Skip to content Skip to sidebar Skip to footer

Disappointed- Souness opens up on his Ibrox rejection

Graeme Souness has spoken out about his disappointment over failing to strike a deal with James Bisgrove for a role at Ibrox.

The incoming Ibrox CEO loves to strike up exciting digital partnerships, bringing in further commissions to the Commercial Department but seemed to come unstuck negotiating with Souness.

It did bring Bisgrove some welcome publicity when news of talks were leaked to friendly sources. With every passing season of failure elderly bears grow fonder and fonder for their former manager who bolted in April 1991 for his beloved Liverpool.

Souness has only spent five years living in Scotland since he quit school in Edinburgh to join Spurs but is always keen to play on his relationship with Walter Smith.

Mentioning how he introduced Dave Murray to the club in 1988 is kept out of the public domain although it was to be a very lucrative connection for both men.

Am I disappointed? I suppose I am. I still think I’ve got my marbles and at my age I still remember what you have to do to win football matches.

I felt I had something to offer but maybe it wasn’t seen as a road they wanted to go down from their point.

I’ve not been part of Rangers for 30 years. I’m a little disappointed but I’ve got plenty going on in my life, like my charity work.

He might still have his marbles but it seems that the former Rangers manager has forgotten the payments that he picked up from his old club while managing Blackburn Rovers.

When BBC Scotland revealed details of the so-called EBT payments Souness was listed but no investigation was launched into payments being made to someone employed at another club.

During his time at Blackburn Souness swooped to sign Barry Ferguson and Tugay, later on at Newcastle he signed Jean-Alain Boumsong for £8m a few months after the French defender was available on a free transfer.

Following his time in charge of Newcastle no other club was prepared to employ Souness who moved into media work, mainly with Sky Source with that income stream ended at earlier this year.

The success of Souness the Manager at Ibrox burdened the club with debt and created an incredible level of expectation among supporters who had waited nine years for their title success in 1987.

With English clubs banned from Europe Terry Butcher and Chris Woods arrived from Ipswich and Norwich to be followed by the Everton duo of Gary Stevens and Trevor Steven.

European success was elusive with Bayern Munich, Steau Bucharest and Red Star Belgrade comfortably pushing Souness’ side apart, equally he never won the Scottish Cup during his time at Ibrox.

Striking a deal to turn up at a couple of matches a season shouldn’t have stretched Bisgrove’s budget, the only time last season that Souness turned up at Ibrox was to watch Liverpool cruise to a a 7-1 victory over Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s Champions League record holders.

Show CommentsClose Comments

Leave a comment