The 2000–01 season was the 121st season of competitive
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
by
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...
.
Overview
Rangers played a total of 56 competitive matches during the 2000–01 season.
Rangers went into the season looking to clinch a third consecutive
Scottish Premier League
The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...
title, as well as trying to successfully defend the
Scottish Cup, win the
League Cup and make an impact in the
UEFA Champions League. Despite further heavy investment in the team, which included paying a record 12 million pound fee for striker
Tore Andre Flo
Tore is a Scandinavian masculine name. It is derived from the Old Norse name ''Thórir'', which is composed of ''thorr'' which means thunder, and ''arr'' which means warrior. So Thunder Warrior or Thor's Warrior. The most famous person by this nam ...
in November, Rangers were unable to win the title and finished the season without winning any trophies.
Despite a good start to the season, a 6–2 loss against
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
in the first
Old Firm derby saw the beginning of inconsistent league form for Rangers throughout the rest of the season, including a 3–0 loss at home to
Kilmarnock
Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...
. The loss to Kilmarnock brought a conflict between club captain
Lorenzo Amoruso and manager
Dick Advocaat to a head, resulting in Amoruso being stripped of the captaincy and 22-year-old
Barry Ferguson being given the arm band. A 5–1 victory over Celtic in November gave hope for revival but Rangers were unable to put up any serious challenge and finished the season 15 points off top spot.
In the domestic cup competitions Rangers lost 3–1 to Celtic in the semi-finals of the League Cup and also surrendered their Scottish Cup crown with a 1–0 loss away to
Dundee Utd
Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. The club name is usually abbreviated to Dundee United. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club c ...
.
In Europe, Rangers qualified for the group stages of the
UEFA Champions League for the second consecutive time after two qualifying rounds and were drawn alongside
Sturm Graz,
Galatasaray and
AS Monaco. Rangers made a good start to the group with six points from two matches, including a 5–0 win at home to Sturm Graz and 1–0 win away to Monaco. However, they only picked up two points from the remaining four games and failed to qualify for the next phase of the competition, finishing third and therefore dropping into the
UEFA Cup. The last match at home to Monaco saw Rangers leading 2-1 which would have seen them go through but a late Monaco goal denied Rangers a place in the next round. In the UEFA Cup Rangers drew
Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern (; Palatinate German: ''Lautre'') is a city in southwest Germany, located in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate at the edge of the Palatinate Forest. The historic centre dates to the 9th century. It is from Paris, from Frankfur ...
and despite winning the first leg 1–0 at home, they exited European competition before Christmas after a 3–0 loss in Germany.
Transfers
In
Out
*Expendure: £31,350,000
*Income: £4,500,000
*Total loss/gain: £26,850,000
Matches
All results are written with Rangers' score first.
Scottish Premier League
Scottish League Cup
Scottish Cup
UEFA Champions League
UEFA Cup
Friendlies
Appearances
''List of squad players, including number of appearances by competition''
Competitions
Overall
League table
Champions League table
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2000-01 Rangers F.C. season
Rangers F.C. seasons
Rangers
A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to:
* Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...