time when Advocaat was revolutionising the club – a state of the art training ground his lasting legacy
To make matters worse, Henrik Larsson, who cost Celtic a paltry £650,000, was scoring goals for fun on the other side of the city.
Rangers sold Tore Andre Flo for £8m to Sunderland so, at a loss of £4m, were his goals and assists worth the outlay, even if he didn’t manage to deliver a league title?
For me, absolutely, but he was judged on what fans and journalists expected and wanted rather than what he was capable of, purely because of the price tag.
