DESCRIBING a proud footballing institution with decades of noteworthy achievements and an army of devoted supporters as “a new club with no history” is, as anyone who has followed the Scottish game of late will testify, asking for trouble.

The arguments about whether Rangers are the same outfit as that which existed before their financial meltdown in 2012 rage on more than six years later and, alas, show no signs of being settled.

So, when Red Bull GmbH, the company that is best known for the energy drink it produces, bought SV Austria Salzburg in 2005 and immediately made that inflammatory claim it, not surprisingly, heralded a period of unrest.

Many fans were incensed. Austria Salzburg had been founded in 1933, had won the Austrian Bundesliga on three occasions and had once reached the Uefa Cup final. A new club with no history? It was little wonder there was widespread outrage.

When Red Bull promptly changed the traditional club colours from violet to red and white and introduced a new crest that featured a small pair of wings – their advertising campaign at the time promised their beverage would “give you wings” – it only served to anger them further.

“A lot of fans felt the club had lost its identity,” said Andreas Ivanschitz, the former Austria midfielder who joined immediately after the takeover. “They believed the whole culture of the club had been lost.”

After months of protests and fruitless talks with their new benefactors, a supporters’ group calling themselves the Violet-Whites left in disgust and formed their own club, Austria Salzburg.

“It caused a lot of trouble at the time,” said Michael Smejkal, a journalist with the Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper and a local football historian. “There are two teams in Salzburg now. It is very similar to Manchester United and United of Manchester.”

Yet, the ambition, financial backing and vision of Red Bull has since enabled the old Austria Salzburg to soar to giddy new heights; they have been crowned national champions on no fewer than nine occasions in the past 13 years and have done the league and cup double five times.

A place in the Champions League group stages has eluded them. However, they have reached the Europa League group stages eight times, the knockout rounds on five occasions and made it all the way through to the semi-finals last year.

“The Red Bull takeover is no longer a big topic in Salzburg,” said Smejkal. “There isn’t as much emotion about it as there was in the past.”

Celtic will need to be at their best in their second Group B match against opponents who are now dominant in Austria and admired around Europe in the Red Bull Arena in Walks-Siezenheim on Thursday evening.

Red Bull, who are run by Austrian billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz, have certainly funnelled hundreds of millions of euros into Salzburg in order to achieve their new-found status. But it hasn’t been lavished extravagantly on expensive and established foreign stars. The money has been spent shrewdly.

“The biggest thing Red Bull have done is create a huge academy for soccer and ice hockey in Salzburg,” said Smejkal. “They have professional scouts looking for players as young as 10. Last year they beat Barcelona and Benfica to win the Uefa Youth League.

“A lot of good young players go to Salzburg now because they give a lot of minutes to teenagers. This is very unusual in Austrian football. The current side is more or less an under-23 team.

“Red Bull have huge money, but it is their policy not to buy older players. Normally, they don’t sign players over the ages of 23 or 24. It was surprising when they brought back Zlatko Junuzovic from Werder Bremen this summer because he is 30.

“The youngsters start playing for their feeder club Leifering in the second tier, the better ones go up to the Salzburg team and then they move on to their sister club RB Leipzig or elsewhere in Europe.

“Red Bull are more interested in selling players than buying players. And they are doing a really good job. They have sold 40 or 50 players in the last four or five years, including Sadio Mane, who is playing for Liverpool now.”

The appointment of Ralf Rangnick, the bespectacled football revolutionary behind the remarkable rise of 1899 Hoffenhein in Germany, as Red Bull sporting director in 2012 elevated Salzburg to a new level.

“Red Bull hired and fired a lot of trainers to begin with,” said Smejkal. “Then they brought in Rangnick. He is the mastermind behind their current success.

“Under the Rangnick system, all the teams, Liefering, Salzburg and Leipzig, have the same philosophy. They play identically. They can change players between club and they fit exactly and immediately. It has been quite spectacular.

“After gaining possession, the teams must try to get to a position to shoot on goal in between five and eight seconds. When they get the ball they must go very direct and very fast. They don’t wait for the game to develop, it is fast, fast, fast. It is fun to watch.

“In Scotland you have Celtic and Rangers, in Austria we have Austria and Rapid Vienna. But the Viennese teams can’t compete with the speed of the Salzburg teams now. They are too fast for them. It is funny to watch the old titans struggle.”

Rangnick, though is a divisive figure in Salzburg. He has since taken many of their best players across the border to Germany in his two spells as Leipzig manager. The 3-2 victory over their sister club in the Europa League this month was sweet.

“The fans in Salzburg don’t like him very much,” said Smejkal.

The loss of their most ardent followers is still felt more than a decade on. “If Salzburg have an interesting game, a European tie or a match with Rapid Vienna say, the stadium will be full,” said Smejkal. “But they don’t have hard core fans who come to a game no matter who is playing and how the side is doing. There can be 30,000 there on a Wednesday night and 4,000 on a Saturday afternoon.”