bombaybadboy08 15,660 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Great wee read in today's Daily Rubbish, part 1 of 2 serialised by Gary Ralston, told by Scott Nisbet. ON April 7, 1986, Scottish football changed forever when Graeme Souness became Rangers player/manager. The Scotland captain steered the Ibrox club back to the top of Scottish football after almost a decade in the doldrums. To mark the 30th anniversary of his arrival, Jeff Holmes has spoken to key figures at the time for his new book, 1986. In the first of a two-part feature, serialised by Gary Ralston, ex-Rangers favourite Scott Nisbet reflects on life under one of the greatest players the country has produced: IT was one of the most memorable games of my career – and I wasn’t even stripped for action. The afternoon of Saturday, August 9, 1986, will live with me forever as Rangers travelled to my home city to take on Hibs in the first league game of the new season. I was in the squad that day but in an era of only two substitutes I was 14th man and had to settle for a place on the bench, where I sat in my tracksuit to savour the performance of our new player-manager Graeme Souness. It was a game that would go down in infamy. Souness, booked earlier for a foul on Billy Kirkwood, went over the top on George McCluskey and sparked a melee on the park. The red mists descended as the red card was raised, Souness was off and Easter Road was in meltdown. As Souness walked up the tunnel, his trusty assistant Walter Smith turned to me and said: ‘Nissy, go and make sure the gaffer is okay.’ I followed him to the changing room where I drew a breath, waited for a moment, opened the door and walked in. Souness, standing alone, was absolutely furious, shouting and bawling and throwing his strip and shin pads about, but he stopped when I entered the room. He drew me that Souness stare and said: ‘Nissy, what do you think? Front page or back page tomorrow?’ What could I say? ‘Gaffer,’ I replied: ‘I reckon you’re looking at both...’ He gave me a wry smirk. The following morning I went to get the papers and he was absolutely slaughtered on both the front and back pages, just as I had predicted. I loved working with Souness and his arrival at Rangers wasn’t so much written in the stars as stamped all over the dress sense of our former club commissionaire, Stan Holloway, who would normally be dressed smartly in a shirt and black trousers. However, when he had his full commissionaire’s outfit on you knew something big was in the offing – and he had the full uniform on the day Souness arrived. That was how I found out. I had my barneys with our new boss, but he was just a young manager himself, only 32 when he took control of the club. He was good with me though, and I’ll never forget the day he asked me to play for the reserves in Dundee because he was short of bodies. I had no problem with it at all, but he asked me to play centre-half, which wasn’t my usual position, and I went on to have one of my best games for Rangers. In the dressing room afterwards he was adamant: ‘That’s it Nissy, you will never play centre-forward again. From now on, you’re a centre-half.’ That was fine by me, I would have played anywhere for Rangers. I never did play up front again, always at centre-half or right back and although injury ultimately curtailed my Rangers career, I look back on that 44-match unbeaten run in the 1992-93 season, the Champions League, with a great deal of pride. Mind you, I almost didn’t sign for the club in 1982 when John Greig turned up at my front door in Muirhouse, one of the toughest schemes in Edinburgh, with his former team-mate Davie Provan. It certainly wasn’t the best place to be seen driving a beautiful Jaguar. Everyone was out in the street playing football after school and couldn’t believe it when John stepped out of this flashy car. Everyone knew who he was – but I was probably the only one who knew why he was there. The moment I saw him I completely bottled it and ran away. He was there for talks with me and my mum about moving to Rangers but I didn’t actually get to speak to him. I got off my mark and left mum to deal with everything – she even signed the papers. Souness took Rangers to a new level and his legacy continued under Walter Smith when the former Scotland captain left for Liverpool in April 1991, almost five years to the day after he arrived at Ibrox. Walter was another fantastic manager, brilliant for me and Rangers – and he led us to that memorable three-in-a-row title run on the last day against Aberdeen in May 1991. We had a depleted squad and John Brown took an injection to help him through the match. During the game he went to clear a ball, and you could actually hear his Achilles snap. He went down in agony and as physio Phil Boersma assessed the damage, Mark Walters trotted calmly over and said: ‘Phil, you’ll need to take me off – I think I’ve pulled my hamstring.’ Bomber threw Mark one of those glares and growled: ‘Are you taking the f****** piss?’ We won 2-0 and before the game Mark Hateley had told me, ‘Launch the ball into the box as high as you can and I’ll give the keeper Michael Watt a wee reminder of just how important today’s game is.’ He did exactly that – and the rest of nine-in-a-row is history, but the role of Souness in that achievement should never be under-estimated. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bombaybadboy08 15,660 Posted March 26, 2016 Author Share Posted March 26, 2016 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmcf 34,342 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 It was an unbelievable appointment . The belief he gave fans , and players alike , was immeasurable. As much as he signed Woods , Butcher , and later , Roberts , what people forget is the bulk of his team were already here , the difference being , with that belief , he turned them into winners . Fans too . For years we struggled in the league , and yet before a ball was kicked in the new season , we knew , just knew , the title was coming home . WS deserves a lot of credit for our success in the 90's , but Souness was the man that kicked it all off. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ibrox Derry 8,932 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 It was a remarkable period in our history, very special times indeed. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
smitzer007 198 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 When shorts were shorts! They all look like proper fuckin footballers! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
One Jock Wallace 858 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 All thanks to the vision of Mr David Holmes for making it happen Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
onefootwillie 1,518 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Very true David Holmes is very often forgotten when we look at this period. If it was not for him it would never have happened . Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammer time 653 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 is the bottom picture not the 89 cup final when Stevens made an arse of the back pass, the look on Souness's face is one of aye you may have won this but i'm going to rub your noses in it by signing Mo in a few weeks time Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moody Blue Legend 61,610 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Nobody fucked with Souness. Brilliant appointment. Helped by the fact the English teams had a Euro ban and let us go for some of the best, Butcher and Woods were outstanding. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueboyG 5,256 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Couldn't believe it when he signed, had been sitting in the Copeland rear for years and when he signed I bought my first season ticket, still sitting in the same seat, David Holmes done a great job at Rangers, so much so that when we won the league at the sheep farm my brother in law and I lifted David Holmes on our shoulders on the park at the end and he was saying " ok guys put me down now" we said no way you deserve it, was funny at the time. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegendofCoop 17,391 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Fucking superb read. Nissy was one of those guys you really felt glad for. He was one of us, living the dream. Great to hear him still being so passionate. Wasn't the best player ever but Souey & Smith brought the best out of him. Incredible to think Souness was only 32 at the time. What a gamble by Mr Holmes....but boy did it pay off. The Souness era is probably my favourite era. Every single week there was one positive after another. I can barely remember any bad times....other than losing the league in 88. Thanks for sharing this! Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ibrox Derry 8,932 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 45 minutes ago, onefootwillie said: Very true David Holmes is very often forgotten when we look at this period. If it was not for him it would never have happened . Good point, Yip, Davie Holmes was a thoroughly decent man, and as you said very much forgotten and underated for what he done for our club. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
onefootwillie 1,518 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 I was introduced to him once by my dad who had worked with him. Mr Holmes certainly was a Gentleman and always conducted himself as a Rangers chairman should Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alec87 331 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Loved the story about when we went to Aberdeen for the title and the last thing Souness said was make sure nobody gets sent off. The rest is history ? Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SirAlistairofMcCoist 91 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
centenarystand 2,227 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 The greatest living Scotsman. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NornIronBear 450 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 2 hours ago, One Jock Wallace said: All thanks to the vision of Mr David Holmes for making it happen Really needs to be some sort of recognition at Ibrox for Mr Holmes. Either a suite or some mention/picture of him in the Bill Struth stand. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
cr3_bear 14,892 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 44 minutes ago, SirAlistairofMcCoist said: Never has a photo been so fitting of the "thug life" caption someone make it happen Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmcf 34,342 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 1 hour ago, LegendofCoop said: Fucking superb read. Nissy was one of those guys you really felt glad for. He was one of us, living the dream. Great to hear him still being so passionate. Wasn't the best player ever but Souey & Smith brought the best out of him. Incredible to think Souness was only 32 at the time. What a gamble by Mr Holmes....but boy did it pay off. The Souness era is probably my favourite era. Every single week there was one positive after another. I can barely remember any bad times....other than losing the league in 88. Thanks for sharing this! Yeah it was a great era . Dont like being critical of John Greig or Jock Wallace , but this was a big step up in the standard of football we were used to , and not just at home either - we started winning away from home in Europe , which for years previously had always been our downfall . 1987-8 was a disappointing year domestically , but in Europe we did well , and who knows how far we could have got if we hadn't lost that 1st minute goal against Steaua at Ibrox in the QF of the European Cup. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianferguson 2,619 Posted March 26, 2016 Share Posted March 26, 2016 Souness made us all feel a foot taller and what a revolution the GREAT David Holmes created,magical times never to be forgotten. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullies_bowly_legs 3,839 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Fantastic signing that lifted the profile of our great club again after a few years of harder times. My old man always thought that it didn't matter who Souness was playing against that day, he was going to set the tone for the future and if he got carded it didn't matter. After that day he ran the midfield against any opponent he came up against. A brave, intelligent and fantastic forward thinking piece of business by the great Mr Holmes. Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Ibrox Derry 8,932 Posted March 27, 2016 Share Posted March 27, 2016 Souness, Souness, Souness Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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