The transfer window may be closed for now but with Rangers looking set to appoint Russell Martin as Head Coach rumours are swirling about a possible return for an ex-Ranger from his former club Southampton.
Joe Aribo first joined Rangers from Charlton Athletic in the summer of 2019 under Steven Gerrard for a compensation fee before leaving in 2022 for the Saints after winning a league title in 2021 and the Scottish Cup in 2022 as well as netting our goal in the UEFA Europa League final that year.
Will Joe return? Time will tell. Let’s look at the history of Rangers players returning for a second bite of the Ibrox apple?
Kyle Lafferty
Joined Rangers first time round from Burnley in the summer of 2008 for a fee of just over £3m.
He initially struggled for game time up front with Rangers having lots of options at the time including Kris Boyd, Kenny Miller (more on them later), Jean-Claude Darcheville, Nacho Novo and Steven Naismith but managed to carve a place in Walter Smith’s side on the left wing.
His first spell would be a success with 3 league winning medals, and 3 cup triumphs for the 89 times capped Northern Irishman along with 38 goals in 138 games before he moved on to Swiss side Sion in 2012.
An up and down career followed with spells at Palermo, Norwich, Birmingham and Turkish side Çaykur Rizespor before he returned to Scotland with Hearts. He would become a fan favourite at Tynecastle with excellent performances especially against Celtic earned him his dream move back to Ibrox.
His second spell would start well, with a double against Motherwell on his second debut and a goal away against Villareal in Rangers return to the Europa League group stage. He would miss out on the League Cup semi-final defeat to Aberdeen and go on a long goal drought before netting away to Hamilton in February.
Would be removed from the first team due to a poor attitude in a friendly and released in the summer of 2019 by Steven Gerrard and Lafferty, who worked so hard to get back to Ibrox will feel he let himself down in his return.
Richard Gough
Goughy left Rangers in the summer of 1997 after captaining the side to 9-in-a-row, feeling he was on the decline and moved to the MLS to see out his career at a less demanding level.
However, a defensive injury crisis early in the following season saw Walter Smith send out an SOS to his skipper who was back at Ibrox by October. He made his second debut in a 7-0 victory over Dunfermline just prior to Halloween and would score the winner in his Old Firm return in November as Rangers beat Celtic 1-0 at Ibrox.
Age seemed to have caught up with the former Dundee United and Spurs man however as Rangers leaked goals throughout the rest of the season, losing the title to Celtic for the first time since 1988 and falling short in the Scottish Cup final to Hearts in what would be a swansong for a lot of Rangers legendary, but aging team.
Would return to America again in 1998 but would once again answer a Walter Smith SOS and see out his career proving doubters wrong with Everton in the English Premiership.
Trevor Steven
Joined the ‘Souness Revolution’ from Everton for £1.5m in 1989 and was a wonderful signing first time round for Rangers and would be almost ever present across his initial 2 years at Ibrox, forming an impressive partnership with fellow Englishman Gary Stevens on the right flank before moving to big spending Marseille for a deal meant to be worth what was at the time a whopping £5.5m move.
Financial troubles hit the French side, and Rangers made an agreement to bring back Steven for just £2.2m in the summer of 1991.
He would start well again second time round being an integral part of the Rangers side which won the treble in 1992/93, came a goal away from the inaugural Champions League final and went on a 44-game unbeaten run in all competitions.
Injuries would restrict his minutes in the following years, but Steven would remain at Ibrox until 1997 providing small contributions as Rangers won 9-in-a-row before retiring.
Craig Moore
The Aussie initially joined Rangers under Walter Smith in 1993 but would have to wait until 1994 to get into the first team picture. A centre-back by trade Smith would utilise Moore as a utility man, with the Australian international playing everywhere across the defence and midfield across his initial 5-year stint at Ibrox.
Would be shipped out to Crystal Palace by Dick Advocaat to make space for Colin Hendry in his new-look Rangers side in the September of 1998 but would return only 6 months later in March of 1999 and help secure Rangers treble.
He would win further titles in 1999 and 2003 along with numerous cups and would be captain for a spell following Barry Ferguson’s departure to Blackburn in 2003 but would fallout with manager Alex McLeish after choosing to represent Australia at the 2004 Olympic Games over joining Rangers for the start of their league season.
Would hang around until the January of 2005 where he would depart for Advocaat’s new side Borussia Mönchengladbach on a free transfer. An excellent servant across 12 years but Moore really established himself as a Ranger in his second stint.
Derek Johnstone
Scored the winner against Celtic in the 1970 League Cup final at just 16 and would win 14 honours in his first spell at Ibrox, including the 1972 European Cup Winner’s Cup.
Johnstone was strong, powerful and a menace for defenders and would score 219 goals in his first spell, a stat even more impressive when you consider he filled in at centre-back for periods of his time at Ibrox.
Rangers fortunes would dip in the early 80’s and Johnstone would leave for Chelsea in 1983 but would only feature four times across two seasons for the Blues.
Following a short, but relatively successful loan stint at Dundee United he would return to Ibrox in 1984, reuniting with former gaffer Jock Wallace, but his second stint would be a disaster for both club and player with the forward only netting once in 23 games before being released by Souness in the summer of 1986 effectively ending his playing career at just 32.
Allan McGregor
Like Johnstone, the keeper is a product of Rangers youth academy, breaking into the first team picture in 1998/99, when at just 16 he made the bench for several fixtures.
He would need to wait until February 2002 to come off the bench for his first team bow in a Scottish Cup victory over Forfar Athletic and would make his league debut and first start in April of the same year against Aberdeen at Ibrox and of course kept a clean sheet.
He would be backup to Stefan Klos as Rangers won the treble in 2003 before consecutive successful loan spells at St. Johnstone and Dunfermline over the next two years. He would return to Ibrox to challenge the injury hit Klos and new signing Lionel Letizi under new manager Paul Le Guen in 2006.
McGregor would grow frustrated as despite being error ridden the French stopper would remain Le Guen’s first choice but eventually McGregor’s shot stopping qualities shone through and he made the jersey his own and solidified his status as first choice under the returning Walter Smith.
Would remain first choice other than a short sell post ‘boozegate’ where he dropped out for Neil Alexander, before joining Turkish side Besiktas in 2012.
He would be the second signing for the Steven Gerrard era in summer 2018 when he rejoined from Hull City and immediately reclaimed his number 1 jersey from Wes Foderingham.
He would show why straight away with stunning saves against Osijek, Maribor and Ufa to help Rangers progress through every qualifying round to make the Europa League group stages and produced a classically outstanding performance in a close 1-0 defeat at Celtic Park.
He would have his moments of madness receiving red cards against Hibernian and Aberdeen for kick outs at opponents and was never shy about making his displeasure known to both referees and his own defenders at times.
Would continue to produce massive performances over the next two seasons with a duo of penalty saves against Celtic to take his total record against them to 4 saves against 8 penalties.
He would win another league medal in 2021, a Scottish Cup in 2022 (his first for the club) and reach a European final in 2022 having missed the 2008 UEFA Cup final through injury.
He would start the 2021/22 season in good form but following an error against Hearts in an October 1-1 draw his domestic form would begin to deteriorate despite some excellent showings in the Europa League,
He would begin the 2022/23 season as second choice behind John McLaughlin but following successive 4-0 defeats to Celtic and Ajax with the former Hearts keeper at fault he would be reintroduced to the first XI against Napoli in a 3-0 Champions League defeat but would produce another excellent penalty save, only for the kick to be retaken due to an obstruction, before saving the second attempt again!
He would lose his place to Robbie McCrorie after Celtic confirmed the league title as Rangers went trophyless in McGregor’s final season and he retired aged 41.
Potentially the greatest Rangers goalkeeper of all time, 505 appearances across two spells and would have undoubtedly made it close to the record had financial issues not hit Ibrox. The only complaint with McGregor would be that he maybe went on just one season too long.
Jimmy Baxter
An older entry to this list James ‘Jimmy’ Baxter was one of the greatest players of his generation. He played for Rangers from 1960 when he signed from Raith Rovers until 1965 when he left for Sunderland having won 10 trophies at Ibrox.
He had an incredible Old Firm record with only two defeats in 18 but a serious injury against Rapid Vienna in December 1964 robbed him, and the Rangers support of a great talent.
He would return to Ibrox in 1969 but only made a handful of appearances in his second stint as injuries caught up with ‘Slim Jim’ and he retired aged only 31 in 1970.
He sadly passed away in 2001 but his first spell at Ibrox has went down in history for the skill and talent he showed to the Ibrox faithful, and he is immortalised in the Rangers song ‘Wolverhampton Town’.
Kris Boyd
Signed from Kilmarnock in January 2005, Kris Boyd started his first spell with Rangers with a hat-trick and he would continue to score goal after goal after goal for the next 5 and a half years at Ibrox.
He would depart on a free transfer to Middlesbrough amid Rangers financial troubles in the summer of 2010 after an immense 128 goals in 191 games with 2 SPL medals, 2 Scottish Cup medals, 2 League Cup medals and an appearance in the 2008 UEFA Cup final.
The fastest man to ever score 50 goals for Rangers would return to a very different looking Rangers in 2014, with the side now in the Scottish Championship. Boyd was brought in to reunite with former strike partner Kenny Miller and would start well grabbing a hat-trick against Clyde and a double against Queen’s Park both in August.
However, only 4 more goals would follow in 2014 and following New Year he would only score once in the second half of the season as Rangers fell to an embarrassing 3rd place finish and playoff final defeat before his release in the summer.
To sum up how bad this season was for Rangers his measly 10 goals still left him as second top scorer for the club.
He scored 22 goals the season prior to his return to Rangers for Kilmarnock and after returning to Rugby Park for his third spell at the Ayrshire club he would be the Premiership’s top scorer again in 2017/18 before retiring in 2019.
Boyd looked the perfect signing but his fitness and professionalism let him down and showed just how good Walter’s man management must have been in his first spell to keep him in the form he had been in.
Mark Hateley
A super player for Rangers in his first spell, forming the club’s greatest ever striking partnership with record scorer Ally McCoist, he scored 112 goals in 218 games from 1990 until 1996 winning the league every year at the club with multiple European and Old Firm goals.
Rangers would let Hateley, by then almost 34 depart in 1995 at the beginning of their 8-in-a-row campaign.
The following season as they went for their record equalling 9th title in a row, Rangers suffered an injury crisis that forced Walter Smith into signing a goalkeeper in Andy Dibble and a centre-forward ahead of a crunch Old Firm match at Parkhead in March of 1997 and he went for a man who he knew the Celtic fans, and defence feared, a man who had scored 9 goals against them in the past, a man nicknamed Atilla, Mark Hateley.
He would make his second debut against Celtic just days after signing and would be sent off as Rangers won 1-0 away. He would play a further 3 times in the run in that season, netting once against Dunfermline, where he rounded the keeper to delight the Ibrox faithful.
He would depart Rangers that summer finishing his career with spells at Hull and Ross County, a short but welcome return, he did the job required to secure the nine but could he have potentially been the difference in getting the ten?
Kenny Miller
A controversial figure, Kenny Miller first joined Rangers from Hibernian in 2000, would score 11 in 38 and leave for Wolves the following season, and many thought that would be that.
He would seemingly further distance himself from an Ibrox return with a spell at Celtic in 2006/07 which included a goal against his former employers.
However, Walter Smith had utilised Miller to great effect as Scotland manager in years prior and decided to ignore the outside noise and bring Miller back to Rangers from Derby in the summer of 2008 and he would be proven right as always in his decision.
Miller would form immense partnerships with Kris Boyd and latterly Steven Naismith as he scored 56 goals in 108 games from 2008 until the January of 2011 winning a duo of SPL titles, a League Cup and a Scottish Cup before departing to Turkey after an impressive 22 goals in 25 games in the first half of his final season.
Then after a few years playing for Cardiff and Vancouver, Miller would return for a THIRD spell, arriving with Kris Boyd to reform their duo in 2014 under Ally McCoist.
The veteran striker would fair a lot better than Boyd, staying for a further 4 years until 2018, scoring a further 49 goals in 155 games to bring his complete Rangers total to an impressive 116 in 237 games, and added a Championship and Challenge Cup medal to his collection and 3 more Old Firm goals to bring his Rangers total to 11.
Miller should have been kept as a young player first time around, would have been kept if not for finances second time round, and left at the right time the third time round when Steven Gerrard came in. He played in Rangers teams with players ranging from Gordon Durie to Nacho Novo to Alfredo Morelos showing incredible longevity but due to that year at Celtic, will never get the adoration he may deserve.