Alex McLeish must surely go down as a legend amongst the Glasgow Rangers supporters for his four-and-a-half-year spell in charge of the Ibrox side.
He led the team to seven major trophies during that time, all while fighting constant financial restraints which limited his spending severely, meaning he had to largely rely on free transfers and a variety of loan moves.
The likes of Dado Prso, Jean-Alain Boumsong and Nacho Novo all arrived for either nothing or small transfer fees, and contributed towards McLeish’s second title triumph in 2004/05 as they pipped Celtic on the final day of the season in dramatic circumstances.
Along with these aforementioned signings, he also made one of his biggest blunders in the transfer market by shelling out £1.1m on Serbian midfielder Dragan Mladenovic, which proved to be a disaster.
How did Dragan Mladenovic perform at Rangers?
The player arrived from Red Star Belgrade having clearly impressed McLeish to fork out that sum during a time when money was tight, and Mladenovic had also proved his credentials on the international stage, winning seven caps for his country (he would win 17 overall), and it looked as though he could improve the midfield.
Despite the hype and early promise upon his arrival, the Serb went on to make just nine appearances for the Light Blues, failing to record any telling contributions in front of goal.
He moved to Real Sociedad on loan in January 2005, making 12 La Liga appearances for the club in a bid to try and force his way into the Rangers side ahead of the 2005/06 campaign, but it clearly wasn’t enough.
Mladenovic eventually forced a move back to Red Star before jumping ship to join South Korean side Incheon United, where he enjoyed much more game-time compared to his spell in Europe.
Overall, his nine Rangers appearances cost the club over £120k per match – and this was money the club could not afford to throw away.
It was an unmitigated disaster of a signing and one McLeish could look back on and say it was potentially up there as one of his worst while in charge of the Glasgow side.
Mladenovic is currently back in his homeland occupying the role of director of Red Star’s youth academy, and despite injuries not helping his cause, he will perhaps be largely forgettable when it comes to players of that era, as well as a colossal waste of money.