Walter Smith has already achieved legendary status as Rangers manager. Now, the club are on the brink of an historic European triumph he believes would represent a fitting reward on the 20th anniversary of David Murray's arrival as chairman.

Since Murray assumed control of the club from Lawrence Marlborough in 1988, having famously had his offer to take over Ayr United rebuffed, the Edinburgh-based entrepreneur has invested handsomely in Rangers and reaped significant domestic success. The ultimate objective - European distinction - has consistently eluded him despite the high-risk strategy of matching the spending power of the continent's established powers.

Until now. On a relative shoestring, and with European football consigned to a profitable secondary interest, Murray may finally have his moment of glory and in the most unimaginable circumstances. Dick Advocaat, whom Murray entrusted to bring tangible European success, now stands between the Rangers juggernaut and the chairman's greatest sporting ambition.

Smith believes no-one at the club is more deserving of a celebratory end to a remarkable campaign.

He reiterated the depth of gratitude to the owner who promoted Smith at the expense of Britain's most respected coaches when Graeme Souness left to return to Liverpool in 1991.

"For me, he gave me my biggest opportunity,"

said Smith. "At the time, it would have been easy for him to offer the job to anyone in British football, because the Premiership hadn't really taken off then. He took a chance on an untried manager and I will always be indebted to him for that.

"He asked me to come back again and he was one of the main reasons for me coming back. Looking at his 20 years as chairman, they have been absolutely outstanding. He had to handle a few problems along the way and did so well. That he still has the enthusiasm speaks volumes for the type of person he is."

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Murray's loyalty towards his managers has been one of the outstanding traits of his tenure. He kept faith with Advocaat when Rangers' debt reached crisis point, and Celtic's challenge was revived by Martin O'Neill.

I was nicely sacked. I felt it was time for a change. I felt it might benefit everybody and, unfortunately, he agreed

He enabled Alex McLeish to guide Rangers into the last 16 of the Champions League despite the domestic season crumbling in 2005, and only ended Paul Le Guen's suffering when the Frenchman could take no more.

Above all, Murray allowed Smith to make his own decision on when the burden of pursuing a record-breaking 10 successive championships became intolerable. "I was nicely sacked," Smith smiled of the events of the 1997-98 season, when he announced his intention to step down midway through a campaign that proved a bridge too far for himself and his ageing squad.

"I felt that my time was up and we sat down to discuss it in his office after the nine-in-a-row season. The players were coming to the end of their careers together and I felt it was time for change. I felt it might benefit everybody and, unfortunately, he agreed with me. It was the right decision."

Fast forward a decade and Smith has been reinvigorated by the new challenge second time around. Yet he returned to the forefront of Champions League football with a new-found sense of foreboding. Where once Rangers could lavish £12m on a single striker, in the leisurely form of Tore Andre Flo, the manager willingly accepted the challenge to rebuild an entire squad with the same budget that epitomised an era of indulgent recklessness.

Regaining domestic respectability by way of a sustained title challenge was one thing, achieving even a modicum of success in the Champions League group stages quite another. Yesterday, as he relived a remarkable journey to the UEFA Cup final, Smith was reminded of his initial anxieties over team morale when Rangers were drawn to play the champions of France and Germany, Lyon and VfB Stuttgart, and the sumptuous Barcelona in Champions League Group E.

It provided an education beyond all reasonable expectation for a team that, both collectively and individually, were distinct novices at elite European level. In short, far from anticipating subsequent UEFA Cup success, Smith feared a demoralising Champions League washout.

"I did say that," he recalled. "It was only natural because the teams we played against had a degree of success. Lyon are going for their seventh title in France, Barcelona are Barcelona and VfB have won one of the most competitive leagues in Europe. We achieved second place in the SPL and, to be honest, weren't even challenging. I thought it might be a bit too much for us."

Instead, his team of workhorses have been inspired by the adventure and have founded their success on a togetherness that has characterised many of Smith's previous groups.

"When you stick a new group together it involves quite a bit of movement but the one aspect I worried about was the spirit," he said. "Credit to the backroom lads for working hard on the unity of the team; we have managed to achieve a really good team spirit in a remarkably short period of time. That helped us get over the initial teething problems.

"Early on, we just wanted the team to settle down a bit and become reasonably successful, not to the level we have achieved. I thought getting past the qualifiers in the Champions League was as much as we could have achieved this season and was concerned more by the impact it could have on our confidence. I genuinely thought things might not have gone too well. Instead, we gained confidence as we went on after that upset against Lyon."

Throughout a defiant UEFA Cup campaign, Smith has been criticised by opponents for a style most kindly regarded as conservative and more critically denounced as anti-football. Surpassing this season's achievements, regardless of any expected aesthetic improvement, is likely to prove impossible.

"It had occurred to me," he said with a smile. "People talk about the standard but what do they expect us to do in the first year? Anybody in any business knows there has to be a level of progression over a period of time. If you feel as though you have a settled team and are playing well, then that is progress.

"In my own mind, I can make a few changes next season to make them a better - even a more entertaining team, dare I say - but we may still not achieve what we have achieved this season. That's football."

In spite of Murray's best efforts over the past two decades, Rangers realise the experience that awaits them and their supporters in the City of Manchester on Wednesday cannot be bought.