Souness tried to sign John Robertson from Newcastle

1988 was the year Lawrence Marlborough sold his controlling stake in Rangers to Sir Minty

Also we signed Kevin Drinkell for £600k so I’m calling bullshit on this one from Robertson

Just to add I actually liked John Robertson as a player and wondered if we’d sign him one day
 
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At the time John would have ran across the M8 to play with us. He was really good pals with most of the 9IAR team.
 
Bluefin221 said:
Some harsh comments on Robertson here. A very good striker in his day who would be a cert for an Old Firm move in today’s climate.

But, yeah, December 1988, we‘re not getting outbid in Scotland. We bought Mel Sterland for £750,000 three months later, f’fsake.
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Agreed on all counts.

We’d never have been outbid if we really wanted him. If those numbers are true we simply didn’t want him that much and were trying a cheeky offer.

As it happens, I think he’d have been a very good signing for us.
 
“Hearts fans were devastated in 1988 when Hearts sold their prize asset to Newcastle United for a club record fee of £750,000”

Didnt score a goal for Newcastle and was shipped back probably offsetting most of what was owed.
 
sonofbunk said:
I see the logic that we wouldn’t go over the ‘value’ rather then we were outbid.

However, at a time when we were spending money on Andy Gray, Neale Cooper, Mel Sterland and Tom Cowan - I can’t see us not upping by if few hundred K if we really wanted too.
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I think 3 of the players you name were nominal fees. Cowan was £100k if memory serves?
 
prenzlauerbear said:
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Always seen him as a pound shop version of Ally (I probably didn't have to make the meme to explain that).
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What on earth…
 
Think he was unlucky that Scotland seemed to have an abundance of quality up front in those days.
Super Ally, Super Mo, McClair, Nicholas...even McAvennie was ahead of him I seem to recall. You also had Fleck & McInally in the mix
 
Being outbid doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't pay just that they might not have been willing to go any higher. His numbers at Hearts in the 2nd spell aren't that impressive according to Wikipedia at least. He went from 1 in 2 to 1 in 3 so something must've changed.
 
55 and counting said:
At time Murray would only have been in the door for a month or so , would he not? His oversized ego wasn't at its peak and he made decent business decisions at the start.
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That is correct but I suspect if Souness had really wanted him, Murray would have signed him.
 
Kubala said:
Being outbid doesn't necessarily mean they couldn't pay just that they might not have been willing to go any higher. His numbers at Hearts in the 2nd spell aren't that impressive according to Wikipedia at least. He went from 1 in 2 to 1 in 3 so something must've changed.
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His total goals to game ratio was 271 goals in 631 games for Hearts.
 
SDF said:
"Rangers came in at £500,000, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee United came in at £600,000. Rangers was very interesting, Graeme Souness was there, but they weren’t prepared to raise their offer," he recalled.
"When the chairman told me about the bids, it was Rangers out of the three that I wanted to speak to but the offer was too low. Wallace [Mercer, the Hearts chairman] eventually went that wee bit extra to get me back and the stars aligned.”

Hibs tranfer record is 700,000. In 2001.
Dundee United's transfer record is 750,000. In 1995.
Aberdeen's transfer record is 1,000,000. In 1995.

Murray was our chairman FFS. They weren't outbidding us on anything.
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There's a difference between having a value of a player and being outbid.
Souness says bid 500k for him as thats what I think hes worth.
Newcastle come back saying another team has offered more.
Souness says thats fine let him go as hes not worth more than £500k
If Souness really wanted him he would have got him.
 
am old enough to have seen his older brother Chris make the odd sub appearance for us he seemed just to disappear out the game after he left us.
 
The Goalie said:
We had signed Andy Gray a few months earlier after Gary McSwegan broke his leg and was out for the season.
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That was in September and was probably more a favour to a mate, helping him fulfil his dream, than am attempt to buy a long term third striker.
 
Robbo was a good finisher, prolific and talismanic for Hearts.

But I’m sorry, he wasn’t in the same class as McCoist, Johnston, Nicholas, Archibald, McAvennie, et al. Was he in the next bracket of say McClair, Sharp, Speedie, McInally, Sturrock, etc? Possibly. In fact, probably given his goals record. I don’t recall him cutting the mustard at St James’ but the same criticism could be levelled at McCoist whilst at Roker Park.

It would’ve been interesting to see if he could’ve made it to the next level had he moved to Ibrox. I have my doubts, but I always thought that he got a bit of a raw deal at international level when he was behind the likes of Duncan Shearer in the pecking order later in his career.

I see him as a Billy Dodds type (although a better goalscorer than him) that never got a move to either half of the OF.
 
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He had the massive fallout with
Mercer for not signing a new deal and I suspect Mercer had to dig very deep to bring him back so as not to lose face with the fans. Newcastle probably had money outstanding on the deal and Hearts either ripped up the remainder of the payments or at least used it as credit towards the transfer.

It was held up by the money he was on at Newcastle and in the end his Hearts wage was actually subsidied by a local green grocer.
 
Orange Peel said:
Yeah, fair enough but I think he was the 1st couple of years, I think he was at the top of his game and that's why he ended up at Newcastle.
When he came back he was still a cracking wee player but we had upped our game and had better forwards.
Was definitely Rangers class for the bulk of the 80's though.
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He was dynamite in 85-86 with Sandy Clark and would’ve easily supplanted Bobby Williamson. But that isn’t saying much in reality is it? No harm to Bobby btw who was honest if nothing else. Was Robbo a better goalscorer than Iain Ferguson? I would say undoubtedly, yes. But again, could he have made the difference to Jock Wallace’s team and fired us to the title? Highly doubtful in my mind.

I guess we will never know.

In any case, when playing against us, he was always a danger to our back line throughout his career and maybe that is the highest compliment we can pay him.
 
Met Robertson in the Swallow after an OF game at new year.
He was with Goram.
I can’t remember the year but I’m sure the game finished 1-1
(Could it be the game when McLaren scored?)
My memory is obviously hazy but I think McCoist missed the game and we were toothless up front.
I suggested to Robertson he’d have won us the game tonight and he smiled and said “if only”
I do think he was out of favour at Hearts at the time.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but think my suggestion wasn’t as out of hand as I had intended it to be.
Said so to my group at the time and some had a similar feeling.
I certainly wouldn’t have minded it.
Wouldn’t have been Souness’s time as manager though.
 
If true that we wanted him but had a value we would not exceed it is a bit of a shame. I can understand comparisons to Ally. He may have developed more playing with better players. Seemed to play for Hearts for a long time so they got good mileage out of him. Think he could have been a good super sub. Good guy and if he got same minutes he got at Hearts with us I suspect his goal tally would be higher.
 
SDF said:
"Rangers came in at £500,000, Hibs, Aberdeen and Dundee United came in at £600,000. Rangers was very interesting, Graeme Souness was there, but they weren’t prepared to raise their offer," he recalled.
"When the chairman told me about the bids, it was Rangers out of the three that I wanted to speak to but the offer was too low. Wallace [Mercer, the Hearts chairman] eventually went that wee bit extra to get me back and the stars aligned.”

Hibs tranfer record is 700,000. In 2001.
Dundee United's transfer record is 750,000. In 1995.
Aberdeen's transfer record is 1,000,000. In 1995.

Murray was our chairman FFS. They weren't outbidding us on anything.
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What stuns me about Scottish football is that, as you illustrate, we have several clubs who set their transfer records in the 1990s and these records still stand today.

How is it that these clubs were spending money like that in the 1990s but couldn’t spend similar in the 2000s or 2010s?

How were Aberdeen able to spend £1million in 1995, when they probably couldn’t even spend that today, even when £1 million is worth a lot less in real terms?

I’ve always found this baffling.

Were the banks just happy to let clubs spend whatever they liked in the 90s?
 
tazzabear said:
Met Robertson in the Swallow after an OF game at new year.
He was with Goram.
I can’t remember the year but I’m sure the game finished 1-1
(Could it be the game when McLaren scored?)
My memory is obviously hazy but I think McCoist missed the game and we were toothless up front.
I suggested to Robertson he’d have won us the game tonight and he smiled and said “if only”
I do think he was out of favour at Hearts at the time.
Anyway, I couldn’t help but think my suggestion wasn’t as out of hand as I had intended it to be.
Said so to my group at the time and some had a similar feeling.
I certainly wouldn’t have minded it.
Wouldn’t have been Souness’s time as manager though.
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I reckon the wee fella would’ve crawled the length of the M8 on broken glass to sign for us. I could be wrong though.

What say @JamboReid1874?
 
Rt. Hon. Bearman said:
What stuns me about Scottish football is that, as you illustrate, we have several clubs who set their transfer records in the 1990s and these records still stand today.

How is it that these clubs were spending money like that in the 1990s but couldn’t spend similar in the 2000s or 2010s?

How were Aberdeen able to spend £1million in 1995, when they probably couldn’t even spend that today, even when £1 million is worth a lot less in real terms?

I’ve always found this baffling.

Were the banks just happy to let clubs spend whatever they liked in the 90s?
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I would’ve thought that clubs could get favourable rates back then before the Taylor Report and BSkyB money started resetting the game completely. Also Dolly and Hertz could hold their own in Europe to a far greater extent than now and could probably borrow on the strength of that.
 
He's said many times he didn't really support a club side as a boy as he was too busy playing. He had a soft spot for Liverpool and that was it. When Hibs messed him about and Hearts signed him he was determined to make Hibs pay, and he did by scoring a barrowload of goals against them. He's Hearts to his bones and has been for a very long time.
 
Ally McCoist was coming back from a hamstring injury in December 1988 wasn’t he?

My guess would be that Souness was happy to spent £500k on someone to cover McCoist, maybe stay on as a 3rd choice/regular sub into the next season.
We had the money to spend but Souness didn’t spent lavishly where he didn’t need to.
We had bought Andy Gray for about £25k a few months earlier but he was clearly at the end of the road.

In the end, McCoist came back in by February and then him & Drinkell saw out the season together before some wee blonde haired fella arrived in the summer.
 
Rt. Hon. Bearman said:
What stuns me about Scottish football is that, as you illustrate, we have several clubs who set their transfer records in the 1990s and these records still stand today.

How is it that these clubs were spending money like that in the 1990s but couldn’t spend similar in the 2000s or 2010s?

How were Aberdeen able to spend £1million in 1995, when they probably couldn’t even spend that today, even when £1 million is worth a lot less in real terms?

I’ve always found this baffling.

Were the banks just happy to let clubs spend whatever they liked in the 90s?
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Another thing that popped into my head after reading your comments mate, when you think back, how did Hibs and St. Mirren afford Stevie Archibald? How did St. Mirren afford Victor!

I wonder how the negotiations went with their agents? We want 10-20% of the gate (depending on the game) to sign? Couldn’t have been down to basic salary?
 
Rt. Hon. Bearman said:
What stuns me about Scottish football is that, as you illustrate, we have several clubs who set their transfer records in the 1990s and these records still stand today.

How is it that these clubs were spending money like that in the 1990s but couldn’t spend similar in the 2000s or 2010s?

How were Aberdeen able to spend £1million in 1995, when they probably couldn’t even spend that today, even when £1 million is worth a lot less in real terms?

I’ve always found this baffling.

Were the banks just happy to let clubs spend whatever they liked in the 90s?
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I am sure Hearts paid us about £750k for Derek Ferguson.

Paul Bernard wasn't far off a million to Aberdeen. Which was just crazy even then.

You had the likes of Victor (ex Barca) at St Mirren. Hans Gillhaus at Aberdeen.

Keith Houchen went to Hibs after scoring in the FA Cup Final. That goal alone would price him out of any Scottish club these days.
 
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55 and counting said:
Anyone remember that?
I don't remember talk of it at the time although I was young. John has a new book out so doing a bit of press. We bid 500k. Other Scottish teams outbid us the sheep and Hearts (changed days). He said in an interview in Guardian today out of the 3 it was us he was interested in talking to most but we wouldn't up it.
Know we had Ally but he would've been a good signing imo.
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Ithink he is misremembering it, was in The Louden one night with the Goalie and said to me that he tried to get Rangers to sign him. laughed and said he would have scored more goals than McCoist. I replied, maybe in the first season but not after that
 
TCWNS1872 said:
Another thing that popped into my head after reading your comments mate, when you think back, how did Hibs and St. Mirren afford Stevie Archibald? How did St. Mirren afford Victor!

I wonder how the negotiations went with their agents? We want 10-20% of the gate (depending on the game) to sign? Couldn’t have been down to basic salary?
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I think St Mirren coined in a bit on their Scottish Cup winning side over the following years. Ferguson probably the first in 1988 and then Lambert by 1993.
I think they just ran things pretty well for a period of time - the Archibald and Victor signings were something else though.
They also brought in Gudmunder Torfassen (sp) and Thomas Stickroth around that time - both for reasonable money.

%^*& knows what happened to them being sensible right enough.
 
Warren Hill said:
One from memory here and i might be wrong. Older bears might remember or correct me.
Was Chris Robertson who played for Rangers not his brother?
I'm sure he came on as a sub in the 77 Scottish cup final and went close with a header.
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He was and hit the bar with a header
 
RabSpackman said:
I think St Mirren coined in a bit on their Scottish Cup winning side over the following years. Ferguson probably the first in 1988 and then Lambert by 1993.
I think they just ran things pretty well for a period of time - the Archibald and Victor signings were something else though.
They also brought in Gudmunder Torfassen (sp) and Thomas Stickroth around that time - both for reasonable money.

%^*& knows what happened to them being sensible right enough.
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Remember them well mate. Gunni Torfason was like a Glaswegian Jan Molby (accent only). Thomas Stickroth was really just like a big German porn star who won a competition to play for St Mirren. :D
 
Robert Marshall said:
Ithink he is misremembering it, was in The Louden one night with the Goalie and said to me that he tried to get Rangers to sign him. laughed and said he would have scored more goals than McCoist. I replied, maybe in the first season but not after that
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Robertson would have scored goals for fun in that late 80s/early 90s Rangers team. He scored plenty in a crap Hearts team.
 
Bluefin221 said:
Some harsh comments on Robertson here. A very good striker in his day who would be a cert for an Old Firm move in today’s climate.

But, yeah, December 1988, we‘re not getting outbid in Scotland. We bought Mel Sterland for £750,000 three months later, f’fsake.
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I didn't mind Hearts back then, tbh. Wee Robbo was a tormentor of Hibs. He scored some belters against that mob.
 
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