| A youth player at Ibrox, his senior career really started at Falkirk where his energetic style soon had scouts from big clubs heading for Brockville and, in 1990, Millwall lured him south.
He stayed at the Den for six seasons before moving to Sunderland for five years and, in 2001, big-spending Wolves took him to Molineux. Two years later, he was a vital cog as they finally made it to the Premiership.
Their stay in the top flight of the English game lasted just one season and, in 2004, Rae returned to Scotland and his first love Rangers. In his first season, he was regularly involved as Alex McLeish’s men won a dramatic title race, but, this term, his involvement has been limited to six top-team games.
The last 12 months have seen his coaching workload at Ibrox increase and Rae has been in charge of the Under-14 side there.
He did have an offer to continue in a coaching capacity under new boss Paul Le Guen, and Millwall were also showing interest, but his meetings with Dave MacKinnon persuaded him to head for Dens.
At the peak of his career down south, Rae was forced to admit a serious alcohol problem, but he faced it head on and, not only did he recover to win a clutch of Scotland caps, he has also used the experience to lecture emerging young players on the danger of alcohol abuse.
Also 36 and from Glasgow, Farrell’s career moved in the opposite direction and, after starting down south at Oxford United in the late 1980s, he moved back north with Hibs, then Partick Thistle, Airdrie, Clydebank, Stranraer and Albion Rovers. Most recently, he has been helping out Gretna’s youth coaching set-up. |
