Graeme Souness vents anger at Gers snub...

[ian1964 10,761]

...as he reveals his part in Brian Kennedy's failed 11th hour Ibrox bid.

 

THE former Ibrox boss vented his anger at chief executive Charles Green in a scathing attack on the Rangers boardroom chaos.

 

GRAEME SOUNESS last night revealed he was part of Brian Kennedy’s failed 11th hour bid to stop Mike Ashley seizing control of Rangers.

 

And the former Light Blues manager branded former chief executive Charles Green a “pr**k” during a scathing assessment of the never-ending boardroom chaos at Ibrox.

 

Souness has told for the first time how he teamed up with old pal Kennedy last month when the Sales Shark owner launched a £3million rescue package after being approached by former chief executive Graham Wallace – only for the rest of the current regime to rubber-stamp take a £2m funding deal from Ashley instead.

 

That setback came two-and-a-half years after Souness and Kennedy’s Blue Knights thought they had managed to get through the Ibrox front-door, only for disgraced Yorkshireman Green to grab control.

 

Souness is angry about what has happened at his former club and concerned over Rangers’ future.

 

But he reckons that would not have been the case had he and Kennedy got their way.

 

When asked if he was also involved in the latest move, Souness said: “Yes. I had a week with Brian in Majorca three weeks ago. But if it’s not to be it’s not to be.

 

”It never got beyond a bid. And they never wanted Brian’s money this time either.

 

“When we met a couple of weeks ago, we never went into detail because, the last time, we believed we had it. Brian believed he had it only to be let down and deeply disappointed. We even came up to watch a Rangers and Celtic game because we believed we had it.

 

“I think this time around he was always thinking the worst.

 

“Given the structure the way it is now I would think that’s it finished now.

 

”I’m angry about it and saddened by it in equal amounts because a lot has been allowed to happen.

 

“I don’t want to get into being involved in a libel case.

 

“All I would say is that if we had got it the people there would have had the club for the right reasons.”

 

Souness believes the club has missed out by turning Kennedy down and added: “They certainly did the first time around.

 

“It would have the right people running it for the right reasons.

 

“That would have been Walter [smith] and I and the right person as the owner. All of us there for the right reasons.

 

”I don’t know how Brian feels right now but I think his attitude to it has changed now the other folk are involved.”

 

Souness launched a scathing attack on Green as he revealed the Yorkshireman’s attempts to get him on board days before he completed his £5.5m buyout of the club’s assets back in the summer of 2012.

 

He explained: “What is it? Two years since that prick had it?

 

“The guy who knocked on my door one night asking me if I would get involved in it, with him. Charles Green.

 

“Late one night about 11 o’clock, my answer was no.

 

“I got a phonecall about an hour before that saying he was coming to see me. I had been asked to see him and I had refused.

 

“I got a call an hour before to say he was on his way to see me. We went for a cup of tea at a hotel around the corner.

 

“You’ve got me angry now…

 

“Who knows what would have happened if we had got in? But I’ll tell you, the stadium would still be full.”

 

Souness has no idea what the future holds now for Rangers under Ashley but said he had done a tremendous job with Newcastle.

 

He said: “I don’t want to end up in court.

 

“I wouldn’t be critical of Mike Ashley. He is a fantastic businessman who saw an opportunity at Newcastle and it’s very hard to be critical, having worked there myself.

 

“I think he has done the right thing there.

 

“What I worked there the largest shareholder was under enormous pressure to make changes too quickly.

 

“He lived in the city. Mike Ashley doesn’t live in the city and has not listened to any fans forums or phone-ins.

 

“He has stuck with his manager and it looks like he is getting the rewards of that.

 

“That’s what it needed. It needs a strong owner and that’s what he is. Someone who has been supremely successful in anything he has touched.

 

“I think in terms of Newcastle supporters they should be counting their blessings rather than being critical.”

 

Souness also aimed a blast at those who celebrated Rangers’ demise when he said: “ All I would say is that all the people who enjoyed their demise, if they had their time again, would they have voted the same way?

 

“Celtic getting gates of less than 20,000? I think it has damaged football, hopefully not beyond repair.

 

“Football goes in cycles. Over a 10-year period, they say if you lose a support, it’s very hard to get that back.

 

“I don’t know if it will get back.

 

“Rangers will get back to the SPL, the Old Firm games will be enormous affairs again and the passion will remain the same.

 

 

 

“But will it ever get back to where it was six or seven years ago? I very much doubt it.”

 

Meanwhile, Rangers fans have written to stock market bosses urging them to investigate Ashley’s Ibrox power grab.

 

The Rangers Supporters Trust has also raised a number of concerns about the current board’s handling of the League One champions, accusing them of a operating with a “reckless and irresponsible attitude to going concern status”.

 

Newcastle United owner Ashley holds just under nine per cent of the cash-strapped Glasgow giants but has been effectively pulling the strings since the club was forced to accept his offer of a £2million loan.

 

The terms of that crisis credit line allows the Sports Direct billionaire to name two directors to the Ibrox board. Former Magpies managing director Derek Llambias was Ashley’s first pick with the second yet to be revealed.

 

Ashley also runs Rangers’ retail division – a deal which hands him 49 per cent of the club’s shirt sale profits – and owns the naming rights to the stadium following an agreement he struck with former chief executive Charles Green for just £1.

 

Hampden bosses have already written to both Rangers and Ashley seeking “clarification” on the 50-year-old Londoner’s involvement.

 

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/graeme-souness-vents-anger-gers-4611416

[Siam69 0]

Souness saying Green's a Prick.

 

That's quite diplomatic to be fair............

[Hildy 0]

I don't know what kind of owner Kennedy would have been but I don't believe Souness and Smith running the football operation would have been a good thing.

 

That's not to say that I'm happy with things as they are - I'm not - but the club needs to move on from old faces and old ways and embrace a more enlightened way. Under Smith and Souness, that would not have happened.

 

Smith and Souness are a couple of old stagers who are aggrieved that the Rangers they knew is almost unrecognisable. We are all sorry that it has come to this, but it happened because too many people who should have known better naively believed that it could not.

 

The future of Rangers, whatever it is, should be Smith-free and Souness-free - no matter who owns the club.

[Ibrox Street Boy 0]

I stopped believing in GS when he left us for Liverpool

[the gunslinger 3,366]

he's not wrong. green taking over has been an unmitigated disaster that we may never recover from.

[Zappa 0]