Souness left in the dark over his glorious Ibrox ‘return’

Two months after joining the search for Micky Beale’s successor Graeme Souness is still waiting to discover what role he will play in the Clement Revolution!

Unfortunately for the 70-year-old he not only came up with the wrong answer in Frank Lampard but he went public on the matter to undermine the Belgian magician.

A few times a month Souness joins his old mate Jim White on TalkSPORT with the conversation inevitably turning to the good old days of the late eighties when they were lapping up the successes of Dave Murray.

Those days came to a halt in 2012 when Rangers went into liquidation, without dubious funding schemes and under the careful watch of HMRC things have been difficult for the Tribute Act with just two trophy wins through a decade of pain.

Following the death of Walter Smith fans of a certain age have pined for Souness to get involved even though he has been out of football since the publication of the Stevens Report in 2007.

Impersonating Yosser Hughes on TalkSPORT this morning, the Daily Record reports Souness saying:

They’ve got their hands full with the new manager getting settled in and a new director of football. They’ve had bigger fish to fry than me but I’m talking to them and I’m at their service. I’m a Rangers fan and there to help in any way they think I can.

For me that would be being on the end of a phone and going up to watch games and if the manager wanted me to offer an opinion – and I wouldn’t without him asking me – then I’d be there for him as well. I’m not waiting for the phone to ring but I’m waiting to hear from them. I’ve got other things.

When Simon Jordan brought up the inconvenient fact that Souness wanted Lampard to get the job the former Blackburn boss butted back into the conversation:

The isn’t entirely true. I didn’t say I was advocating for him. It was a narrow thing and the only advantage Frank had over the manager who got the job was that he may understand the west of Scotland a wee bit more.

Philippe, and I watched his press conference, understands the demands of that job. I’ve said many times it’s a unique job and it must be the same for Celtic. Working in the west of Scotland is unique and I just felt someone who had an understanding … it wasn’t to do with Philippe as if you look at his CV it’s excellent.

I just felt Frank was hurt and angry and it’s a dangerous animal when it’s hurt and I saw someone as Frank as someone who would do a good job as well. Whether he deserved it or not, this is a guy who has as much money as he’ll ever need and was punched on the nose big time by his experience of managing in England. But they went for Philippe because of his CV and the way he interviewed. The way he came across was excellent. He’s got presence and when I hear managers speak I always put myself back in the dressing room as a player and think ‘Would he be holding my interest?’ And Philippe certainly does that.

There’s not a big difference (between Celtic and Rangers). How unfairly has the world of football treated Scottish football when you think of Bournemouth where I live, little old Bournemouth with 11,000 people and not really a football town, getting £90million from TV and Glasgow Rangers get £3m. It’s the way it’s evolved. We have a population of five million in Scotland and 65 million in England.

While managing Blackburn Rovers Souness received untaxed payments from Rangers, more than a decade after leaving the club.

At Newcastle he pushed through the £8m signing of Jean-Alain Boumsong, 28 matches after he had moved to Rangers as a free agent from Auxerre.

That deal led to the Met Police raiding Ibrox in July 2007 where they uncovered a number of files that allowed HMRC to piece together the jigsaw of how Rangers were able to field players that they couldn’t afford in normal circumstances.

Graeme Souness
£30k EBT Recipient

No Tax Paid – #CollectThemAll@ScottishFA @HMRCgovuk pic.twitter.com/mtntoanKPs

— RhebelRhebel (@RhebelRhebel) March 24, 2018