Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson played a part in helping the Gers to win the Premiership title in the 2020/21 campaign.

The Ibrox chief helped to form the squad that ended up securing the trophy and has built a team that is currently in the semi-finals of the Europa League, final of the Scottish Cup and second in the league table.

This has been, in part, down to some shrewd work in the transfer market as he has been able to snap up the likes of Fashion Sakala, John Lundstram and Joe Aribo - among others - throughout his time in Glasgow.

However, not every transfer window can go perfectly and Rangers have suffered as a result of that in the past as they have failed to sign their top targets.

One player the Gers missed out on back in the day was legendary centre-forward Alan Shearer. Walter Smith reportedly wanted to bring him to Ibrox whilst he was playing for Southampton and was unable to convince him to make the switch to Scotland as he ended up signing for Blackburn Rovers in 1992.

It is fair to say that the late, great, Smith will have looked back on that with regret for the Gers as the Englishman went on to achieve incredible things over the years.

He received many plaudits throughout his career and Liverpool legend Kenny Daglish was one of the people who handed them out as he said: "Alan is a player in a class of his own. He lifts the whole team and turns draws into victories. In a word: priceless.”

Former Manchester United man Paul Ince also showered praise on the attacker, saying:

“When I think about a complete striker and what I’d want as a manager as my striker is Alan Shearer. It’s not just the goals he scored, he was a handful, he could run the channels, his retention of the ball was fantastic and he was a leader of men. I don’t think we’ll have a striker in that mould again.”

He ended his career on 353 goals as he scored 206 for Newcastle, 123 for Blackburn and 24 for Southampton before calling it a day. His 260 goals in the Premier League remain the highest of any player in the competition's history and this illustrates just how big of a blow it was for Rangers to miss out on him at the start of his career.

Therefore, the club made a mistake over the former England international and fans may now look back and wonder what could have been if Shearer had lined up for the Gers in the 90's.

AND in other news, Gvb can axe one of Wilson's Rangers "let downs" with "unbelievable" 27 G/A phenomenon - opinion