raeme Souness is English. That’s what some
Rangers fans assured Scottish football writer
Sandy Jamieson in 1990.
The fact he was born in Edinburgh – which,
although it’s not part of Glasgow is definitely not
in England – and had played 54 times for Scotland
couldn’t shake their conviction.
As Jamieson recalls in his 1997 biography
Graeme Souness: The Ibrox Revolution and
the Legacy of the Iron Lady’s Man: “He talks like an
Englishman, acts like an Englishman and is
surrounding himself with as many of his
countrymen as possible” was the general
consensus of the fans. If they’d been more
politically aware, they could also have said: “And
he votes like an Englishman.”
When he arrived as player-manager in the
summer of 1986, Souness was that most exotic of
creatures – a Scottish Thatcherite – who regarded
his revolution at Rangers as embodying the values
and principles with which she had set out to
transform Britain.
Fast-forward 32 years and Rangers are looking
to Steven Gerrard, another European Cup-winning Liverpool captain
at the very start of his career in the dugout, to usher in a second
revolution. Despite the insistence of those Ibrox diehards, Gerrard is
only the second Englishman to manage the club. He will hope to
avoid the ignominious fate of his only English predecessor, Mark
Warburton, who claims he was at home watching Sky Sports News
when his departure was revealed on the yellow ticker at the bottom
of the screen in February 2017.
At 38, Gerrard is five years older than Souness was when he took
over at Rangers. Just as Souness appointed a Scot, Walter Smith, as
his deputy, Gerrard turned to ex-Reds team-mate Gary McAllister,
who hails from Motherwell, a place even the most sceptical Rangers
fans admit is in Scotland. Gerrard has the same task today as Souey
did in 1986: make the Gers competitive in a game being dominated
by their oldest, fiercest rivals, Celtic.
In some ways, Gerrard’s task is simpler than that which Souness
faced. Last season the Bears came third in the Scottish Premiership,
12 points behind champions Celtic and three back from runners-up
Aberdeen. When Souness succeeded Jock Wallace at the helm, they
had finished a lowly fifth, lagging behind Aberdeen, Dundee United,
Hearts and table-toppers Celtic.
However, off the pitch, Rangers’ past season was a masterclass in
mismanagement. Last summer, the official club website promised:
“The 2017-18 season will be totally different” and it was, albeit not
in a particularly good way. Three bosses came and went, two of the
side’s most influential players – Kenny Miller and Lee Wallace – were
suspended following a dressing-room altercation, and the team’s
record in all competitions against Celtic was Played 5, Won 0,
Drawn 1, Lost 4, Scored 2, Conceded 14.
All of this may explain why Souness prevaricated publicly over
whether Gerrard (right) should take the job. Rangers had
been in turmoil for a decade, he noted, and were much
poorer than Celtic, a club who – courtesy of the Champions
League – generate three times as much revenue as their
Old Firm foes. Yet he also advised Gerrard that he may
never get a chance to manage such a club again, and
predicted that the appointment would “electrify” Rangers.
The new gaffer’s unveiling, in front of thousands of cheering
supporters at Ibrox, seemed to prove Souey’s point. One piece
of his advice Gerrard shouldn’t forget is this: “If you’re second
behind Celtic at Rangers, you may as well finish last.”
So as Gerrard plots to lead Rangers back to the top, what can
he learn from his controversial predecessor? First things first, the
new manager needs to recognise that breakfast really is the
most important meal of the day...PAIn KILLERS, DIVORCE An D ALLY MCCOIST
Looking back on his tempestuous time in charge, Souness once told
Radio Scotland: “For a good two years, I lived on Solpadeine to take
my headaches away.” But that doesn’t really do justice to the extent
of his dependence on painkillers.
“Every day I’d follow the same routine from the time I was appointed
Rangers manager,” he told the Sunday Mail in 2001. “I would get up
at 7am after no sleep and take two tablets instead of breakfast. Then
I’d drive from Edinburgh to Ibrox and take another two tablets to get
me through training and office work.
“When I drove home to an empty house, I’d try to sleep for an hour
and then go for dinner with the Rangers owner David Murray. I was
always home by 10pm to take two more tablets before going to bed
for another sleepless night.
“Football had broken up my first marriage – I had everything and
nothing. But I regard it an honour to have managed Rangers. I would
not have traded places with anyone, even though I now realise I was
gradually destroying my health every day I was at Ibrox.”
Starting your managerial career at one of the world’s most famous
clubs, in such a passionate football city, will inevitably exact its toll,
but Gerrard would do well to tuck into something more nourishing
than painkillers for breakfast.
Souness would concede that much of the stress he suffered
was self-inflicted. On his debut against Hibernian in August
1986, he was red-carded for booting George McCluskey into
the air. Even by the more lenient standards of the 1980s, it
was a shocking assault, and one he remembers with chagrin.
“I had become a hothead,” he told the BBC. “It was all Walter
Smith’s fault. He’d suggested Hibernian’s Billy Kirkwood might
leave a bit of studs in. It was like a red rag to a bull. I was hyped up,
and by the time I’d made that challenge I’d made a complete fool of
myself. It was outrageous and I’ve apologised 100 times.” McCluskey,
who needed nine stitches in his knee, was not placated, saying: “I
lost all respect for him the day he sliced my leg open.”
As he trudged towards the players’ tunnel, Souness remembered
that his father was in the directors’ box. Glancing up, he was appalled
to see his dad’s head bowed in shame. After that, he was slightly less
hotheaded on the pitch – he was sent off only twice more before he“BY THE TIME I’D MADE THAT CHALLEn GE I’D
MADE A COMPLETE FOOL OF MYSELF. IT WAS
OUTRAGEOUS – I’VE APOLOGISED 100 TIMES”
Right Souness sees
red on his Gers debut
after slicing open
George McCluskey’s
knee Top “Who me?”
The player-manager
is given his marching
orders once again,
against AberdeenImages
PA; Get
ty Images
72 The Managers FourFourTwo.com