The 2004–05 season was the 125th season of competitive football by Rangers.
Overview Rangers played a total of 51 competitive matches during the 2004–05 season. They went into the season looking to recapture their Scottish Premier League crown, which Celtic had won the season before. Manager Alex McLeish made several summer signings, with the signature of Frenchman Jean-Alain Boumsong being his biggest coup. Others included strikers Dado Prso and Nacho Novo, as well as the experienced midfielder Alex Rae and future Ibrox favourite Marvin Andrews.
Rangers League form began poorly picking up only 8 points from their first 5 matches. Rangers lost the first Old Firm derby of the season 1–0 at Celtic Park and fell behind Celtic in the league. Rangers form improved following the loss to Celtic and they weren't to lose again in the league until April. This run of form included two wins over Celtic in November, once in the League Cup and the other in the League. They also ended a poor run of results at Celtic Park, with a 2–0 victory in February. A 2–1 loss to Celtic at home in April left Rangers five points behind with just four games left of the season. Celtic led by two points on the final day of the season and were winning 1–0 against Motherwell, but two late goals for Motherwell coupled with Rangers 1–0 win over Hibernian saw Rangers win the title, Helicopter Sunday.
Rangers also won the League Cup this season, with a 5–1 victory over Motherwell in the final. Rangers were beaten in the Scottish Cup however, losing 2–1 to Celtic in the third round.
After losing to CSKA Moscow in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, Rangers entered the UEFA Cup. Rangers managed to qualify for the newly formed group stages with a penalty shoot-out win over Maritimo. Rangers failed to progress beyond the group stages however, a 2–0 loss at home to Auxerre seeing them fail to stay in Europe beyond Christmas.
Players
Squad information
Transfers
In
DatePlayerFromFee25 June 2004 Dragan Mladenović Red Star Belgrade £1,000,0001 July 2004 Jean-Alain Boumsong Auxerre Free Dado Pršo AS Monaco Free Alex Rae Wolverhampton Wanderers Free Marvin Andrews Livingston Free6 July 2004 Nacho Novo Dundee £450,0005 August 2004 Grégory Vignal Liverpool Loan18 August 2004 Derek Carcary Queen's Park Free1 January 2005 Bojan Djordjic Manchester United Free5 January 2005 Thomas Buffel Feyenoord £2,300,00020 January 2005 Sotirios Kyrgiakos Panathinaikos £500,000 (on loan)31 January 2005 Ronald Waterreus Manchester City £100,000 Barry Ferguson Blackburn Rovers £4,500,000
Out
DatePlayerToFee3 May 2004 Christian Nerlinger Kaiserslautern Free18 May 2004 Emerson Vasco da Gama Free Nuno Capucho Celta Vigo Free1 June 2004 Henning Berg Retired Michael Mols FC Utrecht Free Ronald de Boer Al Rayyan Free Billy Gibson Partick Thistle Free23 June 2004 Frank de Boer Al Rayyan Free25 June 2004 Darryl Duffy Falkirk Free7 July 2004 Steven MacLean Sheffield Wednesday £125,0008 July 2004 Peter Leven Kilmarnock Free10 July 2004 Mikel Arteta Real Sociedad £2,600,00013 July 2004 Paul McHale Cowdenbeath Free26 July 2004 Andy Dowie Partick Thistle Free11 August 2004 Allan McGregor St Johnstone Loan31 August 2004 Charlie Adam Ross County Loan31 August 2004 Tom Brighton Scunthorpe United Loan2 January 2005 Jean-Alain Boumsong Newcastle United £8,000,0003 January 2005 Craig Moore Borussia Mönchengladbach Free18 January 2005 Paolo Vanoli Vicenza Free20 January 2005 Bajram Fetai Inverness Caledonian Thistle Loan31 January 2005 Stephen Hughes Leicester City £250,00011 February 2005 Dragan Mladenović Real Sociedad Loan
Expenditure: £8,950,000 Income: £10,975,000 Total loss/gain: £2,025,000
Squad statistics
Disciplinary record
Club
Board of directors
Coaching staff
Other staff
Matches Friendlies
Scottish Premier League
Scottish League Cup
Scottish Cup
UEFA Champions League
UEFA Cup
Competitions
Overall
Scottish Premier League
Standings
UEFA Cup table
References