Regarding the first point, it was widely accepted that the big man was only here in the short term and I feel that if he left at the end of the season few would have held it against him. However, he has jumped ship in the middle of a championship race where we need all our players to perform at the top of their game – never mind just stay at the club! It also sticks in the throat that he has chosen to ply his trade at St James over Ibrox (although not quite the embarrassment of the exodus to Blackburn).
Of course the Premiership is very attractive to any top class player, but surely waiting to the end of the season to help us to the title and in the hope of securing a bigger move would have been a wiser decision for JAB to make. He’s asked for the forgiveness of the fans, however, I for one cannot grant him that. He used our club and abandoned us when we needed him (and made a pretty penny into the bargain). I certainly wont be booing him when he returns to the ‘Brox in the summer, but I’m sure he will not get the warm reception he hopes for.
Moving on to Murray and Souness is where I really start to get worked up. In world football I have never heard of a former manager continually pillaging a club for the cream of the talent on anywhere near the scale that Souness has done with Rangers. I would also argue that Souness has got tremendous value for money. Tugay, for example, was picked up for around £1m. While Advocaat was clearly not a great fan of him, it must have been recognised he was a full international and should have been valued accordingly.
Although we got decent money for Barry I would still argue we could have held out for more. Amo was quite cheap also, but at his age and with only one year left on his contract it was perhaps a fair enough price. And then there was Boumsong. Eight million pounds is a lot of money for a player in the current transfer market, however when you look at the £13m that Real spent on Woodgate it is clear we have been done. Boumsong is a better player in my opinion and also has the advantage of not being perpetually injured. Souness claims to be a Rangers man? My eye he is. He takes advantage of his relationship with Murray to rob Rangers of their finest players. In saying this I’m not sure which is worse, Souness doing this, or Murray allowing him to.
Rangers till I die
ROSS