John Spencer (1988 to 1992)
A prolific goal scorer within the Youth and Reserve sides at Ibrox, John Spencer was a powerful and explosive striker in the mould of Robert Fleck.
At only 5'4", what John may have lacked in height he more than made up for in strength and endeavour and his partnership with Gary McSwegan for the Reserve side in the late 1980's yielded an incredible number of goals.
John's association with the Club dated back to 1982 when he signed schoolboy forms as a 12 year old. There was huge media interest in John given that he was Roman Catholic and that scrutiny only heightened when he later agreed professional terms.
Spencer was unfortunate in that Rangers had three international strikers in Ally McCoist, Maurice Johnston and Mark Hateley at a point in his career when he craved regular first team football. Opportunities for a regular starting position were few and far between.
Despite limited first team exposure at Ibrox, Chelsea were prepared to pay £500,000 for John in August 1992 and manager Walter Smith reluctantly accepted. Ironically, Robert Fleck would sign for Chelsea (from Norwich City) within days of Spencer's own arrival.
After 4 years at Stamford Bridge, Spencer moved across London to sign for Queens Park Rangers before being reunited with Walter Smith at Everton in 1998.
Motherwell would spend a club record £600,000 to bring Spencer back to Scotland in 1999 where he would play under his brother-in-law, Billy Davies. Billy, of course, had started his own career with Rangers in the early 1980's.
by Rick Plews
