YOU'D be forgiven for not being familiar with Lee Feeney and his time at Ibrox.
As Dick Advocaat was splashing the cash bringing in superstars and World Cup winners during his first season as Rangers boss, the little known Ulsterman also sealed his dream move to his boyhood heroes.
Big things were expected of the 20-year-old who was lightening up the Irish league when he put pen to paper in December 1998, arriving from Linfield for a fee of £100,000.
However, his next three years at the Light Blues would yield just one substitute appearance for the first team.
Feeney says his three-and-a-half-year spell is one of frustration and littered with regrets.
Like many young lads from across the Irish Sea, Feeney dreamed of pulling on the light blue jersey.
“Unfortunately in this country you’re either blue or green,” he recalls.
“When you meet anyone on the street at a younger age when we were growing up and you didn’t know them you actually asked them, ‘Are you blue or green?’ Thankfully times have changed now.
“I’d been over a few times with my parents and my football clubs so I’d always followed them.
“I had the kits like most other kids. At Christmas time you were waking up to a Rangers kit so I’ve always had an interest in them.”
Despite arriving during Advocaat’s reign, Feeney was on the radar well before the Dutchman took charge with Walter Smith keeping a close eye on the youngster's progress.
After being scouted by a host of clubs Feeney was presented with several tempting offers.
“Everton came in because Walter Smith originally started the scouting process with me at Rangers," he admits.
“He followed it through at Everton so they had approached, David Moyes at Preston had approached and Danny Wilson at Sheffield Wednesday.
“When it was decision time I sat down with the manager at Linfield and he said to me, ‘I’m not going to tell you what offers were made because there’s no point, I don’t care who you go to, I’m not going to tell you to go to the highest offer, I want you to be happy.’
“So I sat down with my dad and tried to put our heads together and obviously the interest and me supporting Rangers and following them all my life was a big swaying factor but the other one was, at that time, you had to have two under 21s in your first team squad every week so that was a big pulling power as well, I went over there with high hopes of trying to be in the squad, at least every week, as one of the under 21s.
“I was delighted with the choice I made.”
Despite not having an agent at the time, Feeney put his trust in his dad to help him negotiate his deal.
Unbeknown to him, Advocaat and his dad had played against each other in America, which would not be good news for a hungry playing squad.
“I remember going into the stadium and the big marble hall and my dad looking around and going, ‘Phwoar, I’ve always wanted to be through these doors!’
“Everyone has because as a supporter, you’re standing at the entrance watching the players going in wondering what’s behind the doors.
“But he was delighted to get the opportunity to do that. We did the tour and went upstairs and sat in the room with Dick Advocaat to negotiate the contract.
“Advocaat was on the phone to someone just before we went in and I think he was trying to do other deals but we’d came in and it was before they went for dinner.
“Now, I realised this afterwards because when I signed, after training Advocaat would go into his office and the rest of the boys would go up, get showered and changed and go upstairs to sit in the Cooper Suite waiting to get their dinner served, this was before Murray Park.
“The players get their dinner put out before them but you’re not allowed to eat it until Dick comes down and he sits there and gives you the wee nod and then you can eat.
“What happened was, obviously Dick Advocaat was in between training and lunch so he and my dad got into a conversation about the MLS.
“The two of them just hit it off straight away, we were only meant to be in there maybe 20/30 minutes but we were in there for near enough an hour, them two talking about the MLS in the 80s and injuries and stuff that they had.
“So I can only picture the players sitting thinking, ‘When’s he coming?’ Them sitting with their pasta and Bolognese sitting in front of them freezing.”
Despite not being present, former chairman David Murray would congratulate Feeney on his move from down under.
“When I did sign, I walked outside and within two minutes Advocaat called me back into the office and it was a phone call from David Murray from Australia which was very, very thoughtful, welcoming me on board, congratulating me. Things like that, for such a big, big, big club they can touch people and they can make you feel warm and welcome.”
Despite walking into a dressing room littered with internationals, Feeney says he wasn’t daunted, a personality trait that would prove detrimental to his Ibrox career in the end.
“Rangers had a lot of superstars when I went over, I think one of the first ones I met was Andrei Kanchelskis who I grew up watching playing for Man United," he recalls.
“But I wasn’t overawed, the thing with me was I was very laid back. I played football like I was playing it in the street, I never ever thought too much more into it.
“I never got fazed, I rarely got nervous or excited, even when I scored goals I didn’t really jump about.
“I’m managing now as well and I still don’t have that personality where I celebrate a goal until the whistle’s gone.”
One of Feeney’s first involvements with the team was taking part in a winter training camp in Florida where he would net his first Rangers goal and receive his first grilling from the manager.
“I can remember warming up and in the Irish league, if you were a sub the manager would’ve told you to go and warm up, it didn’t mean you were coming on but you maybe warmed up for five/ten minutes then came back into the dugout.
“Dick Advocaat told me to warm up, I think we were playing a match behind closed doors against USA at the time. I was warming up and I came back after about five minutes.
“About 20 minutes later Advocaat says to Bert van Lingen, ‘Go and get Feeney’, and they looked down the line and they couldn’t see me.
“I was sitting back in the dugout, they said, ‘Why are you back in there? You don’t come back until you’re told to come back!’
“I also remember playing against Atletico Mineiro, it went to penalties in the Orange Bowl.
“John Greig just grabbed me and went, ‘You’re hitting a penalty’. My nappy filled up!
“I said, ‘Right, right, right’, and he tells Advocaat, ‘He’s hitting one’, and Advocaat goes, ‘Good.’
“Fair play to John Greig when you think about it, there was nothing to lose, me hitting a penalty in a friendly in my first couple of weeks, it’s not the most important penalty I’m going to hit.
“He was pushing me and trying to take me out of my comfort zone and out of my shell so that was good too.
“Dick had good people around him as in John Greig who’s been there for generations and that was another great face to see around the club.
“I did score my penalty so that’s a moment. They can’t take that away from me.”
Not long after, Feeney would make his first and only appearance for the senior side.
He would replace Charlie Miller during a 4-0 rout of Dundee at Dens Park but Feeney’s memory of such a momentous occasion in his career is a little clouded.
“My debut at Dundee, I can’t remember it.
“The only remember a couple of things. One was overkicking a ball to Rod Wallace. I drilled it at him and he took a great touch. It was a bad pass from me, I overhit it, I sort of hit it with too much tempo and he took a great touch to keep it in play. The other was a moment JJ [Jonatan Johansson] should’ve squared it and I would’ve had a chance to score but that’s the only thing I remember. I don’t remember coming on, I don’t remember being in the changing room or anything. It’s a shame.”
A shame it most certainly is as Feeney would endure an injury-hit spell that affected him mentally and subsequently killed off his Rangers career before it had really begun.
“After I made my debut I went to Chile for a tournament with the under 21s.
“It was a great experience, we were playing in the Colo Colo stadium, it was their tournament and I got injured after about 40 minutes. I was really enjoying the game, playing really, really well against Feyenoord and I pulled my calf muscle and the doctors and physios were putting it down to coming from part-time football to full-time.
“That calf muscle I pulled had me out for a long, long time at a very important time when I was starting to peak and go well.
“After being in and around the first team, that set me back about three months and in between then, Advocaat had signed Claudio Reyna and a few others came in and I was struggling.
“I never had the push and drive in me to try and be better.”
Feeney’s laid back attitude would come back to haunt him as he drifted further away from the first-team squad.
“I’ve had loads of regrets when I left Rangers. I should’ve played more games with the ability I had and that was all down to me, it wasn’t down to not getting a chance or not getting opportunities.
“My mentality maybe didn’t match my ability and my hunger and I don’t think football was important enough to me at that stage. Again, I’m a laid back character and I never really pushed myself or drove myself to maybe aspire to what I should’ve been and that’s a big regret for me. I think my personality was a problem for me.
“I don’t mean to be big-headed or anything but when I look around me, the ability I had was fantastic and it’s a shame I couldn’t live up to that expectation."
Despite not getting a look in, Feeney says he was living the dream by being in and around the club he idolised growing up.
“You looked forward to going in every day, again if you’re a supporter and you grew up with Rangers, you’re pinching yourself every day going in.
“Dick Advocaat and Bert van Lingen were great with the kids, they never put you under pressure. You have to obviously respect everything they demand from you at the club but they never walked past you, they never ignored you, they made everyone feel welcome.
“We were all rammed into Ibrox, you had the seniors and you had the reserves and the under 18s all in the same area so you can’t avoid each other which was good because a lot of the seniors were taking time with the younger ones and talking to them.
“Some of the young ones who were there when I was there have all went on to do well for themselves, maybe not at Rangers, but going and playing at other clubs.
“I’m thinking off the top of my head: Steven McLean, Stephen Dobbie, Maurice Ross, Bob Malcolm, Stephen Hughes, Charlie Adam.
“All these boys maybe didn’t make a name for themselves at Rangers but went on to do well at other places because of maybe listening to the boys who’ve been there so you can’t underestimate that.”
In 2001, Rangers linked up with Australian outfit Northern Spirit and Feeney was the first player to turn out for the A-League side.
Again, injury curtailed his experience down under.
“We went over to Sydney for a tour and it was pre-arranged between Rangers and Northern Spirit for me to be the first player to go on loan.
“We were playing against the Australian national team under 21s with the Rangers under 21s and I dislocated and shattered my elbow so if there was anyone they didn’t want it to happen to it was me because I was the one who was going on loan to them.
“I was in the hospital for a couple of days and they came up to me and said, ‘Look, Lee here’s your options, you can go home, do your rehab, it’ll take you five to six months or you can stay in Australia and it’ll take you three months’, so I said, ‘I suppose I’ll have to come to Sydney then and do it’.
“The rehab would’ve been quicker in Australia because of the specialist, he was the Wallabies rugby doctor who was sorting mine out, he was a specialist in joints so, to be fair, I’ve had no problems with my elbows since, they did a fantastic job but it was a mess at the time, I had six or seven steel pins in it.”
As Feeney returned to Ibrox, Advocaat had moved on and Alex McLeish was at the helm.
Despite a change in management, there would be no fresh start for the Northern Irishman.
“Alex came in halfway through the final year of my contract and he already had his mind made up.
“He called me in and said to me that’s where I stood. Respect to him because it gave me time to go and try and find something else and obviously if I could change his mind I was going to try and do that but it didn’t really work out for me.
“He didn’t have as much money as Dick Advocaat and he had to get rid of some so-called deadwood and bring in his own type of players. So full respect to that, he had his job to do.”
Feeney would depart on a free in the summer of 2002, returning to former club Linfield and playing out the rest of his career in his homeland.
Looking back, he admits he would do things differently if given the opportunity again.
“Absolutely, I have no regrets saying that either, I’ve said it loads of times.
“I’d be in the gym, I’d be trying to be the last one off the park. I would make sure, when I was training and in everything I was doing, that I would be aware of the rewards at the end of it. Just have it in my head to drive myself and that you’re going to get rewarded here - you’re going to be playing every week, make loads of money, go and win trophies.
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“Look at Cristiano Ronaldo, 36 and still making big moves. £500,000 a week because he was so mentally driven and nothing was getting in his way. I would never be at that level in terms of mentality but I would’ve been trying my best to make sure that when I walked away it wasn’t through lack of hard work.”
Feeney cites current Gers midfielder Steven Davis as the sort of player he should’ve aspired to be like.
“Davo’s a legend over here and I know Stevie Gerrard thinks a lot of him. Again he’s someone who’s a great professional. Everything he does he puts thought into.
"He plays with his brain too which is a big thing with players who can last a long time and he’s got Gary McAllister there who could be Davo’s role model. He played a lot of football till a late age and it’s how you handle yourself off the pitch that’s very, very important. You’re only on the training ground an hour and a half every day so the other 22 hours, it’s what you do that can make an impact on how you play your football and how long you play for. Good on Davo, I hope he lasts for another couple of years yet.”
His playing days may be well and truly behind him but Feeney's love for Rangers is still as strong as ever and his passion for the club has rubbed off on the younger members of the Feeney household.
“I wouldn’t go over on my own, I would take the wee man with me, Harry, he’s a fanatic.
“I want him to experience it, I’ve seen it all and everything else. I went over twice two seasons ago, Bayer Leverkusen and the Old Firm when we got beat 2-0 so that’s the only two games he’s been to and he’s been defeated in both of them so I’ll just keep bringing him until he gets a win.”
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