Graeme Souness has made some curious comments today regarding his role in the managerial hunts, and has slightly clouded his imminent arrival back at the club with some views which pertain to the correction Ibrox Noise offered a few days ago.
In bizarre comments to Jim White on Talksport, he revealed that not only was Frank Lampard his number one choice, the final call absolutely wasn’t down to him and while he does praise Clement highly, he’d have gone with Lamps.
On Lampard he said:
“There were two outstanding candidates; Frank and Philippe. The final say wasn’t with me. For me, Frank had the edge because of this; Frank, I think, has still got a great deal to offer. Taking the Chelsea job when he did was always going to be very, very difficult. The Everton job is a basket case. And have they improved since Frank left? Not a bit. So, I wouldn’t be too critical of Frank. The thing that encouraged me about Frank is that he wanted to do it. He doesn’t need the money. He wants to be a successful manager. And he fancied the Rangers job.”
So a ringing endorsement of Lampard who was completely Souness’ number one choice.
On Clement he says:
“(Clement) interviewed brilliantly. He’s got presence. He’s got a very, very good CV and he played the game. He was an outstanding candidate, and that’s why the board went with him. I fully get that. Football players are a cynical judge. You stand in front of them, and they are judging you. This guy has got presence, stature and his English is excellent. He talks what I think is sensible football chat. He’s not making it too scientific like a hell of a lot of coaches do today.”
While praising Clement fairly, he does admit the board overruled his own choice of Lampard, and we have to thoroughly question his wisdom in wanting the ex-England star over Clement.
Furthermore, he implies Kevin Muscat wasn’t even in the thinking by the end.
It’s all a bit odd, and it has been confirmed by himself that he’s close to returning on a consultancy basis – but his absolute steadfast belief that Lampard was the right man over Philippe Clement does make us wonder if Souness’ judgement and wisdom has potentially taken a bit of a nosedive lately.
He’s a good Rangers man, but to back Lampard over Clement is very, very strange.
We knew of little-to-no Rangers fans who endorsed Lampard like this, and our every poll had the former Chelsea legend among the bottom contenders consistently.
By no means a horrible manager, and Ibrox Noise did defend certain aspects of his credentials, but to back him over Clement really is a bizarre choice.
Still, all about opinions, and if the board had listened to Souness, Frank Lampard would be our manager.
Says a lot.