John Bennett and James Bisgrove have turned to Graeme Souness to help them find Micky Beale’s successor.
With the former Newcastle boss involved in the process it is unlikely that Johnny Foreigner will be sitting in the home dug out at Ibrox any time soon.
Souness is about as old school as it gets with his disdain for foreign bosses made clear just over a year ago when he panned Brighton for appointing Roberto De Zerbi, claiming that the process had been carried out by Google.
One year ago, Brighton signed Roberto De Zerbi as first team coach.
Graeme Souness thought it was a stupid idea.? pic.twitter.com/OyKyQ1NHUS— Seth. (@seth_jo) September 18, 2023
Since losing to Celtic on September 3 it was clear that Beale’s time was up, a month down he line Bisgrove and Bennett are reported to be in London this week carrying out interviews for the vacancy.
Keith Jackson of the Daily Record reports:
Record Sport can reveal Souness was part of the Ibrox delegation which met Frank Lampard in London last Wednesday as the hunt for a new manager entered the interview process. Lampard was ruled out of the running following those talks but Souness is understood to be advising chairman John Bennett, chief executive James Bisgrove and director Graeme Park as they work their way through the remainder of the candidates. The former Ibrox boss turned down the offer of an ambassadorial position at his old club earlier this season but has remained in contact with the board.
Souness hasn’t been involved in management since being sacked by Newcastle in 2006, soon after sanctioning the £8m transfer of Jean-Alain Boumsong from Rangers.
Over the last decade he has been a regular on Sky Sports, TalkSPORT and the Daily Mail which ties in neatly with his patriotic views on life.
Taking over the car crash squad left behind by Beale and being expected to stop Celtic winning the SPFL title is the expectation on the next Ibrox boss.
That task and a delegation headed by Souness is likely to be enough of a red flag for any continental boss leaving the field clear for Derek McInnes over Sam Allardyce or Neil Warnock.
With Souness involved TalkSPORT and Jim White will be used to gauge fan reaction to prospective candidates.
Never forget Graeme Souness’ initial thoughts on Brighton’s choice to appoint Roberto De Zerbi… pic.twitter.com/qpL0Iq9xbp
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) April 16, 2023
Well, that’s probably a good idea to plug the experience gap in the Blue Room,
and Souness should have been engaged immediately after Beale was punted.
Obviously, nobody will be good enough for Souness, so maybe he could fill a
temporary support role to Rae Davis?
See Jackson today is getting the excuses in for McInnes turning down the ibrox
club before – because ‘Walter’ advised him to turn the job down…allegedly!
McInnes would be wise to step back – as the timing is all wrong.
He could take the job now and still get punted at the end of the season because
he can’t get a tune out of Beale’s misfits.
Might be best to stay at Killie for the time being?
Makes sense – for any manager – to join sevco next summer to initiate
the next squad rebuild. 🙂
They’ll get Dave Bassett or Ron Atkinson in…. Better still, both! They combined before – and got Forest relegated 25 years ago….
A dinosaur that’s ridiculed down south
Yet they fall the staunch cr*p every time
If it’s from The Daily Record and that imbecile writer then please take it with a pinch of salt as I’m pretty bloody sure with that lot it’ll be LIES…
All the Celtic forums have shown them up for it plenty times over many years !