History of Rangers F.C. - The Souness Revolution

The Souness Revolution

In April 1986, Graeme Souness was appointed as Rangers' first player-manager by chairman David Holmes. Souness had previously been playing in Italy with U.C. Sampdoria and made the move to Glasgow for a £300,000 fee. This was the first of many big money transfer deals to be made at Rangers. Although the first deal Souness was involved with was regarding his backroom staff. He brought in Walter Smith, from Dundee United as his assistant and ex-Coventry City manager Don Mackay as reserve-team coach.

Souness' first flurry into the transfer market resulted in a £175,000 purchase, Colin West. The investment made in West was small compared to that made in other members of the playing staff. Souness took advantage of the European competition ban imposed by UEFA on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Due to this, plus a sizeable transfer kitty, he was able to attract the cream of English sides talent. The first of many international players arrived in the shape of Chris Woods, followed by the likes of England deputy captain Terry Butcher and former Manchester United defender Jimmy Nicholl.

The 1986–87 season would be the first time in eight seasons that Rangers finished top of the Scottish Premier Division. But the season began eventfully with player-manager Souness being sent-off in the first league match of the season on 9 August 1986. A violent foul on Hibernian's George McCluskey meant Souness had to watch the 2–1 defeat from the stands. But forty-three matches; thirty-one wins, seven draws and five defeats later Rangers were the champions. The league crown was not Souness' first Rangers trophy however, a 2–1 win over Celtic gave them a 1986 Scottish League Cup Final win. He also won the Glasgow Cup thanks to an Ally McCoist hat-trick.

That same season, goalkeeper Chris Woods set the then British football shut out record of 1196 minutes. From 26 November 1986, when he conceded a goal in a UEFA Cup 1–1 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach, until 14 games later on 30 January 1987 when Adrian Sprott of Hamilton Academical knocked Rangers out of the Scottish Cup by a single goal.

The following season Rangers could not build on the success of the previous. Despite the arrival's of Trevor Francis, Ray Wilkins, Mark Walters, Mark Falco, John Brown and Richard Gough, who became Scotland's first £1 million player. The title defence began badly, three points from the first ten, that added with injuries and suspensions meant the club finished third, twelve points behind champions Celtic. The League Cup Final victory was the only bright spark that season, although there was a decent run the European Cup with Dynamo Kiev and David White's foes Górnik Zabrze as scalps. A final against Aberdeen saw Rangers win 5–3 on penalties after drawing 3–3. The Scottish Cup ended in the fourth round at the hands of Dunfermline Athletic.