Graeme Souness Managerial Era
The Souness Revolution: English internationals came north, and the titles came back to Ibrox.
Graeme Souness was appointed Rangers' first player-manager in April 1986, joining from Sampdoria for 300,000 pounds and succeeding Jock Wallace. Rangers had not won the league since 1978, and with the backing of owner Lawrence Marlborough and chairman David Holmes he set out to reverse the usual flow of talent to England: his first signings were Ipswich captain Terry Butcher and Norwich goalkeeper Chris Woods, and later arrivals included Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens and Trevor Francis. The press called it the Souness Revolution.
Quick Facts
- League titles
- 1986-87, 1988-89, 1989-90
- League cups
- 1986-87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1990-91
- Key signings
- Terry Butcher
- Chris Woods
- Trevor Steven
- Gary Stevens
- Mo Johnston
- Left
- April 1991, to Liverpool; succeeded by Walter Smith
Reader's Guide
His own debut, at Hibernian on the opening day of 1986-87, ended with a sending-off after two bookings inside 34 minutes. The team still won the championship and the League Cup that season, beating Celtic 2-1 in the final. The League Cup was retained in 1987-88 against Aberdeen on penalties, although Celtic took the title, and Rangers then won the championship in 1988-89 and 1989-90 with two more League Cups.
The most significant act of the era was the signing of Mo Johnston in July 1989, the highest-profile Catholic to join a club that had for most of the 20th century refused to sign Catholics. Souness also clashed repeatedly with the SFA and the League over his after-match comments, serving touchline bans he sidestepped by naming himself as a substitute, and was fined 5,000 pounds in May 1990 for breaching one. He left in April 1991 to manage Liverpool, with assistant Walter Smith taking over as Rangers clinched a fourth title in five seasons.
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