THE best signing Graeme Souness ever made for Rangers was his very first.

And that was Walter Smith.

For all his brashness and self confidence, Souness was wily enough to know that he needed help, lots of it, when he walked through the front doors of Ibrox back in 1986.

Walter was the ideal and perhaps only candidate at the time. He was a Rangers fan, not vital but it helps, who knew Scottish football inside and out.

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He had served his time as Jim McLean’s assistant during Dundee United’s greatest years and turned out eventually to be a decent bit of business!

Indeed, Souness himself has said as much. The Rangers side he built were always going to be great, but they won a lot more because his right-hand man was the perfect foil for the manager.

And if Steven Gerrard, it remains a pretty big if, is appointed the new boss of Rangers over the next few weeks, he will need to find himself a Walter.

I will get onto the pros and cons of Rangers going for such a young and inexperienced manager in a moment. And I do have doubts about the idea, which I’m sure are shared with a lot of the supporters.

However, let’s for a moment imagine that Gerrard decides to swap Anfield for Ibrox, which if nothing else would be a fascinating watch.

He is 37, has never worked in Scotland, has never managed and while Liverpool is a giant of world football, so is Rangers and it would one hell of a job for him to take on as his first in management.

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My advice to Gerrard would be to get an experienced coach beside him; preferably a Rangers man and definitely someone who has worked in Scottish football.

Jimmy Nicholl [above, centre, with Souness and Smith] is already there, of course, but I would like to see Stuart McCall standing on the touchline. He has a great record in coaching and knows everything about Rangers.

Or what about Stephen Robinson, who, with apologies to Motherwell fans, could do the Walter role. 

For me, I still think this is all unlikely. Contact has been made between the club and Gerrard, and we’ll see what comes from that, and what has to be said is that it shows the board are going down a different and interesting route.

The supporters will any day now receive renewal forms for their season tickets and should the club pull this off, it’s going to make selling them a hell of a lot easier.

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When I first heard it, I thought there would be no chance for all sorts of reasons. Gerrard is in with the bricks at Liverpool, where the talk is he’s being groomed to take over from Jurgen Klopp.

But then I remembered seeing him at the last Old Firm game at Ibrox. Was that the start of something? Was he taking a closer look at the club and players?

Let’s say he takes the job. It would excite the supporters who could do with a bit of excitement after the last couple of seasons. He is as big a name as they come and I’ve said before that it takes a big name, a strong personality, to manage Rangers Football Club. There are few bigger names from the past 20 years.

But it would be a risk. Sure, Souness was a success and he had never managed before, but that was a very different time.

Listen, whoever leads the team next season needs better players, new players.

And that takes money.

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It doesn’t matter who the new manager is going to be, nothing will change unless that squad is strengthened.

Dave King and the board need to come up with the funds if they are to have any chance of catching Celtic.

This is why Gerrard, by all accounts, is holding off giving his answer.

I’m not suggesting he would say yes even if the directors did come up with enough to spend in the summer – he might still say no – but they have no chance of getting their man if the money isn’t there.

A big name with a promise of some major investment would fill Ibrox next season.

But that doesn’t guarantee success on the field.