Alex McLeish's adventurous approach to transfers almost led to the temporary acquisition of one of the world's greatest modern players. Graham Hunter's Barca book again confirms how Rangers almost pulled off the coup. The club tasked Jan Wouters with asking Frank Rijkaard if Barcelona had any youngsters they might want to send out on loan. The assistant spoke to his opposite number at Barca, who suggested Lionel Messi, who was already growing reputation in Europe:
Ten Cate and Jan Wouters had chats about us taking Messi on loan, but the guidance from Henk was that he was probably too young and possibly too slight to get benefit from Scottish football. Our view was that Barca were probably hedging their bets at the time. Even then, they knew how good he was and they must have thought that letting him go to British football might be a risk because of the tough tackling and the physicality, but they were also obviously unsure about how quickly he might actually make the Barca first team. We caught them just in the middle of that process of working out what they wanted to do with Messi, but during the discussions Henk said to Jan that we should do ourselves a favour and take Iniesta on loan instead."
At the time the potential loan also came to the attention of Sky Sports, but ultimately the concerns of the physical nature of the league meant Rangers missed out on the chance of a phenomenal season with Argentinian at the head of their attack. Which other Rangers missed opportunities do you think should have made this list? Share your thoughts below in the comments.
