Season 97-98

S

Superswally173

Well-Known Member
Where did it go wrong in season 97-98?

Great team, playing well on the crest of a wave. Negri scored 31 (in think early on)

It was being handed to us

What happened?

Woulda been 12 man
 
Ageing side, players out of control, injury prone players, hubris and bad luck.

It is quite frustrating that by late March, it was essentially a 96 year old McCoist and Albertz trying to win the title on their own.
 
An ageing and largely unfit team being sent to the well once too often and new signings either not working out or not good enough.
The first season in my lifetime that we weren't champions. Devastating at the time. 12 year old me just assumed we'd win it because that's what we did
 
SDF said:
And before the inevitable "Selling Gazza" post appears...

We played 7 games each after his sale.

Rangers 15/21 points (5 wins, 2 defeats)
Celtic 12/21 points (3 wins, 3 draws, 1 defeat)
Click to expand...
Must admit, I’d always had it in my head that he was sold earlier in the season than that!
 
Too many draws, I think we had 3 or 4 in a row. I dont think we ever had a settled starting 11 that season.
 
If we had beaten Killie in the 2nd last game (lost 2-1 at Ibrox) we would have won it.
But it was just a season full of under-achievement. Gazza was posted missing, Laudrup injured for long spells, Negri half season, failing to beat a crap Aberdeen side 3 times , stonewall penalty denied at New Year match , death of Diana and the postponement of that game at that time.
 
nelster said:
DougieD and CK1777

Think of a topic to make any Rangers fan frown, they’ll post a thread for it.

I’m raging thinking about Pittodrie and Kilmarnock 2nd last game again.
Click to expand...
Sorry man
Just think of Hatleys double against Aberdeen

Happy thoughts, in a happy place now
 
VelvetOrange said:
If we had beaten Killie in the 2nd last game (lost 2-1 at Ibrox) we would have won it.
But it was just a season full of under-achievement. Gazza was posted missing, Laudrup injured for long spells, Negri half season, failing to beat a crap Aberdeen side 3 times , stonewall penalty denied at New Year match , death of Diana and the postponement of that game at that time.
Click to expand...
Good god Mr orange
Your fecking memory is awesome !
 
VelvetOrange said:
If we had beaten Killie in the 2nd last game (lost 2-1 at Ibrox) we would have won it.
But it was just a season full of under-achievement. Gazza was posted missing, Laudrup injured for long spells, Negri half season, failing to beat a crap Aberdeen side 3 times , stonewall penalty denied at New Year match , death of Diana and the postponement of that game at that time.
Click to expand...


Kilmarnock game was 0-1. Ally Mitchell scored deep into injury time.

If we had beaten Kilmarnock on the Saturday it would've given us 72 points. Celtic had 70 points but still had two games left (away to Dunfermline the next day then home to St Johnstone)

They should've won it on the Sunday and were leading with 8 minutes to go only to concede an equaliser to take it to the final day.

At the time there was no guarantee we'd win that final game at Tannadice either. United had beaten us 4 times in our last 7 games. Twice at Ibrox, twice at Tannadice.
 
Am I correct in saying Ally Mitchell is a good Rangers man? Must have felt fucking awful after the match :))
 
Bobby Tait playing 85 mins stoppage time to try and get us a winner only for Ally Mitchell...

I was 8 and had just left the stadium with my dad when he scored. Sigh.
 
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
Old Firm game, possibly New Year and if we won I think we went 7 clear (potentially same as this one?) alas last minute equaliser for them

I think anyway maybe someone with better memories will correct me

But it was 2 bad teams that season it was a game of pass the parcel until one got over the line - them
Click to expand...
That game was November and was the game postponed from August due to the death of Princess Diana. 1 up and Rowbotham desperate to send of Gazza, does so and it ends up 1-1 with last minute goal from Stubbs.
 
Only season I didnt live in Scotland for so was spared the worst of it.
One thing I remember, Smith had signed Amoruso and he got crocked, I didnt see enough games to know if he;d have made a difference but I do wonder.

What I do remember though is for years we were focused on matching their 9. It wasnt really acknowledged either until we got about 7, we always played it down. Obviously in the days before wall to wall media coverage. But that was the big target, ten wasnt really spoken about until we'd done 9.
And I think Im right saying Walter later regretted announcing he was leaving at end of the season, he felt that hadnt helped - not that im slating walter.
It definitely wasnt like, for example, them last year where that was their target all along. It would have been amazing to have done it but we didnt, but we got the nine - if we hadnt done that it would have felt awful after the decade we had
 
Dougied173 said:
My memory of amoruso was that he was well dodgy for his first season (May stand corrected)
Buy as I recall, took him a while to stop making mistakes.
Click to expand...
His debut against Celtic was one of his best games for the club, he came on for an injured Petric.

You could argue Amo never really cut out his mistakes to be fair, but they became less disastrous under big Eck.

He got injured in a friendly IIRC, signed off the back of marking Ronaldo out of a European semi final - after he had verbally agreed Manchester United made a last ditch bid to sign him, offered more money but Amo didn’t want to betray Walter.

The surgeon rangers were using at the time used Amo as a guinea pig for a new style of operation, it went tits up and meant Amo had to get a secondary surgery with a surgeon he trusted.
 
Last edited:
Manhattan_Loyalist said:
Old Firm game, possibly New Year and if we won I think we went 7 clear (potentially same as this one?) alas last minute equaliser for them

I think anyway maybe someone with better memories will correct me

But it was 2 bad teams that season it was a game of pass the parcel until one got over the line - them
Click to expand...
They beat us 2-0 I’m sure in the new year game at the piggery.
 
Sacking Smith in October but having him see the season out played a big part imo. Aligned with the fact that so many players were out of contract, over 30 and leaving at the end of the season too.
 
Ataturk said:
The reigning European champions then signed Scott bloody Booth. Bizarre.
Click to expand...
Didnt realise Booth was at the same time.
I sat next to a rabid aberdeen fan in a class at school, one of those guys who is too into football, total statto. He's probably still a virgin. Anyway, all I really remember from that class is this guy banging on that Scott Booth had a dug called Gizmo. Probably the only thing I remember from that class.
 
erskine bear said:
His debut against Celtic was one of his best games for the club, he came on for an injured Gough IIRC.

You could argue Amo never really cut out his mistakes to be fair, but they became less disastrous under big Eck.

He got injured in a friendly IIRC, signed off the back of marking Ronaldo out of a European semi final - after he had verbally agreed Manchester United made a last ditch bid to sign him, offered more money but Amo didn’t want to betray Walter.

The surgeon rangers were using at the time used Amo as a guinea pig for a new style of operation, it went tits up and meant Amo had to get a secondary surgery with a surgeon he trusted.
Click to expand...
Did Amo not come on for Petric ?
 
Ataturk said:
He barely played. I think it was the SC semi against Celtic in April when he made his debut. He hit the woodwork from 30 yards out.
Click to expand...

When he signed, we were told he was injured with his achilles and a small op would fix it and he'd be ready for the CL qualifiers.

Three operations and nine months later, he finally made his competitive debut.

In his book Amo said the first two surgeries were botched by the same surgeon in London. Rangers wanted to send him back to the same guy a third time and he refused point blank. Ended up going to some guy in Belgium who saved Ruud Gullit's career. Supposedly Amo's achilles was a mess.
 
Ataturk said:
Yes, Lambert scored an absolute belter. That was the first Ne’erday game we’d lost since NIAR started. It was seen as an omen at the time.
Click to expand...
That’s right, Think gumsy scored their other goal, I ended up going on a pub crawl with my stepdad in Baillieston, Ended up in the Swinton pub arguing with another bear while absolutely pished, He ended up phoning me a couple of months later to ask if I wanted to go to Ibrox with him, Against St Johnstone.
 
Plenty of posters have covered the why above, but as an interesting side note Bjorklund had the highest amount of appearances that season.
 
erskine bear said:
I believe the bold Gordan once missed a game with an arm infection. I honestly don’t even know what that means, or how it’s possible.
Click to expand...
I went to a testimonial between Ross County and a Rangers XI in December 1997 (bloody freezing but still utterly thrilling since it was only the second Rangers game I’d ever been to) and the two best players on the park were Barry Ferguson and Gordan Petric.

Though I might have been swayed by the fact that Petric was taller than everyone else.
 
gu_bear said:
Sacking Smith in October but having him see the season out played a big part imo. Aligned with the fact that so many players were out of contract, over 30 and leaving at the end of the season too.
Click to expand...
Was the end of an era. And sadly just a year too far for some.
Laudrup was a shadow of himself.
 
SDF said:
Ended up with someone else's teeth in it after a collision. Elbow went septic.
Click to expand...
I knew that you would know why :))

Ataturk said:
I went to a testimonial between Ross County and a Rangers XI in December 1997 (bloody freezing but still utterly thrilling since it was only the second Rangers game I’d ever been to) and the two best players on the park were Barry Ferguson and Gordan Petric.

Though I might have been swayed by the fact that Petric was taller than everyone else.
Click to expand...
Walter started giving Barry a run of games in 97/98, think he might even have played as many as 10 in a row before dropping points and he was back out the picture.

I suppose you can’t really blame Walter for going with the guys that had done him so well in the previous years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Latest posts

Back
Top