GRAEME Souness was involved in Brian Kennedy's failed second attempt to buy into Rangers three weeks ago.
The former Ibrox manager - who revealed his withering contempt for former chief executive Charles Green yesterday - spent a week with Kennedy in Mallorca as the Sale Sharks owner finalised his offer of £3m on condition of gaining representation on the board. That offer was turned down by the Rangers directors who instead accepted a £2m loan from Sports Direct retail tycoon Mike Ashley, who now owns 9% of the shareholding and has effectively assumed control of the club's finances.
Souness had previously been involved in Kennedy's unsuccessful attempt to buy Rangers soon after they plunged into administration in 2012, before Green's Sevco consortium took control. But his involvement in the recent attempt was unknown until he revealed it himself in Glasgow yesterday. Kennedy is reportedly worth around £250m and has invested more than £20m in Sale Sharks since 2000.
"I had a week with Brian in Mallorca three weeks ago," said Souness. "But if it's not to be, it's not to be. Did Rangers miss a trick not accepting his offer? They certainly did the first time around. I don't know how Brian feels right now but I think his attitude to it has changed now the other folk are involved.
"If it had happened the first time around it would have the right people running it for the right reasons. That would have been Walter [Smith] and I and the right person as the owner. All of us there for the right reasons. It's a very different Rangers now [compared to when he was there before]. You look at the world we occupied when we were there.
"We could compete with the very best in Britain in terms of transfer fees and salaries. That alone tells you where they are now, the kind of player they can only go for now."
Souness was visibly angry as he recalled Green coming to his house, uninvited, in an attempt to enlist his support for his consortium.
"What is it? Two years since that p**** had it? The guy who knocked on my door one night asking me if I would get involved in it with him. Charles Green. Late one night about 11 o'clock. My answer was no. I got a phone call about an hour before that he was coming to see me.
"I had been asked to see him and I had refused. I got a call an hour before to say he was on his way to see me. We went for a cup of tea at a hotel around the corner." Souness stonewalled all of Green's advances in a meeting which lasted around 30 minutes.
Kennedy and Souness attended an Old Firm game in May 2012, when Rangers were in administration, and at that point they were confident their takeover would go through. "Who knows what would have happened if we had got in? But I'll tell you: the stadium would still be full. What role would I have played? I have no idea, we hadn't even talked about that. I wouldn't have been manager. It never got beyond a bid and they never wanted Brian's money this time either. When we met a couple of weeks ago we never went into detail because, the last time, we believed we had it. Brian believed he had it, only to be let down and deeply disappointed. We even came up to watch a Rangers and Celtic game because we believed we had it.
"I think this time around he was always thinking the worst. Given the structure the way it is now I would think that's it finished now. I'm angry about it and saddened by it in equal amounts because a lot has been allowed to happen."
Souness, who was Rangers manager from 1986 to 1991, said he did not expect Ashley to give the club a significant amount of money
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