Ibrox favourite Terry to be a part of the same side. How good a player is he? Well, bear in mind that he's now 36-years-old and those matchstick legs of his don't operate quite as quickly as they did in his prime. But the brain is still very active and Arnold's displays with Ajax have earned him a recall to the Dutch national side. I suppose the best compliment I can pay Arnold is that next to former Rangers hero Jim Baxter he has the best left foot I've ever seen on a football field. His x-ray vision set up so many goals for Ipswich, and in particular Scottish striker Alan Brazil, that I've lost count. A free transfer that enabled him to negotiate a lucrative deal with Manchester United was Arnold's reward for four trouble-free years in Suffolk during which he missed just seven of a possible 168 games in the strength-sapping First Division. Yes, quite a player is Arnold and six years ago he helped Ipswich - Terry Butcher and all - to victory in the Amsterdam tournament hosted by his present club which attracted a total audience of 60,000 over two nights. Victories over Ajax by 3-1 and Standard Liege, in the final, by 2-0 earned Ipswich a giant trophy which still sits proudly in the Portman Road boardroom. The fact that Leeds, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool (twice) had all entered the competition in previous years without even progressing beyond the first stage made victory all the sweeter. That same pre-season Ipswich kept their bank manager happy with another cheque drawn on a foreign bank. This time guilders became pesetas after their involvement in the prestigious pre-season tournament hosted by Barcelona at their impressive Nou Camp Stadium. Without the injured Brazil and goalkeeper Paul Cooper, Ipswich lost both their games, 2-0 to Cologne and 2-1 to Brazilian side Vasco da Gama in the third place play-off. Two red-hot soccer nights in front of 140,000 high-temperature Spaniards. Butcher, Muhren and Co. made many new friends in another summertime special in Holland. The year was 1979, the venue Rotterdam and the hosts Feyenoord in a tournament that also featured PSV Eindhoven and RWD Molenbeek. Big Terry was among the goals on this occasion, scoring the second for Ipswich after just four minutes in the opening match against PSV. Final result, 3-1, and on to a final which turned out to be one of the best games of football I've ever seen. I reminisced with the Ibrox skipper recently and he could recall the highlights as if it were yesterday, rather than eight years and hundreds of games ago. It was that kind of game! The teams were level at 4-4 after 90 minutes of pulsating play and just two minutes of extra time remained when the referep punished a tackle by Scottish international John Wark and gave the host club a penalty from which they scored the winner. Action-packed drama, indeed, and remember this was only a pre-season warm-up, although the players and around 70,000 fans treated it like the European Cup Final itself! I could hardly write an article on Terry Butcher and Arnold Muhren without mentioning the pre-season friendly Ipswich played at Ibrox six years ago when the pair starred in a rather one-sided affair. Ipswich paraded the UEFA Cup beforehand to a decidedly mixed reception but by the end of the afternoon the Rangers supporters who had seen their own side outclassed had to applaud their visitors from south of the border. Little did the frustrated faithful realise that Terry would return to Ibrox one day to a hero's welcome and inspire the team to new heights. Yes, it's a funny game football. Here's hoping Butcher, Muhren and all the other international stars on parade this weekend can provide the football feast to whet the appetites for a brand new campaign. RANGERS MATCHDAY MAGAZINE PAGE NINE

AJAX ARCHIEF

Programmaboekjes (vanaf 1934) | 1987 | | pagina 9