For 90/91 regulars: Do you think we'd have won that with Souness in charge?

SM™

Kleiner Polizist
Staff member
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took a point off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
 
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took points off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
Jeezo you've got some memory mate.
I don't remember much about the run in apart from leaving Fir Park convinced we had blown it.
As for Souness, he was certainly a far better player than he was a manager and he was nowhere near the manager that Walter was.
I think you've got a point that the magic we all experienced with his arrival had diminished somewhat by the time he left.
 
It's a little bit before my time as I was 4 and about to turn 5 at the time but my dad has always maintained that when Souness decided to leave, leaving right now was not only correct it was the only option. If you want to leave Rangers the door is right there and it should always be this way.

One I do remember is persuading Laudrup to stay in 97 and unfortunately it was the very demonstrable proof that with Rangers you're either in 100% or should go.

I'm terms of would we have won it I lean yes. I believe winners like that do what is required but it is an interesting question to debate. No right or wrong just your opinion
 
Souness hardly played the final 2 years he was registered as a player so how can you possibly say 1 & 2IAR marked a decline?

I also don’t agree Mo Johnston was “done” season 90/91.
1. Because I was there every week.

2. Johnston didn't score a goal in his final 4 months with us, then barely any for Everton, Hearts or Falkirk. Seems inexplicable to me. Never once heard him asked to explain this, and even though he should never have been playing for us in the first place, I'd be keen to know the reason why he just seemed to lose the gift overnight.
 
1. Because I was there every week.

2. Johnston didn't score a goal in his final 4 months with us, then barely any for Everton, Hearts or Falkirk. Seems inexplicable to me. Never once heard him asked to explain this, and even though he should never have been playing for us in the first place, I'd be keen to know the reason why he just seemed to lose the gift overnight.
Why should he not have been playing for Rangers in the first place? He was a great signing at the time. It drove a dagger through the heart of every single Celtic fan, bar none. And it still haunts them to this day.
 
1. Because I was there every week.

2. Johnston didn't score a goal in his final 4 months with us, then barely any for Everton, Hearts or Falkirk. Seems inexplicable to me. Never once heard him asked to explain this, and even though he should never have been playing for us in the first place, I'd be keen to know the reason why he just seemed to lose the gift overnight.
To claim 1 & 2IAR were a decline on 1987/88 is mental mate.
 
My memory of it is that injuries stuffed us (what’s new) towards the end of that season and a bit of a rebuild was needed anyway (again, what’s new). As an example Scott Nisbet and Sandy Robertson both made 19 appearances that season, which is way more than I remember them playing.

I’m not sure Souness gets out of the players what Walter did when he came in.

Even after Motherwell I never thought we wouldn’t win the league, strange how confident I was looking back.
 
We nearly blew it the week before Motherwell at Love St when Sandy Robertson scored late on. The relief was unbelievable.
Myself and pals were p***Ed at Fir Park the following week and spent the last 20 mins screaming at Coop to stick one in his own net.
I also thought we'd blown it after that game.
 
Why should he not have been playing for Rangers in the first place? He was a great signing at the time. It drove a dagger through the heart of every single Celtic fan, bar none. And it still haunts them to this day.
Because he was a Catholic.

Obviously, that's not the reason, but I get this question every time I say we should never have signed him.

With it, I can sense an undercurrent of, "Go on, say it's because of his religion, so I can indulge in some serious virtue signalling."

So I might as well tell a monstrous fib. Give the people (and the interlopers) what they want.

But it is strange that no-one asks me this when I say that we should never have signed any other specific player.
 
I remember reading an interview with Souness where he said that we wouldn't have won nine in a row had he stayed as manager as he would have had us focusing more on Europe than domestic success. Just something I felt was appropriate here.
No recovering alcoholic Bear could've possibly gone to Munich and watched the second leg of that one without falling off the wagon first.

Red Star Belgrade were a great side, the likes of which we will never see again due to the death of Yugoslavia, but that first leg was 3-0 going on 10.

Kinda makes me glad that he didn't get a chance at it.

But someone far better suited than Walter could've also been given that chance.
 
Because he was a Catholic.

Obviously, that's not the reason, but I get this question every time I say we should never have signed him.

With it, I can sense an undercurrent of, "Go on, say it's because of his religion, so I can indulge in some serious virtue signalling."

So I might as well tell a monstrous fib. Give the people (and the interlopers) what they want.

But it is strange that no-one asks me this when I say that we should never have signed any other specific player.
So you still maintain that we should have never of signed a player who was undoubtedly a success and did an untold amount of damage to our main rival? Bit weird.
 
It's the first time I can properly remember real tension going to the games. Got my first ST 88/89 so had seen us win the first two titles relatively easily. My granny and aunt were offered a fortune for their tickets that day against Aberdeen.
 
So you still maintain that we should have never of signed a player who was undoubtedly a success and did an untold amount of damage to our main rival? Bit weird.

My old man has never wavered from it either tbh. Had no issues with us signing one of them (up to a point), it was MoJo specifically he couldn't stomach. He was a huge fan of Stuart Munro so that probably has something to do with it.

I was only 7 or 8 when he signed so had no real clue what was happening and naturally loved him as a player because he scored goals.
 
So you still maintain that we should have never of signed a player who was undoubtedly a success and did an untold amount of damage to our main rival? Bit weird.
You could say that I'm a little fussy, but when someone spends years running around making a public display of the fact that he really f*cking hates us, the last thing that I'd do is sign him.

Given that he signed for us, he was clearly only doing so to please their support, but the fact that he was willing to do so in the first place would've been enough to cross his name off my list of potential transfer targets.

They were in such dire straits that they could've signed Marco van Basten and it wouldn't have made a difference. If they hadn't been, Johnston would've signed for them.

And other than the second half of 90/91, his performances were generally excellent. No complaints from me there. And we got our money back on him.

But no, I wouldn't have.

If it's about all that sectarian shite, we already had John Spencer, and Jorg Albertz would've been far more worthy of being the first serious money buy in the modern era.

The only objection I have on religious lines is Muslim players refusing to prepare for matches properly during Ramadan, but that's perfectly justifiable.
 
Earlier today I had to check to remind myself what the actual score was against USG. I knew we’d won, but the actual result, %^*& knows.

The fact the OP can remember fine details about stuff from 30 odd years ago has me worried.
If that's not Asperger's, then Pi isn't 3.141592654 without looking it up.

My memory of recent games isn't all that hot either, but up until the end of the NIAR era it's bloody superb.

Earlier today, I was thinking back to a Billy McKay goal in a non-televised win over Morton in the 82/83 season. Now, that's just a waste of brain.


We had players finishing the game with broken legs and out of position.

I think they done it for Walter
I think they done it because of Walter. Not much different to what you're saying.

As for your first point, it's one of those instance that will always mark John Brown out as being that wee bit more Rangers than every other Rangers man I've seen wear the Rangers jersey, or will ever see.

NASA's chief medical professor could've been telling him the risks involved in taking to the field that day, and the mad bastard would've still done it.

We all knew what happened to Alan McGraw, and why, and I expect nothing like that could occur, but he played in every game, over lengthy spells, with one serious injury or another.

One can only hope that he doesn't suffer from anything serious at a later date as a result of this.

And I'm sure that Bomber himself would join me in hoping that it happens to Peter Grant instead.
 
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took points off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
Looking up Souness on Wiki.
What's was that Loan to West Adelaide all about after 176 appearances for Boro.?
 
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took points off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
Cracking reading especially point 2 regarding Murray. I believe Souness was actually of the belief he would be getting the rest of the season in after declaring he was for the off.
 
I’ve said it before on here. Met Walter Smith in Majorca in summer 1990. Think Mark Hateley had just signed. I asked him about Super. He replied as long as he was at Ibrox so would Super.


Regarding Mo Johnston I think we signed a better player that left celtic. He improved whilst in playing France but obviously age caught up with him as well as the pressure no doubt
 
Dougie Arnott done us a real favour by scoring Motherwell’s 3rd in injury time(though it didn’t feel like it at the time!),it meant we were now trailing Aberdeen on goals scored going into that final game and simply had to win.
 
On the day I was despondent.
I thought we would not be champions,the opposition would get at least a draw and they did miss good chances before we took the lead.
But looking back, no matter who was manager,I think we had enough winners in the team and still would have been champions if the magnificent one was in charge.
 
The easy answer is nobody knows. You can spin for or against to suit your own thinking.

Souness revitalised our club and for that we should be ever grateful. Very similar to Gerrard, unfortunately we didn't have a Walter to take over from Gerrard.
 
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took points off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
The minute souness wanted away crook murray should have told him go now the players could tell his heart wasnt in it and it showed in there attitude
 
Souness was getting hounded by the media around that time.

I remember Ally being a sub in the last game. Wasn’t he basically unfit though and still struggling with an injury? It was the walking wounded that last game. John Brown, Tom Cowan etc.
 
Because he was a Catholic.

Obviously, that's not the reason, but I get this question every time I say we should never have signed him.

With it, I can sense an undercurrent of, "Go on, say it's because of his religion, so I can indulge in some serious virtue signalling."

So I might as well tell a monstrous fib. Give the people (and the interlopers) what they want.

But it is strange that no-one asks me this when I say that we should never have signed any other specific player.
Maybe its because Mo was on fire for scotland
 
Interesting question, I was 24 & went to every game , I can’t really think of ever doubting we would win.

The sheep got the entire broomloan front for the title decider , obviously social media wasn’t a thing back then , nowadays this would be a hot talking point but I can’t remember anyone even mentioning it.
 
Interesting question, I was 24 & went to every game , I can’t really think of ever doubting we would win.

The sheep got the entire broomloan front for the title decider , obviously social media wasn’t a thing back then , nowadays this would be a hot talking point but I can’t remember anyone even mentioning it.

Telling you something you already know but it wasnt even on the telly.

Saturday 3pm kickoff. Changed days.
 
I'm sure Souness had rejected Liverpool previously and it had came as a shock then he then decided to leave. I think he was being hounded by the media and SFA.

Signing Maurice Johnston obviously set Celtic back big time but he was a quality striker and would create competition for the striker places in the starting eleven which probably improved McCoist.

If Souness had stayed I still think we'd have won the league but it's an interesting debate for those of us that were around at that time.
 
Telling you something you already know but it wasnt even on the telly.

Saturday 3pm kickoff. Changed days.
What a state I was in that evening. Absolutely paralytic. I don’t remember arriving at my girlfriends that night or what I said. Her dad was howling ( a bear) the next morning but her mother ( Scottish/italian) wasn’t best pleased. I kept apologising for my behaviour not knowing a thing I’d done.
 
Maybe its because Mo was on fire for scotland
Or it could be because of his liking for Pringle jumpers?

Or perhaps he owned the album Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits?

Or he could've been a fan of 'Allo 'Allo, starring the guy from the "Tasty, Tasty, Very Very Tasty" Bran Flakes ad, who then went on to get hit on the heid by a tree?
 
Looking up Souness on Wiki.
What's was that Loan to West Adelaide all about after 176 appearances for Boro.?
Probably pre-dates me being alive, or falls just in line with my birth.

Yes, that's a strange one. Can only think that there must've been more than him doing it. Anyone got any memories of this?

Well-known that washed-up players went to the MLS in the 70s, perhaps the early 80s if it still existed, and it all started again in the 90s. I don't think the game can ever get serious over there. Would've done so by now.

Same can be said of Australia.
 
Interesting question, I was 24 & went to every game , I can’t really think of ever doubting we would win.

The sheep got the entire broomloan front for the title decider , obviously social media wasn’t a thing back then , nowadays this would be a hot talking point but I can’t remember anyone even mentioning it.
lots of clubs usually got what they wanted regarding the bottom of the broomloan. I remember hearts getting the top section one game, maybe 1988 time.
 
The Souness manager CV reads far better than some might think, he won multiple leagues and cups when Scottish football was still competitive, an FA cup and Community Shield at Liverpool, Turkish cup at Galatasaray, first manager to qualify Benfica for the champs league, think he saved Southampton from relegation when they'd been written off, got Blackburn promoted to the Prem and won them the English league cup. Plenty more highly rated managers would love that CV.
 
Interesting question, I was 24 & went to every game , I can’t really think of ever doubting we would win.

The sheep got the entire broomloan front for the title decider , obviously social media wasn’t a thing back then , nowadays this would be a hot talking point but I can’t remember anyone even mentioning it.
It wasn't unusual back then for teams like Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen to get half of the Broomloan. Either upper or lower.
 
For all David Murray’s faults,and they are plentiful,getting Souness out the door was one of his best ever decisions.
The guy was talking to another club while we were in a very tight title race.He should have been booted down Edmiston Drive.
I have never understood the admiration he is still held in by some supporters after that.
 
It wasn't unusual back then for teams like Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen to get half of the Broomloan. Either upper or lower.
The broomloan front wasn’t always sold out back in the day either. Until mid 90s you usually always seen rows of empty seats.
 
If Souness was in charge we might not have lost to Motherwell? He put us in a position to win the league so could argue that Walter nearly blew it with the horrendous performance at Fir Park. We should never have been in a postion to take it to a final day decider.
 
Why was that? I had no idea they didn't get on.

Just to clear any confusion, I wasn't born the season you're talking about.
McCoist was relegated to the bench a lot as souness preferred the hately and Mo Johnstone partnership which did not go down well with the support.its why hately got it in the neck in his first season.
 
Just spotted a photo of the magnificent one on social media, and it is still fair to say that I have mixed feelings about his departure.

Negative is obviously him not telling Liverpool to bolt at such a crucial point in a season.

Positives?

1. Souness going from midfield to dugout marked the beginning of a concerning decline, and I feel that it was accelerating towards a breakneck speed. As a footballer, he was flawless, and as an individual, he's certainly an admirable one in many ways, but I've never rated Souness as a manager. Everything after Ibrox seems to back this up, and what followed Souness' playing days for us makes me feel that he was undoing the good work done by Smith. I can point to a lot of faults in Smith's first spell in charge, but he always seemed to be the far more capable one.

2. Murray acted brilliantly by getting rid, when he did. Almost everything Murray did was for his own personal gain or alarmingly incompetent. A positive from that man has to stand out.

3. The one that's debatable:

I'm sure that Aberdeen would've won that title had Souness not left.

First, you have Mo Johnston. He was done, basically, but he was still in that side while McCoist was benched. It was a personal vendetta.

Next one is connected to it. We hadn't handed out a drubbing to any rancid shower, home or away, since December. A lot of shut-outs, but we never had the look of a free-flowing side that could easily find the route to the back of the opposition net. Not a great watch by any means, but steady enough not to be alarmed.

Then the almost fatal collapse.

Starts at McDiarmid Park on 26/2/91. Alan Moore puts St Johnstone ahead, Pieter Huistra equalises, but we couldn't find a second. Gave Aberdeen a slight sniff, and us at home next in a must-win game, which they won 1-0. A very poor scum lot gubbed us back to back, then Hibs took a point off us.

We were rotten on the day when that Gary Stevens volley got us the points against Dunfermline. Ironically, Souness' last match would see a rare 3-0 win. That was St Johnstone at Ibrox.

After Smith took over, those 1-0 wins against St Mirren and Dundee United were down to a fighting spirit that hadn't really been on display for a while, and the same can be said of Aberdeen on that final day. We weren't appalling at Fir Park the week before, but we really were struggling to create. We lost a goal, then we got caught chasing the game.

The sheep went into the final day ahead of us on goals scored.

Had we still been plodding around aimlessly, as we were under Souness, it could've been 2 points, 2 goals, and goals scored. Easily.

I can't think of another time when someone has done us that big a favour by doing the dirty on us.

Anyone else of a similar opinion?
I agree, Walter galvanised the troops to victory
 
It wasn't unusual back then for teams like Hearts, Hibs and Aberdeen to get half of the Broomloan. Either upper or lower.
Even Kilmarnock sold out the bottom tier. Hearts and Hibs have had the whole Broomloan once each I think, if I remember correctly.
 
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