AS Rangers and Hearts prepare to lock horns for the fifth time this season, in today's Scottish Cup final, there is one man inside Ibrox who could be forgiven for lending equal support to both sides on show at Parkhead.

Sandy Jardine, who for the last year been operating as sales and marketing manager for the club, has enjoyed many a happy memory at both Rangers and Hearts.

In his 18 glorious years at Ibrox, he became accustomed to walking up the stairs at Hampden to collect Scottish Cup medals, picking up nine, a mixed bag of winners and runners-up, but mainly winners.

Added to that, in season 1985-86, Jardine picked up a runners-up medal with Hearts, where he spent a fruitful - if not in the sense of picking up silverware - seven years as first a player, then joint manager alongside another former Rangers player from the 70s, Alex MacDonald.

Looking ahead to today's match between his two former clubs, Jardine says: ''I think it will be a very attractive game; both teams play attack-minded football. I cannot see Hearts playing the game defensively because their strength is in going forward, while Rangers never play defensively.

''I can see it being a good day for the spectators.

''It's good for Scottish football to see two of the best teams in the country competing for the Scottish Cup, and it will be a great spectacle, closer than some of the previous games between the two teams.

''Rangers have scored heavily against Hearts this season, apart from the 2-2 game, but it will be a blow losing both Jonas Thern, who looked as if he was coming back to form before his injury, and Jorg Albertz, who has probably been Rangers' best player in the last three months.''

Referring to Rangers as ''we'' gives the game away that any allegiances held for the Edinburgh club, which he supported as a boy in the capital, are forgotten - at least for today.

Reflecting on the now infamous Hearts team of the mid-80s that squandered the league and Scottish Cup in quick succession, Jardine, now one year shy of his personal half-century, refuses to accept that a defeat for Hearts this time around - which he, himself, predicts - would mirror that scunnering feat of 12 years ago.

''People have to forget history,'' Jardine says bluntly. ''This game is a one-off and every game is different.

''You could say the same for the 5-1 final two years ago - it is of no relevance at all.

''Rangers and Celtic have been used to appearing in finals, and now Hearts are becoming a lot more experienced.''

The man who, in his distinguished career has also accumulated an astonishing haul of 38 international caps, spread over nine years and taking in two World Cups; three league championship medals, culminating in the two treble-winning successes in 1976 and 1978; five league cup medals; and a European Cup-winners' Cup medal, has some really fond memories of the years he has spent at both clubs.

He made his Rangers debut at the tender age of 18 in 1967 against Hearts - with whom he trained for a period at Tynecastle - when Scot Symon, sickened by the 1-0 defeat the previous week, at the hands of Jock Wallace's Berwick Rangers, decided to wield the axe.

From that 5-1 victory, Jardine went on to play 771 first-team games for the club, before moving back home to play for Hearts where, ironically, with whom he played in his 1000th game as a professional - against Rangers.

''I really have a strong link with both clubs, but I have to say Rangers were my first love.

''I had 18 very successful years with them, but I also had another seven-and-a-half great years at Hearts.

''I did not win anything at Hearts but it was a successful time when you take into account where the club were and where they were taken to.''

As he looks at the ending of a tremendously successful era at Ibrox, Jardine opines that the soon-to-be-deposed old guard, who have marched the club on to trophy after trophy on the domestic front, will be preparing themselves for one last, triumphant battle before heading off for pastures new.

''I have to say that it is coming to the end for quite a lot of players at Ibrox.

''It will be the last game for Walter Smith, Archie Knox, Richard Gough, and Brian Laudrup and it will probably be the last game, too, for people like Ally McCoist, Andy Goram, and others.

''It would be nice for them all to end their Rangers careers with a victory.''

The thought, however, of a movie with an unhappy ending has entered into the mind of Jardine, who admits it would be a ''strange occurrence'' when taking into consideration their haul of achievements throughout the last decade.

''The Rangers team in the last 10 years has been without doubt the most successful in the club's history,'' he added.

''They would be very disappointed if they were to finish their last season without anything.''