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missed 2 penalties, otherwise it would have been 6-1 and the return game beyond doubt.

..........but we want the 'right kind' of partner on board. THE need for a sponsor has never been greater, with clubs missing out on Celtic's Champions League cash bonus, but Iain Blair says that the powers that be won't be rushed into making a decision. Iain Blair of the SPFL SCOTLAND’S top clubs may have waved goodbye to a cash bonanza because of Celtic’s exit from the Champions League but SPFL chief Iain Blair says the season isn’t a write-off. Every Scottish Premiership club would have picked up £100,000 from UEFA had Celtic not crashed out to Maribor on Tuesday night. And with finances stretched, Blair admitted there was still no sign of a sponsor for our domestic league or the League Cup. He said: “We’re talking to people who are interested in the title and the cup sponsorship. Will it be this season? I can’t say. “We’d like there to be and we’re working towards that but I can’t say there will definitely be a sponsor this year. “People tend to have longer-term plans for their budgeted spend for sponsorship. “We only got to grips with it this time last year and although people think that’s a long time, with this kind of expenditure companies plan significantly in advance.” The news will not please club chairmen, especially with Blair insisting sponsorship had to be “the right kind”. So what type would the SPFL reject? He said: “We want someone who shares our values and ambitions. “It’s not simply a case of looking for someone who wants to publicise something, we want someone to partner us. “We need someone we’re comfortable working with. The guys are working on it as we speak and I’m confident we’ll get there.” Blair refused to adopt a pessimistic view after Celtic’s Euro flop, even though club bean counters will be putting away their calculators. He said: “Celtic can still progress in the Europa League and that could even help our co-efficient. So let’s not write the season off completely.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/spfl-chief-still-no-sign-4122017

'Consequences of Rangers going is revenues are down. We've filled that gap by selling players' http://www.celticfc.tv/freeview?video=1778 Oh really Peter?, I thought you said you don't need Rangers? Celtic don't need Rangers, says Peter Lawwell By Chris McLaughlin Senior Football Reporter, BBC Scotland Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell insists his club "don't need Rangers" to flourish financially. Rangers are awaiting the verdict of a long-running tax case that could place the future of the Ibrox club in doubt. But Lawwell says the eventuality of their Old Firm rivals going bust "would have no material effect on Celtic". "We look after ourselves," Lawwell told BBC Scotland. "We don't rely on any other club. We are in a decent position, we're very strong." http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/17013512

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/22037966 Hopefully this will herald a bigger sportlight on the shady goings on in the east of the city by CFC, GCC et all...

From Richard Wilson: HMRC granted leave to appeal upper tier tribunal decision at the Court of Session. "We are pleased that the Upper Tribunal has given HMRC leave to appeal to the Court of Session," said a spokesman. "We continue to believe that schemes using Employee Benefit Trusts to avoid income tax and NICs do not work.'

THE Ibrox side face Inverness in round two and have been told the winner will go straight into the hat for round three as one of the eight seeded sides. THE SPFL are braced for a backlash after it emerged Rangers could end up being seeded after today’s League Cup last 16 draw – despite the club being ranked 23rd. The Ibrox side face Inverness Caledonian Thistle in round two and have been told the winner will go straight into the hat for round three of the competition as one of the eight seeded sides. Aug 27, 2014 10:08 By Gavin Berry, Michael Gannon 3 Comments THE Ibrox side face Inverness in round two and have been told the winner will go straight into the hat for round three as one of the eight seeded sides. 19 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email SNS Group Rangers will be seeded if they beat ICT THE SPFL are braced for a backlash after it emerged Rangers could end up being seeded after today’s League Cup last 16 draw – despite the club being ranked 23rd. The Ibrox side face Inverness Caledonian Thistle in round two and have been told the winner will go straight into the hat for round three of the competition as one of the eight seeded sides. Do Rangers deserve to be seeded in the Third Round of the League Cup? YES NO The SPFL say they had to make the move as Gers are a round behind other clubs due to Ibrox being out of use during the Commonwealth Games. If they see off Caley, Rangers would avoid the big guns while the eighth-ranked side would get a tougher tie. But the SPFL insist their hands are tied ahead of today’s draw. Operations chief Anton Fagan said: “This was done to ensure the smooth running of the tournament.” http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/spfl-risk-fan-backlash-rangers-4114100

With Boyd and Clark working so well together - where will Miller fit in? Will we possibly see a 4-3-3 with Boyd in the middle of a front 3?

http://davidfarrellfaz.wordpress.com/2014/08/27/louis-reaches-high-with-diamonds/ I realise that the Rangers link is tenuous, so apologies to admin if it is in the wrong section of the board. Never the less, it is an interesting take on how a player views the different methods of training. The highlighted part certainly gave me a chuckle, although I'm sure that a few of our more enlightened posters will be shaking their heads in dismay.

Born Under a Union Flag: Rangers, Britain and Scottish Independence (Luath Press) will be an interesting read for those yet to open its cover, and I would strongly suggest you do. It allows the reader access at times, to the mindset of the authors of the various chapters, some of which will challenge you, some may even alarm you, but having drawn me in, it was one of those books I had to read from start to finish without interruption. It may seem strange for an avid Unionist to highlight a chapter written by a pro-independence author, Gail Richardson, but I do so for 2 reasons : (1) Gail asks questions relating to the motto of a group of which I am a member – Vanguard Bears (2) Of all the pro-independence chapters within the book, Gail’s was unique in that it offered a cohesive, rational and positive argument for independence which was free from negative subjective experience often cited by her peers, nor did it seek to demonise Britain as a justification for exercising a yes vote, in short it offered vision rather than vilification. I use the word “demonise” deliberately. When Alan Bissett argues that Britain is responsible for, amongst other things, “the mass slaughter of World War 1” you can perhaps begin to understand why I suggested in the opening paragraph that you may be challenged, even alarmed by its contents. Gail opens her chapter with a question : Do the Loving Cup ceremony or the portraits of Her Majesty the Queen hanging in the home dressing room at Ibrox not qualify as traditions ? Both are long standing practices at our club, with club historian David Mason, opening this year’s Loving Cup toast describing it as “A very important tradition in the history of Rangers Football Club since 1937”. Furthermore are they merely traditions or, additionally, a powerful statement of identity i.e. this is a club which values the traditions of monarchy ? The foregoing example serves as welcome introduction for another area of such debate which is often overlooked by many. Gail asserts : It is madness. But what about the flip side of that coin ? What about the instances where the beliefs and values come from within the club itself ? Are they in themselves not statements of identity ? If the historical commentators such as Graham Walker and Bill Murray are to be believed, and there is no good reason not to, then Protestant identity evolved due to a number of factors, primarily though that the Protestant indigenous Scot sought a football club which reflected their faith and culture in the same way that the newly formed club, Celtic, reflected the faith and culture of the Irish immigrant population. If Gail is guilty of overlooking symbolisms and traditions which emanate from within the club, perhaps because they don’t quite fit with her assertions and beliefs, I confess, I could be equally as guilty of reading something into symbolisms from within the club because they do happen to fit with my particular assertions and beliefs. I have difficulty accepting however that Church and Boys Brigade Parades, the holding of the Orange Order Annual Divine Service at Ibrox, our refusal to play football on the Sabbath, the welcoming of Kings at Ibrox, Armed Forces Days, amongst other things, are not statements of identity. Furthermore these take no account of the erroneous, which again have their formation from within the club itself. Gail makes reference to Rangers signing policy, I would add to that the comments of Rangers vice chairman Matt Taylor in 1967 when he stated in interview relating to it, “part of our tradition....we were formed in 1873 as a Protestant boys club. To change now would lose us considerable support.” However mis-guided, however ham-fisted, however opposed to true Protestant ideals and values the foregoing examples are, I would suggest they are a clear attempt to attach a Protestant identity to our club from within the club itself. I cite these examples not to usurp Gail’s questioning of their relevance today in an increasingly secular Scotland, but to demonstrate that the club itself over the years has actively encouraged an identity with which it is often associated, therefore to suggest that it’s our supporters who have projected their beliefs onto the club and asked them to uphold them is incorrect. When Gail states : “I’ve said that I don’t believe Rangers Football Club is a Protestant club or a Unionist club.” how does such a statement equate to a football club who have just released their 3rd strip which has as its centrepiece, the flag of the Union itself ? Particularly in view of the current political climate in Scotland. Strangely, the answer to Gail’s original question comes from an unlikely source, in chapter 3 of the book. Harry Reid, an Aberdeen supporter speaking of the demise of Rangers identity under Sir David Murray: And later in the chapter : Harry continues: Later in the chapter Harry emphasises the importance of any football club seeking to expand its aspirations, remaining true to its core fan base. There is really not a lot I can add to Harry’s quotes. The values, traditions and people Harry alludes to are very much at the core of what we at Vanguard Bears, seek to defend. I hope this article not only answers Gail’s questions, but also challenges her to examine her own vision of our club, as much as her chapter from the book caused me to examine my own.

He did a decent job last season.

ET Says a few truths in there and a bit more dignity from some quarters is very much missing. Maybe we should one day also consider him for a scouting role in Scotland, as he does the reasonable thing and scans the Junior football folk.

http://www.rangers.co.uk/news/headlines/item/7532-lee-signs-season-long-deal

RANGERS have moved to re-sign keeper Lee Robinson – five years after he quit the club. Manager Ally McCoist is in talks to land the 28-year-old, who is a free agent after leaving Raith Rovers at the end of last season. Robinson, who has also had spells at Kilmarnock, Queen of the South and Swedish outfit FK Ostersunds since departing Ibrox in 2009, is mulling over a one-year contract offer to provide cover for first-choice keeper Cammy Bell. Bell will be out for two weeks after fears that he had dislocated his shoulder and needed surgery were allayed. Veteran Steve Simonsen has been deputising but McCoist believes Robinson can eventually push Bell for the No 1 spot. McCoist’s hopes of doing further business this month could hinge on fringe players Sebastien Faure and Arnold Peralta being moved on. http://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/501685/EXCLUSIVE-Lee-Robinson-offered-Rangers-return

SCOTLAND look set to rise to 27th place when the new rankings are revealed in September, with England dropping to 26th. SCOTLAND will be just ONE place behind England when the latest FIFA rankings are unveiled. Gordon Strachan’s side have made steady progress up the ratings after being as low as 78th in May last year. The Scots will rise one spot to 27th when the new table is published on September 18 while the Auld Enemy will drop six places to 26th ahead of their trip north to play us in a friendly at Celtic Park in November . England and Scotland will be one place above Wales who soar 14 places to 28th. Scotland's Euro 2016 qualifying rivals Germany will be No.1 after their World Cup triumph in June . But the other teams in the group are a long way behind us, according to FIFA. Ireland will languish back in 54th, Poland in 71st and Georgia will be 107th while Gibraltar don’t have a ranking yet. Scotland have never been above England since the Rankings started in August 1993. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/scotland-set-just-one-place-4098430

The 27-year-old is not expected to be named in Gordon Strachan's latest squad for next month's 2016 Euro qualifier against Germany Wallace last played for Scotland in a friendly against the USA last November However the defender has no regrets over sacrificing his international career to help Rangers climb up the leagues in Scotland Rangers full-back Lee Wallace has admitted he has all but given up hope of playing for Scotland. The 27-year-old defender, who last played for his country in a 0-0 draw with the United States last November, is set to miss the trip to face World Champions Germany in next month's 2016 Euro qualifier when Scotland boss Gordon Strachan names his squad on Monday morning. Conceding he sacrificed his international ambitions to stay with Rangers and help them back up the leagues, Wallace revealed he has also received a phonecall from Strachan explaining his situation. And asked if he expects to feature against the Germans, he admitted: 'Probably not, no. I'm still probably a bit behind. There are guys who have been in it who are way ahead of me at this stage — guys who play their football down south in strong successful sides. 'I'll never hold much hope for it but I'm not going to get too downbeat about it, either, as I'm just going to concentrate on Rangers and always will do. 'When I stayed with Rangers after what happened, I knew that [playing in the lower leagues] would be a stumbling block [for international call-ups] and Craig Levein had said at the time it would be difficult to select someone in the bottom tier of Scottish football. 'I accepted that and understood it at that level. 'I was aware of that and it was a sacrifice I made. Rangers is the one for me and I want to play a part in their history over the next few years.' The emergence of Andrew Robertson at Dundee United led to the young left-back making a £2.5million move to Hull City this summer. And the 20-year-old, who has made an impressive start in the Barclays Premier League, now looks to be Strachan's first pick, with Wallace adding: 'I kind of got the message in some of the last few squads - although the manager did phone me one time to say he wanted to look at other people and they've gone on to bigger and better things, playing their football in one of the best leagues in the world. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2733448/Rangers-defender-Lee-Wallace-concedes-chances-playing-Scotland-slim-putting-club-career-first.html#ixzz3BNxU4eqS Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

...........just ask Ronny Deila, Malky McKay and Rangers investors. TAKING a risk is part of daily life in football but while Ronny Deila will probably get away with his team selection at Inverness, George Letham may regret loaning his money to Rangers. IF anyone out there needed reminding football is for the risk takers at least the events of the last week will have served some kind of purpose. On the face of it, some gambles make sense based on sound logic, like Ronny Delia’s decision to sacrifice Kris Commons to stiffen up Celtic’s chances of accessing the Champions League’s hole in the wall. Others not so much. (I’m looking at you Brendan Rodgers – the only manager in the world who might see the appeal in selling one of the game’s two greatest liabilities, then replacing him with the other, much less talented one.) Some of them will work. Some will backfire spectacularly, like Deila’s decision to take his reserves to Inverness at the weekend. All will be forgiven, of course, if tomorrow night a revitalised Celtic complete the job they started in Maribor last week and bank the club another £20 million of UEFA’s loot. With that kind of cash at stake Deila had every reason to prioritise the return tie, especially given the extent of Celtic’s dominance in the domestic league. In fact, this one will only come back to bite him on the bum if ICT are still sitting top of the table with four games to go, rather than with just the four played. But, when all’s said and done, they’re all punts at the end of the day. Football is jam packed with punts. Just look at Malky Mackay who didn’t even realise the risk involved in sending ‘inappropriate’ text messages from his company phone until it was too late and Cardiff owner Vincent Tan had got his little leather gloves all over them. Mackay is now in the horrible position of trying to defend the indefensible while pleading for his professional career. Many will argue he deserves all that’s coming to him which is perfectly understandable given the shockingly prejudiced nature of the remarks which were swapped in private but which have now been consumed by a horrified public. And they may well be correct. But should it not also be possible to feel sympathy for Mackay on a human level without being branded as some kind of apologist or even worse a like-minded bigot? There is no defending the language used in those exchanges between Mackay and his then colleague Iain Moody. In fact, some of it is deeply concerning and raises serious questions about the inner psyche of whoever was responsible. That man may even be in need of some professional help. But, even so, there is also something grotesque and – in many quarters – hypocritical about the feeding frenzy which has been triggered by the release of these exchanges. A blood lust has developed here and Mackay the man is being savaged on an endless loop on 24-hour TV. It should be difficult for us all to watch but these days too many people care more about demanding their pound of flesh than in showing any sort of human compassion. And all this over a risk Mackay obviously didn’t even realise he was taking at the time. There are football managers out there, some of them a lot closer to home, who may now be breaking out in cold sweats at the thought of what the IT crowd might uncover if ordered to go trawling through company phones and computers by their superiors. Some might even get involved in charity stunts in the hope of winning over a dubious public. At this point I should probably thank James and Sandy Easdale for the Ice Bucket Challenge nomination which came my way on Saturday night. Challenge reluctantly accepted by the way. The irony here is that, at a time while apparently everyone inside Ibrox seems so keen to splash around for good causes, Big Sandy might be about to have to take an altogether different and far more painful bath before the week is out. Back in February of this year Easdale first showed his philanthropic side when he handed Rangers £500,000 in an emergency loan to keep the floodlights switched on. Big-hearted hedge fund managers Laxey Partners (now there’s an oxymoron) were also prepared to pony up a further £1m as part of the bail-out package until, that is, concerned Rangers fan George Letham stepped in to offer up the same amount on far more favourable terms. Letham was doing his club the ultimate solid. Handing over an enormous sum of money and protecting it from a potential asset grab by Laxey who demanded security against the Albion Car Park and Edmiston House as part of the conditions. The loans were supposed to be repaid as soon as the club had banked its first £1.5m in season ticket sales and by no later than the close of the last business day of August. Well, by my reckoning, that means the Rangers board now has until around 5pm on Friday to settle its debt with Letham and Easdale while also meeting another monthly wage bill on Thursday. If indeed it was the intention of chief executive Graham Wallace to repay this cash from money raised by a new share issue – and he did say it would be launched in August – then he is running out of time. Once again the situation behind the scenes at Ibrox is becoming dreadfully serious but while Easdale can afford to play it for laughs in his position at the top of the staircase, Letham must be wondering why on earth he was prepared to take such an expensive risk in the first instance. Is that an ice bath or an iceberg dead ahead?

(Tom English – The Scotsman 25.11.2012) (Tom English - Twitter 21.08.2014) Its good to know that Tom English has found some sort of journalistic morality of late, however it may present a conflict of interests with his new employer, BBC Scotland. Or does the morality of source over story only apply in certain circumstances ? After all, Tom is now working for an employer who were happy to utilise not just stolen property, but stolen evidence from the Rangers Tax Tribunal, if Lord Nimmo Smith's conclusions are correct. But in his new found morality Tom has excluded himself from the knowledge that Vanguard Bears appear to have successfully cultivated a mole, perhaps within the SFA itself, as previous revelations, including documentary evidence, suggest. And could this latest expose, while perhaps lacking in documentary evidence, be a clear signpost to of a course of unedifying, unprofessional and negligent conduct involving our footballs higher echelons of administration ? Especially when viewed in the context of previous disclosed e-mails and agreements. Nope of course not – nothing to see here – move along please. But should we really be surprised ? After all there seems little excitement in journalistic circles that those in charge of Scottish Football were prepared to find Rangers guilty prior to trial as well as inflict draconian type punishments on a club which had yet to be found guilty. Morality ? Perhaps some of those journalists, and there have been many of late, who remind us of the impoverished state of our game via their daily columns, care to consider if perhaps they have a role to play. After all if the head of our game is more worried about being on time for a dinner date rather than what was probably one of the most critical meetings in the history of our game, is there not something fundamentally wrong ? What is particularly alarming in this whole episode are those gleefully re tweeting Tom English's original tweet. It does not matter that journalists will ignore story over source, it does not matter that it contains allegations of incompetence, of lack of prioritisation, of utter disdain for the game of football in Scotland (ironically affecting their own clubs) – so long as Rangers or Rangers fans get it in the neck - then that makes it okay. But let's not be too harsh on Stewart Regan – I’m told there is a certain restaurant in Leeds which does a succulent lamb to die for. It looks like football in Scotland will be the sacrificial lamb.

Crystal Palace are more likely to approach the Rangers manager, Ally McCoist, to become their new manager than the bookmakers’ favourite and his former rival, Neil Lennon, who stood down from Celtic this summer. Palace have held talks about the Rangers manager as they compile a new shortlist following a week of turmoil at the club, although they have yet to approach him or indeed Lennon. Palace will see how the weekend Premier League fixture at home to West Ham United pans out before deciding on the urgency of their need for a new manager. Malky Mackay had been the front-runner before the text scandal put paid to his chances. The Independent columnist Tim Sherwood ruled himself out of the running on Thursday night and Glenn Hoddle did the same earlier in the week. http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/crystal-palace-next-manager-latest-palace-consider-ally-mccoist--exclusive-9686808.html

Incredible game tonight. Malaga undeservedly led 1-0 on a rebound from a first half penalty and had 2 rightly sent off and survived a goal disallowed for offside and a good penalty claim in 6 mins injury time to win 1-0. Bilbao play Napoli on Wednesday in the ELQ4 1-1 from the first leg.

By Richard Wilson BBC Scotland What does the immediate future hold for Rangers? It is 120 days since the chief executive Graham Wallace published an overview of his 120-day business review, but there are still aspects of the running of the club where doubt resides. Two weeks ago, the Ibrox board announced that they were "considering a possible equity issue" to raise £4m. Their hope was that an institutional shareholder would underwrite the offer - ensuring that the full amount would be raised - before it was opened to all existing shareholders to see if they would invest to retain the size of their stake. Yet even the Stock Exchange announcement carried the caveat that "there can be no certainty on the outcome of these discussions" with the leading shareholders. The Union of Fans released a statement raising their concerns about the possibility of Mike Ashley, the owner of Newcastle United, underwriting the issue and so increasing the size of the near 5% stake he already holds in Rangers International Football Club. There now seems little likelihood of that occurring, though, not least because under Scottish Football Association rules no individual can hold stakes of more than 10% in two clubs. The share issue itself so far remains uncompleted, since no Stock Exchange announcement has been made. “Rangers remain a club that lacks long-term stability and any sense of connection or shared values between the directors and the fans” Some inside Ibrox had hoped to finalise it this week, although institutional shareholders have seemingly shown little appetite for putting more money into Rangers. The reality is that the £4m will be used to fund the club and pay off the £1.5m in loans still owing to the shareholders George Letham and Sandy Easdale, who is also chairman of the Rangers Football Club board. Should the full amount be raised, it will likely provide Rangers with enough financial support to reach the end of the year. In the meantime, the annual accounts are due to be published next month, once audited, then the board intends to hold the annual general meeting - probably in October - and seek permission from shareholders to offer new shares to non-shareholders in a fresh issue. In his 120-day review, Wallace said that the board's intention was to seek shareholder approval for a new share issue in the autumn, however the fall in season ticket sales - prompted by continuing distrust between the fans and the board - left them needing to seek a solution to their immediate financial issues first. Rangers, in effect, remain bedevilled, given the board and shareholders' inability or unwillingness to finance the operation of the club and the necessary additional investment that is required. This is the backdrop to the team's attempts to build a solid foundation to this season's bid to gain promotion back to the top-flight. Rangers remain a club that lacks long-term stability and any sense of connection or shared values between the directors and the fans. While that relationship remains fractured, there is little prospect of the rebuilding process being fully completed. Progress has not been particularly swift on many of Wallace's aims, including the fundamental one of restructuring the club's finances and seeking the external investment required to underpin the club's ambitions. The attempt to appoint a chief football operations officer has stalled, after talks with the former Rangers and Bayern Munich midfielder Christian Nerlinger failed to deliver an agreement. While the idea is sound - not least because Rangers still do not have a properly function and extensive scouting network, let alone the kind of medical, performance and strategy support structures expected of a club of this size and the stature it wants to regain - it seemed impractical to try to recruit somebody now when the club's finances are so fragile. The wage of the individual alone would be substantial, but there would be significant associated costs in setting up the infrastructure and appointing new personnel. Rangers cannot currently sustain those costs. The process of setting up fan liaison board has begun, but Saturday's visit of Dumbarton will provide an indication of the level of disaffection amongst the fans. Some intend to buy tickets on a match-by-match basis, having chosen not to renew their season tickets, although there are additional costs incurred by the club for policing and stewarding 'walk-up' supporters. The re-emergence of Charles Green brought a new round of white noise to the story of the club, but the reality is simple: Rangers need money and the board is rapidly running out of options. Dave King remains committed to investing in Rangers, via a larger share issue, but so far the board has chosen to stick to its strategy of seeking £4m initially. That might reflect concern that a shareholder vote might not deliver the necessary permission to offer shares to non-shareholders - Sandy Easdale held the 28% of proxy votes at the last AGM - although a restricted share issue at this stage does not require a prospectus to be published. Wallace identified a number of improvements and initiatives that Rangers require, and also the level of funding it takes - he estimated £20m to £30m - but it is the financial demands that are critical. No other investors are lining up to put money into the club. Options are limited. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/scotland/28904062

THE TV station where Graeme Souness operates as football’s No 1 pundit is more of a small town than anything else. Studios and offices sit like apartment blocks on a grid of roads and pavements and at some corners trees flourish. On the streets of Skytown, you don’t want for anything, not a courtesy bus nor an over-elaborate high-five. “They’re putting in swimming pools just now,” says the skinny-trousered lad taking me to meet the Scotland legend as construction crews dig. “Look,” he adds, as we pass an on-site shop, “you can even get your hair and beauty here.” Maybe Souness popped into the salon today because on Sky Sports the night before last he was modelling a beard and now he is clean-shaven. The beard was much-discussed. It was, as they say, “trending”. And amid the cyber-chatter a text was pinged to his mobile at the very moment he was opining on Real Madrid’s revival of the gallactico concept – “Get rid of it.” “The wife didn’t like it,” laughs Souness. “I grew it on holiday and came back to work straight off the plane. Her message was: ‘Don’t come home with that’.” It made him look kingly, I suggest. “No,” he insists, “it made me look too bloody old.” There is a generation of Scots who used to have a little bit of a man-crush on Graeme Souness and I’m one of them. In the 1970s and early 1980s no other footballer played like him or looked like him – no Scot at any rate. Next to the standard-issue carrot-tops and comb-over guys, the peely wallys and the wee bauchles, Souness resembled nothing so much as a Greek god. Sounessyus carried a book of his philosophies with a secret compartment for a dagger. He was the playmaker with the haymaker, the smiling assassin who behind the fearsome moustache probably wasn’t smiling at all. Of course we winced when the confrontations got even fiercer to compensate for the player getting slower, but everything considered, we were glad he was on our side. How he was a bad tackler and, in his mind, a bad husband and father It is admiration laced with trepidation which prevents me from suggesting that with his attire today – the skinny-trousered look in zazzy electric blue, co-ordinated trainers – he’s trying to look too bloody young. No need for any timidity, however, for he will talk about anything. How he was a bad tackler and, in his mind, a bad husband and father. What the great football city of Liverpool thinks of him these days. Why there’s nothing new in the game. He will even go all way back to Argentina 1978 for those of us still obsessed by that World Cup. First though he wants to tell me more about his holiday. “The reason Karen [the second Mrs Souness] wasn’t there was it was a dad-and-lad vacation. Just me and my son James, eight days in Montana, an unbelievable trip. The first two days on horseback to get there, then floating down a river trying to catch trout. This was the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He sounds like he might have been Scottish, doesn’t he? [Roots in Bavaria, actually]. In his life Bob campaigned for the area to be protected as the great outdoors but this only happened after he died. No drilling or fracking can happen there, not even farming. There was no hot water, hence the wilderness beard. But James and I had a fantastic time, camping out among the bears and wolves.” Fracking is only a modish technical term for what used to happen to the earth below football pitches when our man – of Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Sampdoria, Rangers and on 54 occasions Scotland – stomped across them, showing who was boss. James is 15, which was his old man’s age when he left home in Edinburgh to begin asserting himself at Tottenham. Another chuckle. “Tottenham had Alan Mullery, England captain. They had Martin Peters, World Cup-winner, ten years ahead of his time. They had Steve Perryman. And there was this little squirt from Carrickvale Secondary knocking on Bill Nic’s [Nicolson’s] door demanding to know why he wasn’t getting a game.” Our chat is happening amid sofa-heavy informality where earwiggers might be surprised to hear Souness,
ostensibly on promotional duty for the new English Premier League season, detail his peak-years grooming regime. Earwigging the adjacent sofas we can hear jokes about Liverpool being workshopped for the Soccer AM show. Souness, of course, was an Anfield icon, lifting three European Cups. But all that changed when he sold the story of his triple heart bypass to the Sun, a paper which enraged Merseyside with its claims of Liverpool fans pickpocketing the dead in the Hillsborough disaster. The Reds’ charge to the title, faltering at the last, was one of last season’s great stories, but when the cameras panned to Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen in the posh seats the third member of the holy Scotia trinity was absent. Also remembering his fall-outs while an unsuccessful Liverpool manager, I ask how he would describe relations with the city and the club now and he says: “Permanently damaged. I think I’ll remain unpopular there and that’s the price I’ll have to pay. I made an error of judgment but I can only apologise so many times. I’m just going to have to live with that.” There are a few Souness images in the fitba’ tapestry, one being Liverpool’s tartan triumvirate threatening to run off with the 1978 European Cup. Scripted? “Totally spontaneous. Although after that, every trophy the club won, we had to repeat it. The photographers would go: ‘Give us the Jock picture.” Another unforgettable image is Souness on a sweltering Malaga night of ultimate heartache explaining our third World Cup exit on goal difference in succession and he’s bare-chested. “Scary,” he says, but only if you don’t know that as a lad he won a Tarzan-o-like contest at Butlin’s in Ayr. “I don’t remember taking off my shirt but it sounds likely, doesn’t it?” At this point I mildly offend him by asking how his Italian adventure of a few years later shaped his personal style. No no, he was always fairly “continental” as far as his Scotland team-mates were concerned. “I used cologne – unheard of among the guys. I used conditioner in my hair – unheard of. I used a hairdryer – unheard of.” It’s written in legend that room-mate Dalglish, possibly glimpsing his first-ever barnet-blaster, was too nervous to be left alone with Souness, thinking he might be gay. “Absolutely true. I think that was 1974 when I just got into the squad for a friendly in West Germany before the World Cup. Poor Kenny. “Among the rest of the lads I was regarded – quite correctly, incidentally – as cocky, vain, arrogant and the rest. Archie Gemmill called me the Chocolate Soldier because I’d most likely eat myself and he was dead right. But one of these things was essential for professional sport. You need to be a little bit arrogant. You certainly needed it the way football was played in my era.” Strains of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina Maybe the most famous image, though, is from the ’78 World Cup when the cameras panning along the team changed too late to the strains of Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, pausing at Souness for the line: “The answer was there all the time.” “Well,” he says, “I became a manager myself later so I understood why Ally [MacLeod] played the guys who’d got us to Argentina, [bruce] Rioch and [Don] Masson.” Even though they’d come off the back of poor seasons for their clubs? He doesn’t take the bait. “Ally had to show them loyalty. But maybe I should have played in the second game [against Iran] because that was one we had to win.” Sounessyus came down from the mountain or rather the prefabs in Edinburgh’s Saughton Mains, “Maybe where we lived wasn’t the most salubrious but I had everything a boy needed.” Dad James, a glazier, took on a second job and mum Elizabeth worked, too, but Souness is really talking about love. “My father doted on me, never once raised his hand.” His mother was firmer, reminding him he wasn’t yet the great player he reckoned himself to be. Now he is laughing at the memory of a photo of Tynecastle Boys Club Under-10s, him with a face like thunder because as captain he wasn’t sat in the middle of the front row clutching the newest trophy. “But as a young footballer I had a tremendous slice of luck having two older brothers who I was
always trying to beat but who also looked out for me.”

I wonder if anyone knows what the current setup is regarding the contracts for catering and programmes. I know Azure have got a contract for catering, do they pay a licence fee and then they take all the match day takings, or do they pay a lower fee and the club gets a slice of the till receipts? Same with the programmes, does the club get a fixed fee so it doesn't matter how many they sell or is the clubs income from programme sales dependant on the number sold? Anyone?

Racing Genk have tonight confirmed him as their new manager.

Good luck Eck... http://www1.skysports.com/football/news/12040/9435172?