JUST IN: Cost £6.5m, left for £500k: Rangers had a shocker on one Ibrox dud who paid to play

The way Glasgow Rangers have changed since the middle of October has been extraordinary.

After just five months, Philippe Clement has brought life to a club that under Michael Beale was fading away. The Gers are now in the running for the Premiership title, have won the League Cup, and have secured a matchup with Benfica in the Europa League final sixteen.

Not a bad start by the Belgian it has to be said, but the season still has a long way to go, especially as Celtic won’t be relinquishing their grip on the league title without a massive fight.

What is even more remarkable is how Clement has got the Ibrox side into a position like this, having inherited a side from Beale that featured players who had cost lavish sums of money.

Sam Lammers has already moved on loan to FC Utrecht for the rest of the season, Danilo has played just 21 times due to a couple of injuries, while Cyriel Dessers is only now beginning to prove that he can be a key member of the squad after a rough start.

These three players cost the Light Blues €14.8m (£12.6m) in 2023, yet they were not the first players to join the club for extravagant fees and failed to showcase their true abilities.

Indeed, it has been happening for years, with one of the most notable examples being that of Michael Ball, who became one of the club’s record signings when he arrived in 2001.

What Rangers paid for Michael Ball

Under Dick Advocaat, Rangers had won five out of the six domestic trophies available to them during the 1998/99 and 1999/00 seasons as the club returned to the summit of Scottish football.

Martin O’Neil joined Celtic in 2000 and he lifted a club that was on its knees. They secured their own domestic treble during 2000/01, with Rangers faltering behind.

Prior to the following season, the Dutchman knew he had to recruit to challenge the Parkhead outfit and this saw him splash out on a few players. The likes of Shota Arveladze, Christian Nerlinger and Claudio Caniggia were all signed; however, it was Ball in which the most amount of money was spent.

The left-back joined the Gers from Everton in a in a deal worth around 6.5m, which at the time, was the second-highest fee the club had paid for a player, and it looked like that position would be sorted for the foreseeable future.

Aged just 21 when he signed, the Englishman had a wonderful future ahead of him if he steered clear of injuries, but these would ultimately be his demise once he joined the Glasgow side more than 20 years ago.

Michael Ball’s Rangers statistics

The defender didn’t actually make his debut for the Ibrox side until October 2001 due to injury and Advocaat once he signed, saying:

“The player won’t play for six to eight weeks because we don’t want to take a gamble but in the longer term there is no risk at all.”

Ball ended up playing just nine times during his debut season in Scotland, scoring once in a UEFA Cup tie, and it looked as though they had overspent massively on the former Everton starlet.

Ambition was high ahead of the 2002/03 season as Alex McLeish had led the club to a domestic cup double in the final few months of the season prior, yet Ball would suffer more agony, missing the entirety of the treble-winning campaign.

The left-back had missed out on winning five trophies due to his injury problems, yet he showed a keen willingness to make things happen at Rangers as he recovered during the 2003/04 season, yet this was their worst in a while, finishing without a trophy for the first time in three years.

finally saw him win a league title with the Gers, but he was sold by McLeish towards the end of the summer transfer window in 2005 to PSV Eindhoven as he ended his nightmare stint north of the border.

Why Michael Ball paid to play at Rangers

When the Gers were in negotiations with Everton about his transfer, a clause was inserted into his contract which meant the Ibrox side had to pay the Toffees £500k-a-game following Ball’s 60th appearance for the club.

Due to the dire financial situation at the time, the club were unwilling to do this, and it meant the defender spent perhaps more time on the sidelines than he deserved.

“I remember it was a match at Ibrox when the gaffer Alex McLeish said the chairman wanted to see me – that’s when he put the idea to me. Alex asked how it went, and I was still a little bit shocked about what had just happened. I had agreed to pay £4000 every time I played so they could pay Everton.

“I wasn’t sure if I had got it right. We had a bit of a chuckle about it and later that day I came on as a sub with a few minutes left. I remember thinking ‘that’s just cost me four grand’!”

If it weren’t for injuries and this dispute regarding his contract, Ball could have starred for the club during an era which yielded seven trophies.

Football Remind

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