Graeme Souness has signed a number of English players during his time as Rangers manager, so many that Friday’s five-a-side training match could be split between England and Scotland. Controversially, Souness will line up be opposed to his own country.
Souness has certainly made a name for himself in English football. In 1970, he served as an apprentice at Tottenham Hotspur, but failed to make a breakthrough at White Hart Lane. Two years later, he joined Middlesbrough for £30,000.
He made nearly 200 appearances for the Teesside club, culminating in a high-profile move to Liverpool, where he won five league titles, three European Cups and four League Cups. He continued to manage the club in the early 1990s, winning the FA Cup in 1990.
“They can never beat us”
“Graeme used to play for England and it really cheered us up,” Ellie McCoist recalled in an interview. four four two. McCoist enjoyed the best seasons of his career under Souness, with the manager using these cross-border games as a motivational strategy.
“Even though they had Terry Butcher, Chris Woods, Graham Roberts and Souness, they could never beat us,” McCoist said. “We beat them on a Friday and won Mickey – ‘Ole!’ and all that stuff. I could see Graeme slowly getting angrier and angrier.
“Is this your best score?”
“The pass was passed to Ian Durant and Graeme smashed him. Durant stood up, put his foot on the ball and said: ‘Is this your best performance? ”
“Graeme said, ‘No, this is’ – boom! And then we all got into it, a real free-for-all, a good old-fashioned game! Walter Smith was Graeme’s assistant, running and blowing the whistle, “Beep! “beep!’
Back in the dressing room, McCoist and his Rangers team-mates braced themselves for the rarely shy and retired Souness to read them their riotous conduct.
“Graeme walked into the dressing room afterwards and we were thinking, ‘What is he going to say? There’s a fight the day before the game and he’s going to get angry.’ “That’s the spirit I’m looking for,” he said. I was sitting there with a big filet mignon over my eyes and an ice pack on Duranti’s knee…”
During his five-year tenure, the club won two league titles and three Scottish League Cups, four of which were as player-manager. His time at Ibrox was not without controversy.
In 1989 he signed Mo Johnston from Celtic, a historically Protestant-backed club that refused to sign him for much of the 20th century. Roman Catholic policy. In 2009, Souness said of his time as Rangers manager: “When I look back at my behavior and antics at Ibrox, I felt like I was just out of control. I was very dismayed. People are annoying and difficult to deal with.”
Attending training was an important part of Souness’s coaching style, at least until 2004 when he fell out with striker Dwight Yorke when he was Blackburn manager. Souness told BBC Sport: “There are definitely things, but they happen every week on the football training field and then you move on. You want your players to be competitive and we’ll talk about it.”
