Antonio Colak tells Rangers he cost them £40m but sacking Gio could have cost them more

Comb through the list of people responsible for the current mess Rangers find themselves and you’ll notice in amongst the ranks of ineffective execs, dithering directors and blundering bosses the name of a certain Antonio Colak.

The Croatian was, of course, once on the Light Blues’ books. But the damage he caused wasn’t done during his 12-month stint as an Ibrox striker. Instead, you can trace a good deal of the club’s troubles back to the devastating double Colak blasted for Malmo as the 10-man Swede’s dumped Steven Gerrard’s Gers out of the Champions League back in August 2021.

That result saw a £40million windfall slip through Rangers fingers and so set in motion the nightmare events that have followed since. But Colak still believes the club he joined a year later could have saved themselves a good deal of bother had they stuck by the man who signed him.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst returned to Glasgow three months after that Malmo defeat to lead Rangers on a continental thrill ride as they stormed to the Europa League final and the group stages of the Champions League. But as life among the Euro elite began to bite into their Premiership form, the Gers board felt compelled to act and so began their “rise and repeat” cycle of hiring and firing managers.

“For me, Gio was a top coach,” Colak told Record Sport. “He brought me in and I had such a good relationship with him. I paid back his trust with goals. And he got results. He took the team to the Europa League final, won the Scottish Cup - and he took us back to the Champions League.

“Of course, then we had a period where we had a lot of injured players. If you want to survive in the Champions League, you need quality players. It was difficult to maintain the quality in