Ally McCoist shares brilliant Graeme Souness tale from their days at Rangers
By George Overhill
Graeme Souness would play for England in unofficial matches against Scotland during Rangers training, according to Ally McCoist.
Scotland and Rangers legend McCoist fondly remembers the “controversial” clashes that used to occur when both men were at the club in the late 1980s along with several notable English names.
Speaking ahead of the Battle of the Brits tennis exhibition match featuring Andy and Jamie Murray, McCoist revealed that Ranger’s player-manager Souness would defect during eventful training contests.
“The unofficial Scotland v England matches, dear me, I hope the players show better, far better, behaviour next week than some of the players involved in those unofficial matches which we used to have in training at Rangers,” said McCoist via the Daily Record.
“Graeme Souness, for some reason known only to himself, decided that he wanted to play for England alongside big Terry Butcher, Chris Woods, Graham Roberts and Ray Wilkins against guys like myself, Davie Cooper, Ian Durrant, and Stuart Munro. We adopted Jimmy Nicholl for the five-a-sides on the Friday.
“Without going into too much detail, let’s just say that they used to get a little tasty.”
Controversial Souness
While the behaviour that occurred during these matches can only be imagined, Souness lining up for the English could well have tempered some of the challenges that might otherwise have been put in.
Rather than entrench Scottish and English factions within the squad, the manager crossing the border may have helped with squad cohesion.
Bemused though he may still be, it clearly entertained McCoist, and it certainly did not damage results with Rangers winning multiple league titles under Souness.
And the now-Sky Sports pundit was obviously not afraid of making controversial moves while in charge.
Not only was he able to take advantage of English clubs’ ban from European competition by signing established England internationals, but he also signed former-Celtic forward Mo Johnston.
At the time Rangers avoided signing Catholic players and Souness would later say in his book that he was “glad that I brought that ridiculous unwritten rule that was holding the club back to a spectacular end” [Scottish Sun].
In other Rangers news, this highly-rated youth ace could be involved against Lyon on Thursday night.