Ricksen puts bad times aside

Rangers defender Fernando Ricksen claimed the good times he is currently enjoying at Ibrox have been made all the sweeter by memories of the bad ones.

The Holland international suffered a traumatic first season after being bought by then manager Dick Advocaat.

Well-publicised Old Firm derby humiliations, trial by television following an off-the-ball incident against Aberdeen and an off-field matter that led to a court case all added up to making Ricksen wonder if he should quit the game.

But he decided to persevere and has been an integral part of Alex McLeish’s successful side.

Ricksen will pick up his third winners’ medal of the season if Dundee are beaten in the Tennent’s Scottish Cup final and he is desperate to make that happen.

He said: “It would be the highlight of my career. Winning the league on Sunday was already the highlight and now within one week I can put something else on top of it.

“I think it doesn’t get much better than this. Last year we won two prizes and the year before that I didn’t win anything.

“When times were bad I didn’t think anything like this was possible.

“But I have proved that everything went well after that and I am now on the brink of winning the treble in Scotland.

“I am delighted I stuck with it and I always try my best. That’s the only thing I could do and eventually it all worked out.

“The good times always come after bad times, that’s the funny part. When you have bad times it is always hard but you learn more from the bad parts than the good parts.

“And if you learn from that and keep it in the back of your mind then only good things can come out of it.”

McLeish allowed the players to celebrate winning the title earlier in the week but Ricksen insisted there was no way they would not be fully focused on facing Dundee.

He said: “This is what we have worked for in the past 10 months. We can win the treble and that should be enough motivation for the whole team and the whole club.

“Everybody knows what he has to do. In football you go on and you have to win another cup. I think that’s good for us.

“We will do absolutely everything to get the treble to Ibrox.”

Wresting the title away from Celtic represented a remarkable turnaround as the Hoops had won the previous two championships by embarrassingly huge margins.

Ricksen said: “We showed this season that we wanted it really really bad. Celtic are a really good team as well.”

Ricksen also has one more important date on his calendar for the season, a Euro 2004 qualifier for Holland against Belarus in Minsk on June 7.