The John Souttar situation at Rangers is something that Ibrox Noise has covered quite a few times. It has been a long running background topic at the club and among supporters regarding the Scotland international and his exile from the team. We’ve discussed it in quite a few previous entries, but curiously enough, some more significant digging of late has seen a lot of new information emerge, which sheds a great deal of new light on why John Souttar Rangers scandal happened.
At the basic level, of course, John Souttar signed a new contract in February. Fast forward to July and he’s exiled from the trip to Spain and apparently looking for a transfer away. Not too much information was emerging at this point as to why this had happened and, indeed, to this date we still don’t actually firmly know precisely what transpired. But we do have some details which shed significant proportions of illumination on this topic.
The John Souttar hotel scandal can be discarded
The big conspiracy, which can first of all be completely discarded, was reported in early February and concerned some kind of controversy involving Rangers players, hotels, Rangers medical staff and physios. We can assure you that that story does not apply to John Souttar.
That chaos, which reportedly led to one medical staff at Rangers being suspended, claimed a number of Rangers players were involved, but there is no evidence whatsoever that Souttar was part of it, with one big clue. John Souttar had his contract extended for an extra year, with an option of a further one, only two or three weeks after those reports emerged. He was not part of that controversy. If there even was one.
We do not know the full details of what actually happened there, but it was nothing to do with John Souttar. So those crazy conspiracy theories you’ve been hearing about hotel rooms, women, and other such salacious information to do with personal lives have nothing to do with Souttar, to the best of our knowledge. There was a tacky and sleazy story reported by the Sun newspaper, but it offered no evidence and Rangers not only denied it completely, but the mythical physio in question (whose name remains anonymous) wouldn’t speak to the paper either.
The Souttar scandal fallout with Danny Röhl
What has emerged, however, is that there apparently was a bust up between him and Danny Röhl. Now bear in mind, of course, that John Souttar and Danny Röhl were bosom buddies around February and March. He’d just signed a new deal and Röhl was explaining how Souttar was the best defender at the club and he was looking forward to working with him for many, many months, if not years, to come.
This led to some unexpected outcomes around June or July, and that was that Souttar and Röhl appeared to have had a massive falling out, a huge argument. Souttar was very much in the team up till then, and those theories about Souttar taking Tavernier’s side over that whole bust up with Danny Röhl are a lot of hokum as well.
That one is complete nonsense. Because, at the very least, Souttar was on the bench that night after Tavernier was excluded. Souttar had been going through injury issues throughout the second half of the season. This was mainly through spring and into early summer, so he couldn’t start and play in every single match. He was required to recover from that to be ready and fit for the World Cup. Which he hoped to be included in. So that’s another theory that is not exactly bang on.
Difference of opinion from Souttar to Rangers
But the one that is more accurate is that he and Röhl did have a difference of views. It may have been in part about Tavernier, but it was after the season was over. The information that we have is that Souttar announced that he was not going to play under Danny Röhl again. We cannot fully verify this info but it’s what we’ve been given regarding John Souttar Rangers scandal.
He then looked for the move out. We do know that prior to Derek McInnes’ appointment, Souttar had links with Leicester for an escape route from Rohl. Not from Rangers per se, but from Danny Röhl. Before McInnes was even on the scene, Souttar was looking for a move. He and Röhl had had some kind of altercation. We do know that Röhl had previous for falling out with quite a few Rangers players.
We obviously know the big one with James Tavernier. But Nico Raskin as well had a bit of a bust up with the boss. One or two others weren’t exactly his best friend either. This is a major reason why the Split went so badly, because Röhl had lost the dressing room, but that’s another topic for another day.
McInnes inherited the Souttar scandal at Rangers
Consequently, the big information emerging in recent times is not to do with Derek McInnes not rating Souttar or Derek McInnes having a falling out with Souttar. It is, in actual fact, to do with a situation that McInnes has inherited directly.
The Souttar situation is completely above him. He has actually admitted that certain selections of certain players are not his call. That’s also been related in recent press conferences. Ones where he admitted that the Souttar situation was only his understanding. Consequently he didn’t actually have any particular say over it. It is a situation that came onto his desk as soon as he arrived, not something that he caused.
And the baseline of what really happened is that once Souttar announced to higher-ups that he wasn’t going to play under Danny Röhl, the situation didn’t change under Derek McInnes.
That is to say, when John Souttar informed the higher-ups, and then the board and Röhl parted company, Souttar expected to be restored and ready to play under McInnes. But this is where the higher ups came in:
They rejected the notion.
Once Souttar had been ‘unprofessional’ and rejected one manager, that was enough. And the bosses at the club decided that he wasn’t to play for Rangers under McInnes either. This wasn’t a McInnes decision. It was a board decision.
Rangers hierarchy refused to reverse the decision
Put simply, Souttar doesn’t get to decide which manager he does and doesn’t play for, and it does appear that the board did like Röhl a lot and took personal exception to a player declaring he wouldn’t play for him again. Consequently, the decision wasn’t overturned when McInnes came in.
Souttar himself wanted to play for McInnes, but wasn’t being allowed to. He can train. He can be with the squad. But he will not play again, not for this club because of John Souttar Rangers scandal.
And there’s the problem. It doesn’t matter who Rangers manager is, John Souttar will not be allowed to play again for Rangers because he made the decision, it seems, to reject Danny Röhl regarding an issue from last season, and this has been upheld by the board.
There is no financial incentive for Rangers to literally reject a player that they have on their payroll because if they wanted simply to put him in the shop window to sell him. Playing him might be more handy than completely exiling him.
Look at Nico Raskin, an asset at the time for Standard Liège. He had a falling out with Ronny Deila. He ended up in the reserves and, despite the fact he had a market value of €10 million, Rangers got him for barely £1.5 million. It’s the same case as Souttar. He had an apparent falling out or disagreement with Danny Röhl. So he has never played since because the board have rejected him.
Souttar now needs to leave Rangers
From what we understand, the deal is that and very little else. It means that Souttar is completely surplus and needs to find a new club. Unfortunately, he’s under contract and can’t just leave as a free agent. Rangers also appear principally against paying him off by mutual consent. This then means rewarding a player that the board appears to have cast out.
John Souttar Rangers scandal is a bit of a messy one and a bit of a petty one from all sides, but that’s how it looks.