Less said, Souness mended. Not a phrase you’ll ever hear on the Hotline and certainly not the day after Graeme Souness - or Sourness as he was dubbed by one caller - slaughtered Celtic for failing to condemn the fans for their chanting during the minute’s applause for The Queen at Paisley on Sunday.
Predictably, the former Rangers manager’s comments brought a divided response, but by far the majority of points made were by Celtic fans blasting back. Eddie Easson, Ballingry, Fife emailed: “I call him Sourness. What a statement from the man that nearly caused a civil war in Turkey with his flag planting ceremony. Not all Celtic supporters can be tarred with his brush. Does he think for one minute the Ibrox support would clap or be silent for the Pope? No chance. What does he want the Celtic board to do? Shut the stadium? Get a grip Graeme.”
Richard Wharton, Carlisle, said: “So Souness opens his big mouth and says Celtic are a disgrace. Lots of people don’t like the Royals. Does he not realise that his beloved club is the most hated club in Scotland?” Paul Price, Belfast, said: ”I’m not here to defend what happened on Sunday as I was brought up to neither make fun of nor disrespect the dead but I’m just after watching footage of Mr Souness encouraging players in the Rangers dressing room to sing The Billy Boys so I won’t be taking any lectures from you Mr Souness.”
George Fairgrieve, Edinburgh, said: “Souness is quite right to condemn the anti royal chants from the Celtic support however he’s never quite so vocal when the Rangers support are blurting out their renditions of the Sash and the Famine Song - and, why would an Edinburgh boy support Rangers ...or Celtic?”
Fraser Davison, Glasgow, said: “Is Souness for real? Only days after saying football’s a man’s game and enraging female players and fans (rightly so) he comes back out from under his stone to mouth off again. Didn’t hear him being so quick to condemn the unacceptable face of Scottish football in George Square after Gers won the title.”
But Andrew Lamb, Fraserburgh, emailed: “Graeme Souness is simply saying what most of us have said for years, that there’s a toxic element amongst the Celtic support who are driven by hatred and bitterness. That anti-Queen stuff was vile, and I personally walked away from being a Celtic supporter due to that Irish Republican tosh. It’s time that element was driven from football.”
Hibs fan John Scott, Grassmoor, said: “OK Hibs deserved criticism for disrupting a moment of respect. However the media whipping didn’t match the anger of the real Hibs fans standing near the morons chanting. But the accusation of cheating directed at our manager and players is pathetic, bordering on laughable. Hibs never came up with the phrase he earned the right to go down there. Nor did they coach other teams to time waste and go down when someone breathes on them.”
Onto Rangers, and the interview given by vice chairman John Bennett to club media didn’t go down too well with Ibrox fans.
Jimmy Mac, Glasgow emailed: “John Bennett only spoke about Champions League money but what happened to the estimated £50+m Europa League finalists cash and the player sales estimated at £50m - £16m Patterson, £22m Bassey, £10m Aribo, undisclosed players sale monies estimated £2m. That's an estimate of £100million which Bennett never mentioned but that money somehow flew away up into the sky. Bennett answered next to nothing and paid the support lip service only.”
Derek Adese, Dundee, said: “I couldn’t care less about Bennett and his cohorts. My one and only point was his comment: ‘I believe this to be the strongest Rangers team since I’ve been here.’ I don’t know how long he’s been here but I’ve been here for over 50 years, sticking up for my team. This team is not nearly as strong as last year’s, so even if he’s been two years in his job, he’s gone backwards. It’s time to get the finger out before the support wanes.”
Drew Ferguson, Oban, said: “I listened to the interview with John Bennett and he eloquently stated that Rangers need to be ‘First in Class’ in all aspects of the business model at Ibrox and that is applaudable. But for Rangers to be ahead of the rest then recruitment needs to be far better to improve the quality of the team, as at this point in time giving the new recruits time to ‘settle in’ means Celtic running away with the league and failure to be in Europe after Christmas. That cannot be a good business model to take forward.”
And finally, Kenny Wilson, Moffat, said: “Rangers fans are rightly having a laugh at Celtic getting beat by St Mirren but don’t they realise when they say the result shows how bad we are what it actually shows is how bad they really are if St Mirren beat us and we beat you 4-0? This after they struggled to beat a Dundee Utd team at home that Celtic beat 9-0 away ? Do the maths.”
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