1996–97 Rangers F.C. season
season of football team
The 1996–97 season was the 117th season of competitive football by Rangers.
Overview
Rangers played a total of 52 competitive matches during the 1996–97 season. The team finished first in the Scottish Premier Division and won its ninth consecutive league title, equalling the long-standing record of their rivals Celtic
In the cup competitions, the team won the Scottish League Cup beating Heart of Midlothian 4–3 in the final. Rangers were knocked out the Scottish Cup by Celtic at the quarter-final stage, losing 2–0.
The side reached the group stages of the UEFA Champions League this season and were drawn into a group with Grasshopper, Auxerre and Ajax.
Between July and March, manager Walter Smith spent almost £10 million on new signings Jörg Albertz, Joachim Björklund and Sebastián Rozental.
Due to the mounting injuries in the second half of the season, striker Mark Hateley briefly returned to the club from Queens Park Rangers. Manchester City goalkeeper Andy Dibble joined on a free transfer as cover for the injured Andy Goram.
Transfers
In
Out
Expenditure: £9,800,000
Income: £200,000
Total loss/gain: £9,600,000
Results
All results are written with Rangers' score first.
The public source identifies “1996–97 Rangers F.C. season” as season of football team. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Rangers, season and football.
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This entry incorporates text from “1996–97 Rangers F.C. season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.