hung up his boots in 1991 – but remained just as combative off it. The
three primary targets for his ire were the Scottish Football Association,
the media and many of his own players.
That first red card was the opening salvo in a recurring conflict with
the SFA that only ended when he left Ibrox nearly six years later. He
was fined £5,000, banned for four matches, put on disciplinary notice
and warned by Scotland’s solicitor-general that he could be prosecuted
for offences committed on the pitch.
Hostilities escalated as his playing career wound down. In February
’89 he was banned from the touchline for pointing theatrically to his
watch, after Dundee United earned a 1-1 draw by levelling in the fifth
minute of injury time. By breaching this – and further suspensions –
Souness eventually provoked the SFA to bar him from the touchline
for an unprecedented two years.
When he won his last major honour at Rangers – the 1991 Scottish
League Cup – the SFA noted that his celebratory sprint onto the pitch
was technically a violation of his ban. The conflict soon engulfed the
media – STV were banned from Ibrox after their footage of Souness in
the players’ tunnel was used in evidence against him.
Souness’ principal complaint against the press was that they made
Rangers into a soap opera to sell papers. He was especially incensed
by what he regarded as tall tales about his management style that
were splashed across the tabloids.
When FourFourTwo visited him in Istanbul in April 1996, during his
stint as Galatasaray gaffer, he explained: “Ninety-five percent of the
time I’d go into the dressing room after a match and give someone a
hug, but that’s not a good story. It’s not going to get you a headline
in the News of the World on a Sunday morning, is it?”
Souey’s relationship with Ally McCoist was particularly volatile. Some
Rangers players nicknamed the irrepressible striker ‘Dudley’ after one
clash in which the manager allegedly called McCoist a “f**king dud”.
Although the former St Johnstone and Sunderland goal-getter won
the first of his two European Golden Shoe awards under Souness, he
spent enough time on the substitutes’ bench to be dubbed ‘The Judge’.
On one bitterly cold matchday, McCoist emerged after half-time with
a teapot, cup and saucer, informing his sceptical manager that he was
simply trying to keep warm.
In football lore, Souness has been vilified for his autocratic, arrogant
and abrasive ways. He has since admitted that, in his impatience for
change, he was sometimes too tough on his players. Yet it is equally
true that McCoist was not everyone’s cup of tea.
Midfielder Ian Ferguson will never forget his introduction to Rangers’
dressing room in 1988 after an £850,000 move from St Mirren. “I was
welcomed to Ibrox by McCoist and [Ian] Durrant spraying Ralgex over
my underpants,” he recalled.
When Nigel Spackman arrived a year later, McCoist said: “You can’t
live in Glasgow and be called Nigel. He’s going to be Rab.” Even some
SOUnESS