In a sense, whilst Daniel Prodan couldn't realistically play any matches, a portion of Rangers fans must have wished that Michael Ball had some sort of clause in his professional football license which dictated he wasn't allowed to sign for their club. It took no less than £6 million to convince Everton to sell Ball to the Teddy Bears, and Rangers would only later recoup £500,000 from PSV Eindhoven for the defender. In 55 games, Michael Ball neither looked like a £6 million left-back nor carried himself as one. During his first taste of the Old Firm derby against Celtic in 2001, the defender swore at then-boss Dick Advocaat, resulting in a £10,000 fine for his trouble. Only scoring once during his Rangers career, this was a case of money being thrown down the drain. A major bug-bear for many Rangers fans was that the clubs new Murray Park training hub was supposed to be creating players better (or at least as good as) Ball, but that strategy was ignored in favour of paying over the odds for someone just because they happened to play in the English Premier League. What a waste of cash!
