AS team-mates together in the great Rangers team of the Nine-In-A-Row era, Jorg Albertz and Brian Laudrup rose to meet every challenge head on.

Now, many years after hanging up their boots, nothing has changed as the proud legacy they did so much to create has come under fierce attack.

Albertz and Laudrup have moved swiftly to totally dismiss claims players had two contracts and received illegal under-the-table payments during their era at the Ibrox club.

Rangers are waiting to discover the outcome of their protracted dispute with HMRC over their use of Employee Benefit Trusts to pay players between 2000 and 2010, with the findings of a tribunal set to be released inside the next four weeks.

If the ruling goes against Rangers, they could face a tax liability of up to £49million.

But former Gers director Hugh Adam alleged last week that specialist payments were being made to first-team stars long before then and helped fund their successes during the 1990s.

"Without having any specialist knowledge, I'm pretty sure (EBTs were being used before 2000)," said Adam, who was axed from the club board in 2002 after a fall-out with former owner Sir David Murray.

The 86-year-old's comments have resulted in investigations being launched by both the SFA and the SPL and have even led to suggestions Rangers will be stripped of titles and trophies they won should any breach of player registration rules be discovered.

Tax experts have already said Rangers' defence will be that EBTs are non-contractual and are discretionary and would therefore not be required to be disclosed to the governing bodies, in the same way that no paperwork from any other bonus payments have to be passed on to Hampden.

Sources close to Sir David Murray claim that he will have his say on Adam's allegations once Rangers administration process progresses further.

But already the statements have been seriously questioned as EBTs didn't come into play at Rangers until the year 2000 and their use has never been denied.

Every EBT payment made is documented in the club's annual figures for each year they ran, signed off by the club's auditors Grant Thornton.

Albertz and Laurdup have both confirmed to SportTimes they worked with ONE contract, and one contract only, when they played in Scotland.

In fact, former German international Albertz, who signed from Hamburg for £4million in 1996, has even offered to help with the probes currently being carried out into the off-field activities of the crisis-hit club.

"This is news to me," said Albertz when asked if he had two contracts during his time with Rangers.

"All I can tell you about was my own situation at Rangers. Personally, I just had one contract during my time at Rangers. And I just had a normal bank account during my time in Scotland. In actual fact, I still have my bank account in Scotland to this day.

"If somebody investigating these accusations wants to ask me about it then I will happily tell them. In fact, if somebody wants to have a look at the bank account my wages were paid into, then they are more than welcome.

"Nothing like what has been alleged went on when I was at the club. I don't have any offshore accounts or anything like that."

Laudrup, who is looking forward to playing for a Rangers Legends team against their AC Milan counterparts later this month after surviving a cancer scare last year, backed up Albertz.

The fans' icon, who arrived from Fiorentina in 1994 for £2.3million said: "I had one single contract in all the time I was at Rangers. As you know, I left in May 1998 and I cannot talk about what happened after I left.

"But I personally had one single contract, that was all, during the time I was a player at Rangers. All the tax was paid by the club at that time.

"Everything was quite straightforward. There were no problems, everything was done by the book. I paid my taxes."

Albertz, affectionately knows as the Hammer by Rangers fans as a result of the trademark piledrivers that terrorised goalkeepers, went on to stress that the club's incredible haul of trophies in the 1990s were won by legitimate means.

He added: "As I say, I can only speak about my own situation during my time at Rangers, but nothing like this went on to my knowledge.

"I wouldn't have thought it was possible for somebody to have two contracts anyway. I really don't know how that would have worked.

"We won the trophies we played for fairly and squarely on the park. We deserve all the trophies that we won during that period.

"I enjoyed every day I spent at Rangers. I had a great time in Glasgow and treasure every game I played.

"If somebody says something untoward went on the financial side then I don't know about it. I can only speak for myself and I only had one contract during all my years at the club."

Laudrup, the Danish international who spent five years wowing Scottish fans with his skills, has been following the plight of his former club online in his homeland.

He has been upset at what has happened to a club that is being managed by his friend Ally McCoist – and at the allegations made against the revered Rangers team he was a member of.

He said: "As a football player, you just do what you do. You train as hard as you can during the week and then you play your game to the best of your abilities on a Saturday or a Sunday. You don't worry about things off the park.

"During my time at Rangers, players didn't speak to each other about their salaries or their contracts. They just got on with training and doing their best to win matches and trophies. We were quite successful at that.

"I have been keeping up to date with developments at Rangers and some of the things that have been said have been devastating.

" But, as I have said, I had one contract during all my time at Rangers. There was nothing untoward."