The four people who founded Rangers Football Club were only teenagers.

The McNeil brothers were 17 & 16, Peter Campbell and William McBeath were both 15. If you didn’t know that, then this book will be worth reading. If you did- and the book acknowledges this has been well known for decades- then you’re unlikely to find much that’s new here. This biography of the club is principally drawn from secondary sources and if you’re a keen student of the club’s history, you’ll know it all already.

It is an easy read through Rangers’ rise from the first game against Callander at Flesher’s Haugh- in 1872 the book insists - to their current position as one of the premier clubs in Scotland, with a huge international support and record-breaking list of trophies.

One weakness of the book is the repeated reference to Rangers’ growing popularity, but without analysis of why. Why did Rangers grow bigger than their opponents of the time, Queen’s Park, Vale of Leven, Clyde among others? Yes, Glasgow was a growing metropolis, but why Rangers more than the other clubs in the city?

The book quotes the assertion of one club historian, Gary Ralston, that it is a nonsense to believe that Rangers were formed as a Protestant club. After the first Rangers – Celtic game following the East End team’s formation in 1888, the players and staff from both clubs returned to a nearby hall for a convivial night’s entertainment. The religious divisions between the clubs only developed in the early part of the 20th Century.

What is so evident is how the same issues resurface regularly throughout the history of Scottish football. Even back in the early days, refereeing decisions created controversy. In the Scottish Cup Finals of 1877 and 1879, Rangers were victims of disallowed goals. So incensed were they by the second one that they refused to turn up for the replay.

There were serious financial concerns in the 1880s and one President was obliged to loan the club £30 to keep it afloat.

Bill Struth looms large over the history of Rangers and due respect is paid to him. His stamp on the club remains more than 50 years after his departure, with the approach on discipline and upholding the club’s good name a mark of many of the managers who followed, Waddell, Wallace, Souness, Advocaat and Smith. But the book is not uncritical, noting Struth’s involvement in the unedifying boardroom division of 1947.

Glowing tribute is paid to the Rangers team of the early 1960s claiming it could “advance a claim to the title of Scotland’s greatest”, a bold claim for the same era as Jock Stein’s European Cup Winners. “Like all outstanding teams they were a felicitous blend: strength and skill; combativeness and trickery; solidity and flair.”

A quick scan of the chapter headings cover the recent history, some episodes of which have been subject of many complete tomes in their own right. Jock Wallace’s ‘Treble Kings’, Graeme Souness’s ‘Permanent Revolution’ and Walter Smith completing ‘Nine in a Row’. ‘Foreign Managers’ covers the Advocaat and Le Guen eras in little more than 20 pages.

The beginning of the period of austerity under Alex McLeish and Walter Smith’s return are all covered in fact, but without much detail.

Great names flow throughout- Alan Morton, Torry Gillick, Jim Baxter, John Greig, Davie Cooper, Ally McCoist, Brian Laudrup, Paul Gascoigne. Their contributions are all recorded to a greater or lesser degree with a greater emphasis on earlier eras.

Ibrox Stadium itself- the main stand constructed in 1929, European nights and finals and the fans all get their own chapters, as does the club’s darkest era, the Ibrox Disaster.

Bookending the story of the club’s history are chapters looking to the club’s future. At the start of the story, new owner Craig Whyte talks about his connection with the club from childhood. He says, though, that after his first year in charge, he hopes to have a team in place to run the business.

And the final words go to Ally McCoist. He cautions about high expectations in the future, but commits to doing his very best. “This is my club,” he says.

This is a good book for the casual Rangers supporter, but for the fan who lives and breathes the club, they are unlikely to find anything new here that they haven’t read before elsewhere.