The Gers Forum

Many players are called legends but in reality few are the real thing. For those who were lucky enough to see this man play there is no doubt. Jim Baxter or Slim Jim as he was nicknamed joined Rangers from Raith Rovers in June 1960 for a record fee of £17,500 as a 20 year old and for five years set Scottish football alight.

The overview of his career at Rangers will show he played 254 games and scored 24 goals in his two spells at the club. Baxter also won 3 League titles, 3 Scottish cups and 4 League cups with Rangers. Also, 24 of his 34 Scottish International caps came during this time.

It would be easy to set out the statistics of his career with Rangers and leave it at that but this would not capture the essence of the man. Baxter was a player with sublime skills and an educated left foot he strolled about the pitch like a peacock, his arrogance on the park shone through. He knew he was a great footballer and was not afraid to show it.

As a young boy going to Ibrox filled with me with excitement and if Slim Jim was playing it was heightened even more, the joy of watching him taunt opposition players was an experience you never forgot. In his short 5 year first spell with Rangers he gave us the fans a lifetime of memories you would never forget.

Baxter also liked a drink and was known to go out after games with opposition players the most famous of these was probably Puskas of Real Madrid. Rangers had played Madrid in a first round European Cup tie where Puskas had scored the only goal in a one nil win, the story goes that Baxter took him to a pub in Drumchapel where they proceeded to get very drunk.This sums up the man for me he played football like a top concert pianist plays his instrument but also partied hard and often to the extreme.

Slim Jim's first spell at Ibrox started drawing to a close when playing against Rapid Vienna in December 1964 he broke his leg. This put him out of action for 3 months and there are a couple of conflicting stories about what happened. Some say he wanted a move others say he had turned to drink in a big way and Rangers decided to move him on.

So in May 1965 he moved to Sunderland for a fee of £72,500 here he played until 1967 when he moved to Nottingham Forest for £100,000.

During this period he became famous for his play in a Scotland shirt. In 1967 Scotland faced England at Wembley and as the hosts were the reigning world champions this was a big game for Scotland- bigger than normal which is hard to comprehend. Baxter took control that day and though the final score was 3-2 to Scotland it was the manner of the win which left everyone in awe. Baxter made the game his own and while other players wanted to score more against England, Baxter just wanted to take the mickey out of them, with his outrageous flicks and tricks and his famous keepy-uppy with the ball.

Baxter returned to Rangers for his, largely forgettable second spell in 1969 and in December 1970 he hung up his boots for good.

One more fact to ponder about slim Jim was that in 18 appearances against Celtic he was on the losing side only twice.

Sadly Jim Baxter lost his fight for life on the 14th April 2001.He may be gone but he will always live-on my memories as one of the greatest Rangers players ever and also one of the best in the world.

Growing up as young boy Barry Ferguson loved everything to do with Rangers. He was brought-up within the club's inner sanctum and dreamed of one day playing for and captaining the club. Not only did he achieve that but he also skippered his boyhood heroes to a UEFA Cup Final in May 2008. Sadly for Ferguson, his Rangers career was left in ruins in April last year, when along with teammate Allan McGregor and various other squad members, he stayed up all night drinking while on Scotland duty in the wake of a 3-0 drubbing from the Netherlands . The Ibrox pair then found themselves relegated to the subs bench for the following game against Iceland where they further infuriated their club manager, Walter Smith, by appearing to flick ‘v’ signs, apparently towards the Scottish media who had been hounding them during the preceding days. These gestures resulted in controversial life bans being meted out by the Scottish Football Association, while Rangers also fined and suspended the errant duo from the first team.

Barry Ferguson made his first Rangers appearance against Hearts on the 10th of May 1997 under Walter Smith and then made a number of sporadic appearances during the following season; but it was with the arrival of Dick Advocaat in the 1998-99 treble winning side that Ferguson finally was able to become a regular and he soon established himself as a mainstay of the Little General’s new-look side. Barry eventually became Rangers Captain in season 2000/01 after Lorenzo Amoruso was stripped of the armband after a poor start to the season. The intervening years had seen Ferguson make massive strides, competing with Europe’s best midfielders at Champions League level and also winning the Scottish Football Writers Footballer of the Year award for season 1999/2000. Advocaat recognized that he was ready to take the step-up and his rookie skipper appeared to thrive on the new-found responsibility.

When Advocaat left in November 2001 Alex McLeish took over the managerial reigns. Ferguson remained captain of the side as Rangers bit back at a then-dominant Celtic to win a domestic cup double, scoring a memorable free-kick in the 2002 Scottish Cup final, which he followed-up by leading his team to the domestic treble in the 2002/03 season, scoring 18 goals along the way, a tremendous achievement for a central midfielder. That season is regarded by many as Ferguson's best of his career. This also proved to be the final full campaign of his first Ibrox spell because he left for Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £7.5million at the end of August 2003, weeks after signing a new 5-year contract and playing down rumours of a move to Everton and mere days after helping Rangers secure Champions League qualification in Copenhagen.

His time at Blackburn was mixed with highs and lows. Again Ferguson was appointed club captain but he also suffered a career threatening injury when he fractured his kneecap in a match versus Newcastle. Eighteen months after his arrival at Blackburn and amid rumours of interest from his former club, he handed in a transfer request to new manager Mark Hughes, who had recently taken over from the departing Graeme Souness. Hughes was initially reluctant to let his captain move on but eventually acquiesced. Just hours before the transfer window slammed shut, Barry Ferguson was back where he belonged, at Rangers Football Club.

It was disclosed in Ferguson’s autobiography that a fee of just £100,000 was paid due to money which Blackburn owed Rangers from the original transfer south eighteen months previously. Barry made his second debut in the 7-1 League Cup victory over Dundee Utd when he replaced Alex Rae as a 69th minute sub. His first goal since his return came nearly two months later when he scored in the victory over Inverness Caley Thistle on 5th March 2005. Ferguson played a part in the side’s last day title victory, famously known as “Helicopter Sunday” thanks to the helicopter bearing the league trophy having to change direction from its initial destination of Fir Park ,where Celtic suffered a late collapse against a Scott McDonald inspired Motherwell, to Easter Road where Rangers were beating Hibs 1-0.

Ferguson was re-instated as captain by McLeish at the beginning of the following season 2005/06. This proved to be a controversial decision because Fernando Ricksen had been performing very well as deputy for injured club captain Stefan Klos, who had succumbed to knee ligament damage in January 2005; but Ferguson’s leadership qualities were considered too significant to be overlooked. That season was not a good one domestically for Barry, who battled injury problems, or Rangers,who slipped to a disappointing 3rd place finish as Hearts split the Old Firm. There was however the silver lining of a memorable Champions League run, which saw Rangers barely edged out on away goals by a Roman Riquelme-inspired Villareal in an enthralling last-sixteen encounter.

If that season was not a good one for Ferguson then the next was even worse under new manager Paul Le Guen. Ferguson again struggled for fitness, missing the beginning of a season in which Rangers were inconsistent throughout and on the 1st of January 2007, Le Guen stripped Ferguson of the captaincy in the wake of a furious row between skipper and manager, handing the armband to Gavin Rae. Le Guen's reasoning for the decision was that he felt Ferguson had undermined him. Ferguson was also dropped for the next game, which also proved to be Le Guen's last in charge, against Motherwell. Rangers won that game 1-0, with Kris Boyd scoring the only goal and celebrating by holding six fingers up in the air - Ferguson's shirt number - in protest against Le Guen and a sign of support for his friend and teammate. Le Guen resigned on the fourth of January and Ian Durrant took charge for the following Scottish Cup defeat to Dunfermline. Ferguson was restored to the side while Rae retained the armband for the time being.

Walter Smith returned to Ibrox to replace Le Guen, along with Ally McCoist and Kenny McDowall. Smith reinstated Ferguson as captain of the club – but with a stern warning as to his future conduct. Rangers restored a bit of pride and finished 2nd in the league after a good second half of the season, recording home and away wins over Celtic in the process.

Ferguson began the next season by scoring on the opening day against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in a 3-0 victory and also scored in the first Old Firm game of that campaign as well. Ferguson was inspirational throughout the season and provided great experience as Rangers progressed to a first European Cup Final in 36 years, after famously defeating Fiorentina in a dramatic semi-final penalty shoot-out to reach the Uefa Cup Final in Manchester, where Rangers and Ferguson would face Zenit St. Petersburg. Ferguson led the side out on that night but his team were sadly beaten 2-0 by former Rangers manager Dick Advocaat's outfit. Rangers won both the Scottish and League Cups that year but missed out on the league title after losing 2-0 on the final day of the season at Aberdeen, when a win was necessary along with Celtic also needing to surrender points at Tannadice. This was a disappointing conclusion to a memorable campaign for both player and club.

Season 2008-09 again held its highs and lows in store for Ferguson, with the lows being greatly publicised. Although Barry helped Rangers win the league and lifted the SPL trophy for the 5th time of his career, this feat was overshadowed on a personal front by the “boozegate” scandal in which Ferguson and McGregor were suspended by Rangers and banned from selection for the Scottish National team for life. This won't permanently stain Ferguson's great career at Rangers though. If there was ever a man born to captain Rangers, it was Barry Ferguson and when he left Ibrox once again, in summer 2009, he did so as a champion, with newly-appointed skipper, Davie Weir ensuring that Ferguson joined him on the podium in order that they could lift the SPL trophy together.

Ever the controversial figure, Ferguson's final goal for the club also created a stir when he scored against Hearts in a 2-2 draw, cupping his hands to his ears in a gesture which was later claimed to be aimed at his many media critics. Some fans however interpreted this to be disdainful treatment of his own support. In true roller-coaster fashion, Barry's final game for Rangers saw him restored to the starting line-up for the first time since 'Boozegate' as Rangers faced Falkirk in the Homecoming Scottish Cup Final, which the Light Blues duly won to secure the league and cup double. A happy ending for a Rangers legend.