He doesn't have a magnetic touch. He doesn't cover a lot of ground and isn't especially quick. It can't even be said that, for a big guy, he's as good in the air as, say, Scotland's own Duncan Ferguson.

But the man who was pursued by Rangers back in the mid-1990s has a certain something which will compel them to pay very close attention to him in the Champions League here this evening.

Jardel is a goal-scorer, pure and simple. He proved as much with Porto, emerging as their top marksman in each of the four seasons he played for them after his projected move to Ibrox broke down.

Galatarasay paid a mind-blowing £18million to sign him during the summer and Dick Advocaat made it plain he doesn't regard the 27-year-old as being world football's most expensive misfit. Anything but.

'Jardel is a special, box player,' the Ibrox coach acknowledged. 'He has an excellent feeling for where he should be in the penalty area. Out of the box, he's a different player, of course.

'We have seen this many, many times over with his type of player. Everybody is wondering why they are still on the pitch then, all of a sudden, they can score a goal.'

Rangers, to their great credit, haven't lost one in the competition so far, their stunning, 5-0 win over Sturm Graz at Ibrox being followed up by last week's much-harder earned victory, by 1-0, in Monaco.

So Advocaat's players needn't be overloaded with apprehension as they approach this tie with the Turks, whose stutters of the past eight days, both in Europe and domestically, have spread alarm among their support.

It was bad enough that Galatasaray, Super Cup winners against Real Madrid only a couple of months ago, should lose 3-0 to Sturm Graz last midweek. Worse still, in the view of their fans, they were held to a 1-1 draw by humble Istanbulspor on Saturday.

Rangers, assuming they go about their work as professionally as they have done so far, and Galatasaray fail once more to play to the very limit of their ability and ambition, could even win here.

A place in the second phase of the tournament surely would beckon them then, although Advocaat doubtless would counsel his squad not to become over-optimistic at this stage. Much hard work lies ahead. A little luck wouldn't go amiss, either.

It is, by the way, is the Dutchman's 53rd birthday. Might three more championship points be an acceptable gift for him? 'The most important thing,' he said, 'is getting a good result. But that has nothing to do with my birthday.'

Gianluca Vialli, late of Chelsea, must have thought it was his when the Stamford Bridge side came to this very venue in the group stages last season and won 5-0, Tore Andre Flo pitching in with two of their goals.

Advocaat, admitting to having reminded his players of that numbing result when he gathered them around him before training, commented: 'Everything is possible. It can go both ways.'

The vagaries of football are such that the Ibrox coach isn't greatly inclined to read overmuch into the fact of Galatarasay's recent inconsistency. Didn't Rangers themselves lose heavily to Celtic and draw with Dundee before beginning the Champions League in fine style?

'We can only imagine that Galatasaray will be up for this game,' he mused. 'But the most important thing for us is what we can bring to it. I think that, if we're very professional on the pitch, we've a good chance of getting a result.'

Kerimoglu Tugay, back on home territory with Rangers and expecting the support of several family members, backed up those sentiments, basing them partly on the view that the Turks appear not to be as strong as when they won the UEFA Cup last term.

Whatever ails them clearly hadn't manifested itself by the time they beat European Cup holders, Real, in Monaco. But much of what has happened to them since, culminating in their last two results, suggests that something has gone wrong with the chemistry of their team.

Players, possibly, aren't relating as well as they might do to Mircea Lucescu, who took over as coach from the highly-popular and successful Fatih Therim, now of Fiorentina, in the summer. The fans certainly appear not to have accepted the Romanian's rule and called on him to quit at the weekend.

But Tugay, though aware of the crowd reaction to Galatasaray's poor performance against Istanbul-spor, expressed a measure of caution when he said: 'I played here for 14 years and remember games like Saturday's.

'Every game is a new beginning for any team. If the result is good, it can sweep out the bad memories of the supporters. I know how strong Galatasaray can be so, maybe, their recent problems can pass them by.'

The match, of course, will pass Gheorghe Hagi by, the celebrated, though oft- times enigmatic, Romanian international being suspended along with fellow-midfielder, Kaya Suat.

None of the Galatasaray players on Saturday looked as conspicuously talented as the now 35-year-old, who has played more than 100 internationals; or, for that matter, so little given to applying himself to the Turks' cause.

Hagi only played around the edges of the Istanbulspor game and, while his ability to protect the ball was admirable and some of his passes were exquisite, he seemed content for the most part trying to pick out Jardel with the high ball into the box.

Who, in his absence, might take on the duty of supplying the big striker whose six appearances in the Turkish championship this season have yielded seven goals? Rangers must pre-suppose that somebody will and keep an eye out for him.

Jardel, assuredly, is not the best player ever to emerge from Brazil. Fans of the beautiful game, as portrayed from Pele's time onwards, probably could name several dozen who have been, or are, better.