GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - DECEMBER 30: Graeme Souness, Scottish former football player and manager, is seen in attendance prior the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Celtic FC and Rangers FC at Celtic Park Stadium on December 30, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Several months ago, I did a piece on this blog about Graeme Souness and the increasingly bizarre nature of some of the things that come out of his mouth. I suggested that perhaps those around him should check whether he’s operating on a rational level or if he might be suffering from some sort of emotional or medical condition.
I said at the time that his comments had become so erratic and strange that he was now more to be pitied than scorned.
He does make it difficult to pity him, though. Some of what he says is clearly designed to be scorned. I sometimes wonder if we’re watching some form of Stewart Lee-level trolling, where we are the butt of the joke.
Because not even people suffering an acute emotional or mental collapse could possibly believe some of what he comes out with. So, I have to presume that at least some of it is calculated to just annoy people.
The media loves this guy. When he spoke a few months ago about how £50 million needed to be plunged into the Ibrox first-team squad to bring them up to par with Celtic, the Daily Record hailed that as a “plan” rather than just a bunch of stupid nonsense coming out of an idiot’s mouth. That’s not a plan by any stretch of the imagination. And when the takeover talk broke in the same newspaper, they were quick to suggest that his plan might soon be coming to pass.
There’s not much more that needs to be said about that rag and the way it has covered this whole story. I’m going to be talking about it later in the week, specifically two aspects of it that they seem largely ignorant of. But that they have hailed Souness as some kind of visionary genius for predicting it is a stretch, even for them, and too dumb even for their dwindling band of low-IQ readers.
Still, he keeps making my point for me.
If he’s not losing his marbles, then he’s just trolling people. The latest example came last week in yet another headline the Ibrox-loving media lapped up. It was as obvious a piece of trolling as you’re ever going to see—his contention that Leeds United might become a feeder club for the Ibrox side once the takeover is completed. And, the thing is, a lot of their fan sites actually took the idea seriously.
Now, it must be said that the mainstream media didn’t take it seriously. They ran the story, but they didn’t treat it with any real respect. It was their supporters’ websites that tried to explore this as if it were a serious proposition rather than something utterly ridiculous—which is really all that it was.
Do we really need to point out the ways in which this is barmy? Apparently, we do, because they actually discussed it as if it were a legitimate view. The contention was that the Ibrox club is bigger than Leeds, that they have a better chance of getting into the Champions League, that they are, in fact, the blue-chip asset of the two, and that Leeds—if they get to the Premier League—will be little more than a mid-table struggler, never seriously challenging for trophies.
The operating theory here is that if the investors don’t already realise that the Ibrox club is a better bet and a bigger name than Leeds, they’ll realise it once they’re in the door and see the size of the club. At that point, it will skew all their investment and plans towards Ibrox instead.
You can almost hear the gears turning in their heads, can’t you? You can see how this idea has taken hold of some of them and might even sound convincing to them. To the rest of us, it sounds like moon-howling.
If Leeds get to the Premier League, the value of their investment will triple at least. Everything they do will be focused on keeping them there as long as possible and moving them as far up the table as they can. Because that’s about prestige. It’s about money. It’s about reputational enhancement.
A Premier League club is a vastly bigger asset than a Scottish one, and I write that, of course, as a blogger covering Scottish football and one club in particular. Even I can see that without Premier League-level exposure, even our club would be regarded as the lesser investment of the two.
Look, Souness has actually done us a favour here by putting this discussion front and centre. This needs to be discussed in a rational manner—not his mad idea, but a proper discussion about what the status of the two clubs would be under this joint ownership arrangement.
In any such scenario, one club will be the priority, and the other will be the afterthought. That is just how it works. There is no such thing as treating both equally. These investors are not stupid. These are not people who got rich throwing good money after bad. When it comes time to prioritise their spending, they’re going to prioritise Leeds.
Ibrox fans think there will be other advantages. They believe they’ll be able to share analytics data and transfer strategy. But ask yourself this—if a player is scouted by the 49ers’ analytics department and is considered the kind of player who can generate tens of millions in sell-on clauses and future value, which club do you think will sign him? Which club do you think they’re scouting him for?
This is like the debate over Red Bull, which has Leeds fans increasingly worried. If they’re using Red Bull’s analytics data to sign players, they’re only going to get the ones Red Bull passes up. Because Red Bull isn’t going to share all its top-level scouting reports with them.
Now, that may not mean the Ibrox club will be a Leeds feeder club, but the impact won’t be much different. They’ll certainly be eating second at the trough. And that alone should raise alarm bells among those hyping this takeover as some sort of transformation for their club.
I think the feeder club scenario is more likely than not. I think they will be a feeder club for Leeds. And I don’t care what the current Leeds chairman says to the contrary. If Ibrox fans want to believe glib assurances, then they’re mugs.
There’s nothing he can be held to there. He didn’t make those statements in a court of law—he made them in front of a bunch of sports journalists and industry insiders. Almost every one of them knows better and can recognise the situation for what it is.
Anyone who owns both an English Premier League club and a Scottish Premiership club will not be viewing the Scottish one as the bigger asset or the bigger priority. And if they can use the Scottish club for development purposes, why wouldn’t they? Especially if it strengthens the playing squad at Leeds and gives them a better chance of a return at the other club, and on the cheap.
I don’t know whether Souness realises this or not. I don’t know whether he’s just having a laugh. But I do know that fan media should be a lot more focused and paying much more attention to the complexities and possibilities—both good and bad. They should not be getting carried away with hyperinflated fantasies of a transformed club that finally has the wealth to challenge Celtic. They are a long way from that, no matter how this takeover saga ends.
This is a high-risk moment for them. And over the next couple of days, I’m going to explain why. All I’ll say for now is that they are in the midst of a discussion about their club’s future that is being dominated almost entirely by hyperbolic press stories with no grounding in reality.
And that is a profoundly dangerous position for them to be in.
They should recognise it—because they’ve been here before.
‘…..they’ve been here before’,
Don’t try to reason with them, it’s their Klub. If they want to feck it up then let them.
We’re just jealous Timmies.
When the dust settles they will rue the day.
Any collateral damage inflicted on the SPFL will be laid at the door of the games administrators who’ve let a 12 year old new Club subvert all the norms of sporting conduct, Financial integrity and professionalism. In their thirst to have a Ranjurs, any ranjerz in the League they have allowed the ‘tail to wag the dog’ and abrogated their own responsibilities to the other Clubs in the League. It’s time the other Clubs put a stop to it.
It’ll nevertheless happen sadly SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS (The other clubs putting a stop to it)…
Every fucker is terrified of them –
The SFA, The SPFL, The Scummy’s of The Scummy Scottish Football Media, Polieas Alba, The Scottish Government, the whole fuckin country…
And none more so than that yellow bastard Lucan at Celtic FC !
The dyed in the wool bluenoses are starting to believe that the bold Barry and his belligerent band of Blues brothers are on the cusp, with this takeover, of bringing the bright ‘bluebells are blue’ days back to Ibrokes.
I still can’t really believe that any sensible group would consider investing in the Ned, white and blue “ penny arcade shares” but it will be interesting to see how this all unravels!
Of course, when you have a club that has so many “friends” in high places, we have to consider all manner of permutations that may occur !
As a slight aside, I just watched the highlights of Sunday’s game and it actually wasn’t as bad, as watching the 90 mins inside Paradise lol.
What I will say, is that despite all the talk of us being so poor etc, they weren’t great either, and no excuses, but McLean, ( & Beaton,) as expected, allowed them to be overly aggressive! Regardless of what our fans may say about us being soft and weak, when you are allowed to tackle and challenge with impunity, then of course you’ll keep doing it! The challenges on Maeda, were shocking !
Footballers, and ours are no different, can have off days, and we certainly did on Sunday.
However, let them celebrate their win over us, and their march to the EL quarter final!
I know which yardstick I’d rather use for success!
When the trophies are being handed out, they are still at the back of the queue,
My only concern is that our board will not support BR in trying to keep improving our team and squad, which we all know, is most definitely a huge requirement!
We can only hope ! HH
Aye Gerry the staunch group of failed ex lower league managers/ TV and radio pundits had their players well primed to run, press and foul their way through the game, which most Celtic supporters new they would. Just a pity for us that BR and his coaching staff hadn’t learned the lesson from the two previous Glasgow Derbies. We played into their hands once again by sticking to our playing out from the back predictability.
A supporter on another site said in defence of BR that the players will just have to pass better, what a load of bollocks. It doesn’t matter how good you are at the short passing game, if you only have a couple of players in a position to receive a short pass, it is very easy for a high pressing team to shut down your options. No Celtic supporter wants the team to continually play long balls, but some of us would like to see a bit more variety in playing the ball out of defence against high pressing teams.
To have made it so easy for The Rangers in the 1st half hour of that game should surely annoy BR, it was that period that won the game for them and it led to some of our players having their worst games ever in a Celtic Jersey. Like the Brugge game at Celtic Park we all turned up expecting a good victory, but they also had sussed out our predictability and made the 1st half one of the most uncomfortable nights i’ve ever had watching Celtic.
I’m not a critic of BR how could you be, he’s brought great success to our club and is continuing to do so, but on his determination to continue short passing your way out from the back with no variety in your play, even when it is obviously not working, is making it easy for teams with nothing like our skill and fast pacy football to put pressure on us, which leads to costly mistakes.
micmac, I can’t disagree with a lot of what you’ve written, but I still have plenty of faith in our manager and players to bounce back well.
With regard to their predictable aggression…if we had refs that punished obvious fouls, then they wouldn’t be able to continue tackling with impunity. Not an excuse just fact !
The defeat, and manner of it was hugely disappointing, and none of us will ever defend a performance/result like that.
What I will say is that I still believe a lot of our fans go a bit ott, and tend to lose a bit of perspective, especially when we lose to Sevco.
The last three games against them, we have conceded nine goals, but still managed to win the first trophy on offer, and despite two defeats, are still on course for a treble.
We can’t ever forget where we presently sit, in terms of success, in comparison to their paucity of silverware.
I think if there were an honest few fans amongst them, they’d trade their bragging rights and EL quarter final trophy, for our success.
Again, I’m just stating that before any of us start thinking that B Ferguson and his management team are the new messiahs, just remember that we’ve seen this movie previously play out, so many times.
The time to really start criticising our manager is if Sevco do this regularly in games of REAL significance, and it costs us silverware, and worst case scenario, a league title.
Keep the faith ! HH
Just seen a news feed on big hansen good man feart the worst last year on him god bless.
I think it’s very clear that the main sports media have stopped taking Souness seriously. He disappeared from the Whyte & Jordan show very quickly after making his daft claim that Arsene Wenger wasn’t a “proper” football guy.
When Talksport are distancing themselves from you but retain people like Martin Keown I think your race is run.
I’ve got a great friend and we’ve been through alot together over the last 30 odd years, ive known his brother longer, a 2nd family but even he has the Hun logic that they’re superior and everything would be sorted in the same warped Souness way.
Theyre NOT and never will be interested in a 5 year plan like Fergus has. I menrioned it yet again last week and he said no weve (they’ve) no got 5 years they need champions league money in 2, which means they’ll always have a 1 year plan.
No explanation or realisation, just throw money at it to beat Celtic NOW. We’ve helped each other through life but I really wonder about his sanity and knowledge and Care for his Own team when it comes to their own general welfare and survival chasing Celtic.
They’re all the same and realise 5 yeara would be 9 in a row going on 10. Terrified by us getting that close again