Souness Says "Rangers Had to take their medicine"

[OneDavidCooper 2,505]

I think Graeme Souness played a significant part in our history and I will always be grateful to him for that and the pleasure his teams brought me.

However, he is yesterday's man as his lamentable recent managerial record and punditry demonstrates.

He is our past not our future.

And we were victimised.

[1st_Jan_1994 4,868]

Souness is a wank - always has been

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,515]

Souness has lost touch with us and it shows. He backed the wrong horse. So did Walter at one stage. The difference is Walter put his personal feelings aside and is doing the best he can for the club he loves. Rangers before ego Graeme. The history books will show Walter stood by us in our hour of need. Where were you Souness? Telling newspapers that he would have worked for free? Ifs, buts and maybes didn't save us..... and he certainly didn't.

[1st_Jan_1994 4,868]

Souness has lost touch with us and it shows. He backed the wrong horse. So did Walter at one stage. The difference is Walter put his personal feelings aside and is doing the best he can for the club he loves. Rangers before ego Graeme. The history books will show Walter stood by us in our hour of need. Where were you Souness?

Don't often agree with you but that's perfect

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

Well at least he is 30 pieces of silver richer....

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,515]

Don't often agree with you but that's perfect

It's not often I'm sober enough to make sense.

[TheWee BlueDevil 222]

Well at least he is 30 pieces of silver richer....

Indeed, he now has his cheque and he will soon disappear.

Was never a true Ranger in my eyes. Ego was far too big.

[D'Artagnan 13,319]

Indeed, he now has his cheque and he will soon disappear.

Was never a true Ranger in my eyes. Ego was far too big.

And I dont think his comments that "there was no witch hunt" will help in our efforts to obtain justice WBD.

[simplythebest 11,453]

Having read the article properly, I also see he's still playing up Brian 'I won't let Rangers get liquidated' Kennedy.

Some just cannot get over the fact that Charles Green beat them to Rangers.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,515]

And I dont think his comments that "there was no witch hunt" will help in our efforts to obtain justice WBD.

He panders to our enemies with comments like that. He has lost the No Surrender attitude that served him so well in the past. Embarressing!

[BRICKY1872 118]

I do not have a minute for Souness after stabbing us in the back. Why the fuck should I take seriously his opinions of us are after all these years?

[TheWee BlueDevil 222]

And I dont think his comments that "there was no witch hunt" will help in our efforts to obtain justice WBD.

I totally agree.

I really can't see anyone with any influence (Rangers) putting their head above the parapet.

We've been hung out to dry and far too many have nothing to say.

It's folk like you D'Art who are helping us keep the faith.

Keep at it mate!

[SeparateEntityMyArse 53,815]

Souness is a salt and sauce man.

Fine when needs be, but not who you need on an ale session in Glasgowland.

Souness, Fuck off....

[bilkobear 125]

Souness will say whatever walter briefs him to

hence we get such craven, and inaccurate, shite

This is of course on the money. If Water's hand wasn't up Souness's back I am a Dutchman.

[bluenose48 951]

Loved Souness as a player and his time with us as manager.

However his comments smack of sour grapes, you and your mate Kennedy didn't get to buy us for 2/5ths of fuck all so therefore we got what we deserved.

Sorry Graeme but really you expect us to believe that had you bought us, all would have been rosy and we would not have been demoted into the third division.

[16BlueSherbert90 19,226]

This is really disappointing, Mr Souness.

[Drunk and disorderly. 14,515]

What complete crap.

Souness' spending was approx net £10m in 5 years. Walter Smith spent much more and Advocaat's spending was the major problem in the accumulation of debt. SDM sanctioned the spending.

As for Souness' comments, we can disagree but to tell him to GTF is ridiculous. You can disagree with him on some of it but he hardly stabs us in the back. I doubt he is fully aware of what has happened since Kennedy's bid was unsuccessful.

As for saying that him and Kennedy would have been a better bet for RFC, I can only agree. Just a pity Kennedy wasn't prepared to take the gamble.

Souness has lost touch of what is to be a Ranger. He is selling out. Thank fuck the bid he backed failed.

[Muirheadbear 1,483]

What is it with Souness? He's alienated himself with the Liverpool fans for associating with the Sun newspaper for the sake of a few pieces of silver. Now he's slopping on the coppers from the SFA at our expense.

What a complete fanny!

[Non_Sucumbi 876]

As I posted in post #2 and will say again 'Souness did walking away' (in mid-season)

[elephants stoned 2,994]

Souness obviously has lost the passion he once had for us and now just takes the dollar from wherever he can whether its Sky or the SPFL Souie is happy to spit on us if need be. A sad sad state of a former great.

[legalbeagle 3,734]

I actually don't care what Souness thinks. I totally disagree with him about the witch hunt, the reason being that some of us spent most of our time simply asking for the rules to be applied, the frustration is that they weren't.

PS: the recent obsession with mentioning interdicts is funny, but doubtful.

[OlegKuznetsov 10,816]

Graeme Souness helped launch the new Scottish Professional Football league yesterday and revealed that he would have been involved in this new era in the Scottish game with Rangers had events worked out differently last year.

• Graeme Souness says Scottish football has suffered by Rangers’ demotion to the Third Division

• Former manager backs Walter Smith and Ally McCoist to return Rangers to top flight

Souness has also urged the Ibrox club to move on after the ill-will generated by various sanctions imposed by the Scottish football authorities following their financial collapse last year.

He was happy to describe the SPFL as a “new start” yesterday, while he confirmed he would have been part of the new era in Scottish football had his friend Brian Kennedy succeeded in taking control at Ibrox last year. The former Rangers manager revealed he was prepared to work for free in a role similar to the one Walter Smith, who he brought to Ibrox as his assistant in 1986, occupies now. Souness stressed that he was not interested in coming back as manager. Rather, he was willing to return in an advisory role to current manager Ally McCoist.

However, Kennedy’s bid, after the Edinburgh-born businessman had joined forces with the Paul Murray-led Blue Knights group, was rejected by the club’s then administrators, Duff & Phelps, who conferred preferred bidder status on Charles Green’s consortium instead. Green’s stewardship of the club was controversial to say the least. Souness could not hide his dismay at Kennedy’s bid being overlooked in favour of the Yorkshire businessman, who was forced to step down as chief executive last season after allegations emerged of covert dealings with previous owner Craig Whyte and following controversial comments he made in the press.

“It’s not a case of holding regrets,” Souness said. “The administrator thought Charles Green was a better bet than Brian Kennedy, for whatever reason. And it didn’t happen. So I can’t have regrets. But I would only have been prepared to do it for Rangers. I would have done it for nothing. And I wouldn’t have done it for any other football club.”

Souness was keen to come in to act a bridge between the board and McCoist, someone who the former Ibrox manager had a sometimes troubled relationship with during their time together at the club in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

“I would have been there to help Ally – a bit like Walter is doing now,” he said. “I would have enjoyed that. Would I have made a difference? You have to believe in your own ability and it’s a club I know. I was never going back as the manager. I would never have gone back as the manager. But that’s all water under the bridge now.”

However, Souness does believe Rangers would be in a far better position with Kennedy and himself involved than they are now, with ructions at boardroom level continuing to destabilise the club. There has been further disquiet among the supporters at reports that new chief executive Craig Mather is being paid an annual salary of £500,000. Souness said the club’s fortunes would “definitely” have been improved had Kennedy gained control.

“The right people would have been there,” he said. “Brian Kennedy would have been the right person. He understands sporting clubs, though his experience has been in rugby. Yes, he would have wanted to make a few bob at the end of the day. But that could have been in 25 or 30 years. It could have been money his kids got in 50 years. He would have been there for the right reasons – there were no quick tricks with him,” Souness added. “This was a long-term project and he knew how difficult a road it was going to be. The club would have been filled with the right people at that time.”

Asked whether the right people were assembled at the club just now, he replied: “I don’t know them. I only know one [smith]. I know he is right and I like to think he is having a big influence on what happens there. He is the best man you could possibly get.”

Souness described the new league set-up – where the four divisions will be known as the Scottish Premiership, Scottish Championship, Scottish League 1 and Scottish League 2, and play-offs will be introduced – as a “brave” move. “You now have fewer people making decisions and, in my experience of football, that’s good,” he said, of the merging of the Scottish Premier League and Scottish Football League. “I think there have been some bold moves and I really hope this works out. We couldn’t just sit back on our laurels and wait for things to change.”

He hoped that the new set-up might help heal the rifts that developed after Rangers entered administration in 2012. The old company was then liquidated and the club forced to re-apply to enter the Scottish Football League.

Perhaps surprisingly, Souness agreed Rangers had to “take their medicine”. “Those were the rules. There was no witch-hunt,” he added, with reference to the vote by SPL clubs that condemned Rangers to the SFL.

Meanwhile, Souness dismissed a suggestion that he might have got involved with Hearts, after Kennedy was also linked with a consortium who were considering making an offer for the administration-hit club. “I wouldn’t rule out going back to a football club in some capacity,” he said. “But not in Scotland. It would only have been Rangers I would have been interested in getting involved in.”

The news that any Hearts newco may not suffer the same fate of being sent to the very bottom is further proof, if any was required, that he doesn't know what he's talking about, even though he was on the periphery of the Brian "I'll save the day" Kennedy non-bid.

He is speaking as a salesman for the league in this PR launch and is as far as you could get from a spokesperson for the club's perspective. To be frank, Souey made an arse of himself over this one.

[Albertz 78 918]

Remember reading Souness book a few years back and him going on about the witch hunt that supposedly made him leave Rangers.

Strange then he now says that no witch hunt against the club exists after he said otherwise in his book? How much did the spfl pay him to build bridges so that the parasites get the blue pound back i wonder?

[.Williamson. 82,685]

Meh.

[OneDavidCooper 2,505]

ceh?