Souness: Rangers need to spend to catch Celtic, they can’t afford to wait for players to develop

I haven’t spoken to Steven yet, but I think he’s doing very well. They’ve only had the one hiccup. But the challenges all lie ahead – when you lose a few games, it’s how you deal with that.

My experience of being in Glasgow is: you can be playing the best football but losing an Old Firm game, draw another game, then you play second fiddle to Celtic, and all the focus and all the criticism comes on you.

It would be the other way around if Celtic were second. So, it’s a hard place to work.
But there’s no doubt about it, he’s improved things greatly.

I think he’s got a lot goodwill from the supporters right now and that’ll give him time, which they need.

I wasn’t surprised that he went into management and I think Rangers is a great place to start. It’s a great football club but with big challenges and big pressures, but he’s always been around the big time so he’ll deal with it.

It’s a different job for Steven than it was for me. I had two enormous advantages: one, I still had a bit to offer as a player, and second I had a big budget to work with. Which is what it’d take to get Rangers back to Celtic’s level – if you’re looking to get back sooner rather than later.

You can buy the players, you can’t wait for the youth system or hope you buy well over a long period of time from lower clubs for small money and then they develop into top players.

Finishing second wouldn’t be a ‘very good’ season for Rangers, it would be acceptable.
But there’s a mood there now which hasn’t been there for a number of years, which is good.

Robertson better than Tierney

I’d like to think things are going in the right direction for Scotland, but I’m not sure yet. It’s a difficult job Alex has got. Andrew Robertson is a good choice as captain. I like him.

Playing for a big club, has to play he goes out and crosses the white line because of the pressures of playing for Liverpool, so I would think he’s the right one. I don’t know the boy but the fact he can cope with the pressures of Liverpool suggests he’s got good character.

Robertson’s a better player than Tierney. Maybe you try and come up with a system where they swap all the time on the left-hand side – one goes forward, one sits. It’s a bit like the Scholes, Lampard and Gerrard argument for England – get your best players into the eleven and come up with a system that works for them.