Memories of Shota Arveladze

One of my favourite all time players and I think he was heavily underated during his spell with us.

Arveladze was a very talented all round player and no matter where he was played he always put in a shift and contributed especially with assists and regular goals despite playing outwide fairly regularly.

Top player loved him.

Favorite memory has to be either the winning goal v Copenhagen that sent us through to the CL or the winning goal v them in the league cup in 2004 I think.
 
A good player who could have been great. Played out of position too often but still came up with important goals. Some dancer!

Did he not end up costing us a fortune, when we originally thought we got a great deal at something like 2 million from Ajax?
 
Kanye West said:
What are your main memories of his time with us or even before us?

trying to think and I just see him dancing.
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Tremendous skill an eye for goal and a real worker! Great attributes for a Ranger!
Whilst cleaning out the loft the other day I found the back pages of the Sun I bought on my return from a brilliant and hilarious trip to Copenhagen (Spunk Bar etc) with Shota celebrating winner. Also good memories of meeting McLeish and Wouters at the hotel on morning of game and discussing Barry’s situation- met McLeish twice and he always had time to talk. Absolute Gentleman.
If anyone can let me know how I upload a photo from my iPhone I’ll share photos from Sun 2003.
 
A cracking forward who was far more intelligent than given credit for. He was definitely an off-the-cuff type of player who could do the unimaginable at times, and he had a superb goal scoring record throughout his career.

The first time I ever saw him play was for Ajax against the shuttlestons, he had as rookie on his arm and if my memory serves me right he scored at the midden and it was a decent goal.

I was majorly excited when we signed him as I knew we were getting a European class striker, his quality definitely shone through at time, and of course he was a mad bastard as well which helped!!
 
iaatpies said:
He was relatively prolific before signing for Rangers. Never felt that we used him properly. Clearly a really talented player. Just a shame we were never able to get the best from him on a more consistent basis.
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And after leaving.

Scored 48 goals in 89 games for AZ Alkmaar.
 
Very under utilized by us. Left us, went to AZ and ran riot in the Dutch league playing through the middle.
 
Liked him as a player and scored some important goals will always speak fondly of the goal in Copenhagen and his dancing.

Appears to be doing well as a manager as well
 
Goals he scored with the teams he played for:

Martve Tblisi 33 in 30 (110%)
Dinamo Tiblisi 51 in 67 (76%)
Trabzonspor 61 in 94 (65%)
Ajax 55 in 96 (57%)
Rangers 44 in 95 (46%)
AZ Alkmar 36 in 60 (60%)

Good for us but should have been better. As others have said he wasn't utilised properly at times.

A lot of very important goals though.
 
I liked shota, but thought we played him out if position a lot. Seemed to play out wide, whe I think he should have played through the middle. I was there when he scored in copenhagen, rangers and went crazy, brilliant night!!
 
jaws73 said:
Goals he scored with the teams he played for:

Martve Tblisi 33 in 30 (110%)
Dinamo Tiblisi 51 in 67 (76%)
Trabzonspor 61 in 94 (65%)
Ajax 55 in 96 (57%)
Rangers 44 in 95 (46%)
AZ Alkmar 36 in 60 (60%)

Good for us but should have been better. As others have said he wasn't utilised properly at times.

A lot of very important goals though.
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That's just his league goals.

Misses quite a few of his goals, he scored 29 european goals in 60 games.

He's the the joint 6th top goalscorer in the Europa League/Uefa Cup history alongside a certain Alfredo Morelos.
 
Cool story bro, ahoy!... Was playing pool in Moskito on Bath Street years ago with a couple of pals when who walks in but Arvaladze and his best buddy Ronald De Boer. My mate (who's a big Celtic fan) was actually awestruck and handed over his cue and said "Your table, Mr. De Boer!"
 
His goal against that lot in extra time in the cup, was at the game with my big brother who had just passed his driving test, trying to get the car back on the motorway that night was a great laugh. Great run by ricksen that night
 
Copenhagen away goal my fav player i got his name on my tops and met him after matches always had time to sign everything for everyone
 
IMHO he’d a scored nearly double than what he did,if we had played him in his natural position,incidentally I feel we are doing the same with Hagi currently,personally feel he’s a more perfectly suited number 10 more than an outside right
 
Thought he was extremely talented, and worked off the ball like what folks call now a 'false 9' or that type of thing. One of my favourite players of that era tbh.

Mon the Shota
 
55 and counting said:
If we played him more as a striker instead of the classic Rangers of playing him out wide we would've got far more out of him imo.
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Not sure he was suited as an out and out striker. He had a reasonable record elsewhere but striker never really seemed to be his game. Great servant though.
 
Didn't like him out wide left. Really didn't get the best out of him. Ridiculously talented though and knew where the net was. Scored some massive goals. A definite success
 
Perhaps my memory is playing tricks but I can see him playing out wide a lot for us and us wanting him played as the main striker.

No one forgets Shotas dancing though.
 
The goal he scored at the piggery when Rab Douglas spilled a harmless Arthur Numan shot and it rebounded off Shota and into the net. Definitely one of those players you appreciate now than back then, despite him not playing in the main position for us his goalscoring return is more than average.
 
Goal in Copenhagen and his dance moves were the first two things that sprang to mind for me
 
Remember his debut v Airdrie scored with the outside of his boot and I was absolutely buzzing for him. Felt we could of got a lot more out of him. Still produced some moments of magic for us in vital games. His finish in the 2-1 league cup game in AET was a cracker.

Always laugh at his awful attempt at a headstand at the piggery but we let him away with it as he’s just scored.
 
Leo_Ger said:
That's just his league goals.

Misses quite a few of his goals, he scored 29 european goals in 60 games.

He's the the joint 6th top goalscorer in the Europa League/Uefa Cup history alongside a certain Alfredo Morelos.
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He was a goal scorer all right. We didn't really utilise him to his full potential.
 
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