Rangers fans can be forgiven for thinking they’ve seen this season’s horror movie before – because they have.
A campaign played out against a grim backdrop of budget cuts which starts with the disintegration of their team’s domestic form, leaving the boss under pressure. But with a remarkable plot twist, the same struggling side somehow also embarks on a remarkable run to the knockout stages in Europe.
Sounds familiar right? That’s because the script Philippe Clement is reading from is virtually identical to the one which spelled out the end of Alex McLeish’s Ibrox story. It will be 20 years this summer since Big Eck’s team, still soaring from their Helicopter Sunday thrill ride just a few weeks earlier, kicked off season 2005/06.
But a squad that had gone to the final few seconds of the previous campaign in order to snatch the title away from Martin O’Neill’s Celtic barely made it to Christmas before surrendering all hope.
Amid drastic cost cutting measures imposed by chairman David Murray in a bid to ease £70million-plus debts, big earners like Shota Arveladze and Michael Ball were moved on as McLeish instead had to turn to tired, over-the-hill campaigners and a string of untested teenagers.
Having won just six of their opening 17 league games – including an agonising 10-game run without a victory in the build up to the Festive period – McLeish was informed at the start of February that he would be replaced by Paul le Guen at the end of the season. Yet for all their struggles at home, this was a Gers side that made history by becoming the first Scottish side to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League and very nearly made the quarter finals.
It’s a tale that has eerie similarities to this year’s events. Clement might not have been killed off just yet but he is clinging desperately to his leading role after the collapse of another title challenge and the humiliation of being knocked out of the Scottish Cup to Queen’s Park. And yet he’ll retain hope that if he can edge his men next month through to the last eight of the Europa League, he might somehow survive.
It remains to be seen if the beleaguered Belgian can turn his desperate situation around. But as Jan Wouters remembers, there was no happy ending for McLeish. The Dutchman, part of Eck’s backroom team at the time, told Record Sport: “We had so many good times at Rangers that I try not to think back on the bad ones. But I can remember that saying goodbye to the club that season was very sad because I’d had five fantastic years working with Alex and Andy Watson.
“There was a lot of crying when we left. We didn’t do well that last year. The budget was cut a lot but we had that poor run of 10 games without a win – and then David Murray made his decision to go with another coach. But we also made it to the last 16 of the Champions League. It’s strange how things work out. To be honest, that’s why I prefer to remember the good times, the good seasons.”
The good times seem like a faint memory for Clement too. It’s only 12 months since the former Brugge and Monaco boss was burning bright at Ibrox. But his flame soon burned out – with Clement himself scorched at the weekend as the furious Gers faithful turned on their manager following their shock Spiders upset. He cut a lonely figure as he ran a gauntlet of abuse after the game – a feeling Wouters can remember only too well.
“You can be surrounded by so many people at Ibrox but it can feel lonely when things aren’t going well,” he said. “It was hard for Alex because he was working day and night and we weren’t lucky in some games. For me and Andy it was terrible too, but it was Alex who took all the blame and was punished by the media.
“Glasgow can be a tough environment. I worked for Ajax and Feyenoord in Holland and it can be fantastic with these big clubs. But you can always have a bad season in between as well. It looks lonely, but most of the coaches are tough enough that they can go through and just think about football.
“Sometimes it works but sometimes you’re unlucky. As a coach, defeats live with you longer than when you’re a player, you’re busy with it 24 hours a day. If you go to bed, and I know Alex was the same, you start to think, ‘What can I do better, what did I do wrong?’”
McLeish recovered from his Ibrox exit, going on to have memorable stints in charge of Scotland and Birmingham.
But there was still that one what-if moment before leaving Rangers. Having fought past Inter Milan, Porto and Artmedia Bratislava, the Light Blues became Scotland’s first ever Champions League knock-out contestants.
After a 2-2 draw at home to Villarreal in the Ibrox opener sent McLeish’s team to Spain with hopes of the last eight. But with the second-leg poised at 1-1, Kris Boyd passed up a huge chance to send Gers through – with Manuel Pellegrini’s team eventually progressing on away goals.
“I’d pushed that memory so far back in my mind but now you’re saying it, it’s coming up — so thanks for that,” grinned Woulters after being reminded by Record Sport. “But it seems that the issue our side had is the same one today’s Rangers have.
“In the Champions League, you play against strong opponents but you can change your tactics, be a little bit closer to each other, defend a bit more than normal, play counter attack. But if you play, with all respect to the likes of Falkirk or Kilmarnock, you have to make the play go attack. We just didn’t have enough quality for that to win.”