There was a time when the name above the manager’s door at Ibrox could be safely carved into brass. In more recent years, it might have been more convenient to use a whiteboard and a marker pen.
Nothing, surely, illustrates any football club being stuck in a vortex of failure and despair quite like the rapid hiring and firing of its most public face.
When Graeme Souness arrived in Glasgow’s South Side to great fanfare 40 years ago, he was Rangers’ eighth permanent manager in 114 years.
It says a great deal about both the flawed judgments of those on high and the palpable lack of success of late that Derek McInnes was the sixth individual in as many years to sit in the same hot seat when he returned to take charge of the club this summer.
‘It used to be called Latin disease when I was a player, where managers got very little time,’ Souness recalled. ‘But that’s in the British game now as well.
‘And it’s amplified here in Glasgow because finishing second is deemed a failure. That’s the price on the ticket if you’re managing one of the Old Firm. You either accept that on day one or you’re in for a very difficult period.
Derek McInnes is the latest in a long line of recent Rangers managers, but will he succeed?
‘Rangers have had a lot of managers in recent years because that’s the nature of the business.
‘There are only certain leagues where finishing second is a disaster. It would be for Bayern Munich and it’s the same story in Spain. But it’s not the case in England. Finish second down there and it’s deemed a good season.’
In fairness, as a former player and a lifelong supporter of the club, that statement will hardly come as a revelation to the current incumbent.
McInnes fully appreciates that there are no nuances or excuses admissible in his new role and no pats on the back come May if his side are seen to be heading in the right direction. He knows he needs to find the panacea to Rangers’ ills in jig time.
Souness won five league titles and three European Cups in his time with Liverpool yet has often spoken of the unprecedented pressure he felt when he agreed to become player-manager at Ibrox at the age of 33.
‘Derek obviously knows the football club having been there as a player,’ he added. ‘He knows Scottish football having been around the Scottish scene.
‘He was successful at Hearts last season because if you ask any of their supporters what their year was like they’ll say it was disappointing in the end, but they had a great season. That doesn’t apply at Rangers.
‘So, although all those boxes are ticked, he’ll find himself under enormous pressure that he’s never had before simply because of the nature of the job in Glasgow.
‘You don’t get a job in football management because it’s going well. That’s rare.
McInnes endured a frustrating start to his Rangers reign as his side drew 1-1 at Dundee United
‘No recent Rangers manager had taken over a team that was doing that, it’s very simple. And every one of them had been under enormous pressure.
‘Finishing second just isn’t good enough. But he’ll know that having been a player at the club and enjoyed success. He knows what success feels like.’
Now a sprightly 73, Souness is from a different generation, yet it seems curious that his dealings with McInnes in football’s village amounts to little more than a chance encounter several years back.
‘I don’t know Derek, although I met him on the railway station platform at Preston one day,’ he recalled. ‘I think he was coming back from a cruise and I was heading down south having done some work at Blackburn.
‘He was heading back up the road. Nice guy. Really nice guy.’
Given the job he’s got on his hands, is that a concern as much as a compliment?
‘That’ll change,’ Souness replied. ‘I don’t think management is about that anymore. It’s about keeping the players onside, the ones who aren’t starting every week — keeping a happy group. I don’t think there’s ever been more difficult time to be a manager than it is today.’
For supporters of a certain vintage, Souness’s appointment was a seminal moment in history.
Souness was helping to promote Premier Sports’ extensive coverage of the Scottish game
Capable of persuading a string of established England internationals to make Ibrox their temporary home, he claimed Rangers’ first title in eight years at the first time of asking, paving the way for Walter Smith to eventually rack up nine-in-a-row.
But the good old days now feel a long way back. Since the financial implosion of 2012, the trophy haul has amounted to one title, one Scottish Cup and one League Cup.
‘They’ve been disappointing,’ Souness said of the intervening years. ‘You can talk about the structures of a football club, but the most important thing you have to get right is what goes on the pitch.
‘I think Rangers, in their recruitment, for a long period of time have been under par. You can have every other part of your club working perfectly, but if the Saturday isn’t right then none of that matters.
‘But if it’s working on the pitch then everything is rosy in the garden.’
It’s for this very reason that Souness doesn’t envy McInnes’s lot.
A situation where any manager has only a partial say in recruitment yet is fully responsible for the results doesn’t sit well with him.
‘I’m sure when he walked in the door all the questions would have been asked,’ he offered. ‘If I had been a manager walking in, I would have been, “Right, what’s the story? Do you have money? And who is going to make those decisions?”.
‘That’s why I’m a dinosaur because I couldn’t work under the modern way that most clubs seem to do where someone else is responsible for the most important part of the job at a football club — and that’s recruitment.
‘If you get that right then everything else will follow. If you don’t get that right, then you’ll be changing your manager on a regular basis.’
Souness won the Scottish title in his first season as player-manager at Rangers
There’s a theory that the squad has long lacked leaders. Few supporters, truthfully, mourned the departure of James Tavernier, a skipper who was accustomed to being second best.
The fervent hope is that handing the armband to Lawrence Shankland, another boyhood supporter, will see a change in fortunes.
‘Time will tell, it’s early days,’ Souness cautioned. ‘Playing for Hearts and anyone else in Scotland is very different to playing for Rangers or Celtic. If you can deal with that then great.
‘I sat next to the boy Shankland at a dinner four or five years ago and he was charming, a rock steady character. That’s how he appeared to me, so he should be fine. But they are going to be tested.
‘Unless you’ve been to Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool or Man United then you’re going to be tested like you’ve never been tested before.’
■ Graeme Souness was promoting Premier Sports’ coverage of Scottish football including over 80 matches from the Scottish Premiership, Premier Sports Cup and Scottish Cup. Fans can watch an entire season of football for only £99 using promo code FITBA26.
