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Dominant - God Complex (1994/95): Part One (Patreon)

Published:
2022-09-13 06:00:00
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2026-06
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Content

Walter Smith was given another £5m to bring two European champions to Ibrox. After a bright and exciting World Cup, people were demanding more entertainment and individual skill and hopes were high as the new season commenced. By the end of August, Smith was facing the biggest crisis of his managerial career. 

Martyn, John and Andy look back at Laudrup, Boli, The Ibrox Tournament and the Week From Hell.

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Comments

Derek MacMillan

Just listening through this now. Regarding Leighton, he is on record saying he grew up as a rangers fan. Not sure I'd say he hated rangers

Scott Kerr

When can we download again?

Ross Matheson

I can't remember the exact timeline but we'd been watching Laudrup in the 1994 qualifying campaign as both Nothern Ireland and the Republic were in the Denmark group. I'm sure the games were on Sky. My Dad had said he'd love to see us sign him around about Christmas time, I think. ROI actually beat Denmark to 2nd spot with an equaliser against N.I in the final game the night Spain beat Denmark. They played England in a friendly too at Wembley in early 1994. IIRC, Martyn it mentioned last week it was noted in the FF fanzine too at some point. Without the internet at the time, it didn't become a regular rumour until the summer again. I remember being stunned when it came to light we were after him after my old man pointing him out specifically a few months before. Changed days when you'd have been hearing about it every day for weeks on end in modern times. Also, if anyone wants a look, there's a guy on youtube posting highlights of his time in Germany and Italy that I hadn't seen before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg84nwMHqrw&ab_channel=billyblackburn87 (Bayern) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz6hnAWtI0c&ab_channel=billyblackburn87 (Fiorentina)

Ross Matheson

On the Man U "rivalry" as well, I wonder if Murray saw it as a personal battle too. Delighted he'd taken Boli from Tapie, he probably thought he was competing with them around the time of the Duncan Ferguson / Roy Keane transfer fees. The Scrappy Doo analogy is spot on.

Callum Dinnen

As funny as Chick Young's verbal slapping is; Smith absolutely does him. Young's question is fair enough - his point is that we've spent big money, but to compete at the level we want to, we need to spend bigger to buy better (Michael over Brian for example.) Smith answers a different question to the one put to him and puts words in Young's mouth; Young doesn't say Boli and Laudrup can't play in Europe, he just questions whether they're of the level we need.

Martyn Ramsay
>>91532890

Fans saw it that way tbh. Lots of examples of us talking about a rivalry that I’m not sure really existed.

Ross Matheson
>>91533821

Yeah, I've always found the hilarity around it a bit of an annoyance. Alright, Walter...you're correct. Boli and Laudrup are clearly good enough for Europe. Can you explain to us why we've had our arses handed to us again then...it would appear there's a failing elsewhere (and it wasn't addressed in the next four years either)

Martyn Ramsay
>>91533821

He does literally say that they’re “seemingly not good enough at the highest level in Europe” so he gave Smith the chance to make something out of it. There were genuine lines of inquiry in there but he just got mauled by a manager in a dreadful mood.

Martyn Ramsay
>>91532757

Yeah The Major had suggested it in Feb 94. It’s all relative to the other names. Micheal would have been huge and Bergkamp was another name getting touted seriously (as he would do again the following summer before going to Arsenal) so it was weirdly subdued but not a case of “who is this?” Boli was absolutely the big deal though.

Callum Dinnen
>>91533821

Is the bold Chico wrong though? Our European record from 1994-98 is a disgrace under Smith; hindsight tells us that Smith was dreadfully naive tactically but I think we romanticise one or two of the players from this era who deliver very little for us in Europe (already hinted at with McCoist having a dreadful Euro 92 and no CL goals in 1992/93, for example.) edit: on Laudrup, I think Young's point is fair enough; he's failed in Serie A, which is far and away the best league in the world (have a look at how much Italian teams dominate the UEFA Cup from 1989-1999) and therefore, as much as I love him, he's proven he's not good enough at the absolute top level (which is where we're still aiming to be in 1994)

Ross Matheson
>>91532757

Yup, I've still got a cutting of the "It's Denis Gerkamp" headline in a folder somewhere. Reizeger and Davids were all thrown in to the mix in the summer of 95 too...all agent led I'm sure. Boli was certainly the headline act though. The policy of just signing the best player you could get and trying to get him to fit was clearly madness looking back on it. It well and truly fits in to the other post below talking about Chic Young's qquestion which should have had the follow up "Ok, they are good enough...what's the reason for another scudding then?"

Ross Matheson
>>91533821

There's a bit of yes and no about failing in SerieA. It's literally the ultimate league in the World at the time. He was in the wrong team at Fiorentina given what happened to them but he "failed" so badly the best club on the planet wanted him on loan after that season. They'd clearly seen enough of him that year to want him. He's a victim in that Milan squad of the domestic foreigners rule as well as the pre-Bosman Euro rule. As Martyn said, he played in 7 of their Euro games that year and only missed the final as Boban, Savicevic and Desailly are starting in a team that thumps Barcelona 4-0. He's competing with those three and Papin and Raudcioiu too for even a place a matchday squad. There's "failing" and there's "failing"

Scott Cameron

PTSD listening to that bad week, doubt a manager now would survive that period and what we were watching🫣

Gary Shaw

The Motherwell game at the start of the season always sticks in my mind and not purely for what Laudrup did….Motherwell played us off the park that day and also went down to 10 men early on…Goram kept us in it with a couple of extraordinary saves and Tommy Coyne was giving Gough and Boli a torrid time…Motherwell,with 10 men at Ibrox,get a corner with minutes to go and cross it in to the box,which in turn gets headed clear then Laudrup does what he does…how football has changed 😂

Callum Dinnen

Also, just to defend myself on the Leighton point I made last week - my question was simply if Goram goes, given the likely need for a Scottish keeper to not waste a foreign spot on a goalie, who is a realistic alternative? The Leighton point was simply that he was arguably the best Scottish keeper around not named Andy Goram, other than Bryan Gunn getting a handful of caps and Henry Smith possibly getting one against Northern Ireland in 1992, the goalie position for the national side was Goram or Leighton pretty much up to Vogts taking over. Whether or not you liked him (he was a prick, but I don't think the hating us was an issue, MoJo wasn't exactly complimentary of us prior to signing either), he's surely the only realistic alternative to Goram (in terms of on-field ability) in a universe where Goram leaves.

Ross Matheson
>>91542134

I just felt a shudder imagining Smith, Leighton or Gunn / Nelson / Main as Rangers keeper. Was Neil Sullivan "Scottish" by that point?

Martyn Ramsay
>>91542134

I don’t think he was a realistic option therefore he would either have to use a foreigner spot or he really was just playing with Goram

Callum Dinnen
>>91542134

Haha I'd forgotten about him (Sullivan) - Wiki page says he was first capped in 1997 (I have no idea how the foreigner rule would work for an uncapped player with dual eligibility)

Callum Dinnen
>>91542134

In terms of toying with Goram, I suppose it's easy to say 'aye, I was 100% selling him in summer 1994' when no offers came in for him, particularly given what this whole Leighton chat reveals about the likely on-field consequences of that decision. Suppose the whole situation is a win/win for Smith - he either gets rid of a player who is both unprofessional and unfit, or Goram knuckles down and Smith gets a fitter, focused world class player.

Callum Dinnen

Also interesting to see Martyn continue with the tradition of Gough being shambolic defensively- there's an interesting contrast between Gough being a protected species and how Butcher ends up being treated by Souness.

Martyn Ramsay
>>91545100

The entire defensive unit was a mess and tbh had been for some time. I think Goram and McCoist/Hateley covered a bit of that in 91/93. But tbf to Gough, he responded and had a good 95-97. Helped by some stability around him it must be said. Butcher was physically done and both Souness and he knew it.

Tom McDavid

Mentioned before, but the week from hell was the week my now wife and myself started dating. She was one more loss from getting dumped as a jinx. 🙄

Paul Dunnachie
>>91545100

Gough was struggling with form and injuries for the calendar year of 1994 and the early parts of 1995. Come the 95/96 season he absolutely clicked back into it but there was an extended period where his being, “Richard Gough” and leading on & off field was far superior to his defending on the field.

Lewis Wardrope

Kaunas would probably rival AEK Athens & Unirea for Smith surely?

john cowden
>>91542134

I would agree with that logic but I guess the only bit of logic that fails is who buys an unfit unprofessional player. Also agree easy to say later I would have sold him but he didn’t have to make that decision in summer 1994. All in all reading the riot act worked so you would have to say good management

john cowden
>>91545100

Gough was a very good player but he wasn’t honest enough re injuries. How many times he has to get subbed. Also I personally don’t think he was a good leader either of team or the defence. Not captain material for me but I do prefer the ‘Butcher’ type captain.

Greig Neilson

That must have been a painful one to research. I remember our supporters bus after the Falkirk game, total carnage.

Callum Dinnen
>>91545100

I do think it's interesting around this time how foreign players like Miko and Boli, as well as younger players like Duncan Ferguson seem to struggle to fit in to the dressing room culture at Rangers. Laudrup bucks the trend somewhat but I wonder if he'd have been accepted if he wasn't as good on the pitch as he was.

Callum Dinnen
>>91551440

Not when you factor in the financial disparity I don't think. Smith gets a side in 92/93 to within a whisker of the final and gets more than £10m over the next year to improve the side. I'd be interested to know how many sides were throwing that kind of money around in 1993 and 1994.

Lewis Wardrope
>>91551440

In terms of the financial aspect, I 100% agree. But just when I heard it being compared to Unirea, it automatically made me think of Kaunas. Just because it was falling at the first hurdle against a side we really should have beaten. Added to that we were UEFA Cup finalists only the season before would have meant we were even bigger favourites to win that tie

Dougie Jones

Interesting to have the memory jogged about Laudrup's arrival but yes, as hard as it is now to believe, I think it was certainly a cautious, somewhat qualified welcome he received.

Stephen Rankine

Remember coming home from Falkirk and that wee rat Walker on the radio coming out with the “Gers for Change” line and being absolutely raging.

John Johnston

Thank goodness for Laudrup that season that is all you can really say. I think the prospect of 9iar and his domestic record kept Walter in the job otherwise he would have been gone by Sept 94.

Calum Robertson

For some reason I can always remember a quote that I read in Follow Follow about Basile Boli that made me laugh “Can’t wait to see Galloway bounce off him”

Gordon Smith
>>91533821

I have always been angered by how this clip is set up as a homage to Walter. Young fluffed his lines and didn’t go in strong enough. Meaning we didn’t get the answers we needed that morning. If it was an average bear doing that interview the expletives would have gone the other way. I don’t know any supporter that was not absolutely livid with what we had witnessed the night before.

Michael Thomson

That Boli article. Jesus fucking Christ.

Martin Davies

I feel dirty saying it but Walter should have been fired after AEK, no question.

Lee Colvin

That was a hard listen lads.Having watched Laudrup at Fiorentina I was delighted at his signing,however after Athens and the Tims at home I thought he was just a poor mans Peter Huistra.So glad I was wrong.

Gary Brown

Thanks again Martyn, ably assisted by John & Andy, for the latest Dominant episode. A tough one to go through this week but its part of the story. Keep up the great work, still loving this series 😊👍