Of all the quotes that can be regurgitated relating to the darker side of Rangers and the imbeciles that have clamped themselves to the Glasgow club seemingly since time began, Ian Archer's musings remain perhaps the most pertinent. It was penned over 30 years ago. "This has to be said about Rangers, as a Scottish football club they are a permanent embarrassment and an occasional disgrace. This country would be a better place if Rangers did not exist," wrote Archer, who latterly worked on the now departed television programme Scotsport, in a Glasgow newspaper.
What was exceptional about Archer's heartfelt words is that they were scribbled down during some of the finer moments in Rangers' history, specifically alluding to a night when they snagged the old European Cup Winners' Cup in Barcelona in 1972 with a 3-2 victory over Dynamo Moscow. As a piece of newspaper prose, it was ahead of its time.