GRAEME SOUNESS is far removed from the cash-laden goldfish bowl he called home as the Rangers manager some 30 years ago.

Geographically speaking, the fresh-faced 63-year-old now spends most of his weekends sitting in a sharp suit in front of a camera in a warm studio, analysing the various rights and wrongs of the top players in the world’s self-proclaimed finest football league somewhere south of the border.

Metaphorically, the distance is even greater.

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It was from his position at Sky Sports HQ – the telly channel and the actual HQ – that Souness spoke of a distant world up the road. A precarious heartland that is barely recognisable to the land of milk, honey and champagne that was associated with not just Rangers but Scottish football during his five years as the Ibrox manager, propelling him into the club legend as one of the key men in the Glasgow side’s history.

Once a top flight that allowed Souness to attract England captain Terry Butcher to Govan, now sees the man that occupying the manager’s chair at Ibrox fishing in the lower leagues of England for players. Mark Warburton has come under fire for the way his team has performed – or underperformed this season – but Souness argues he has not been given the investment by Dave King that makes the task of getting close to Celtic feasible.

“It saddens me,” he said while speaking at the telly giant's London base. “It might seem like a long time ago I was at Rangers. Thirty years ago may seem like that but it’s not a long time in the history of the game for a club who could outbid Man United and everyone else in England, pay the same wages as Arsenal to where they are today.

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“It’s really unkind to not just them. All the money is poured down here to English football. They’ve not managed to get into an English league for all the right reasons if you are a Norwich, Blackburn or Burnley. It’s just the way it has unfolded for them and I think our national game has suffered. Every team in Scotland has suffered.

“I don’t think the manager has had a lot to work with. He’s not been given much to work with when you are buying players from Accrington Stanley.

“I’m buying players from top English clubs when I’m there, it’s a million miles away from the job I had to the one today. I’m buying the England captain and he’s buying a different level of player altogether.”

During a half-hour chat Souness admits he has never met King, the man who is now tasked with guiding Rangers from the gloom back into the light.

Yet that fact hasn’t stopped him being critical of the money offered up by the Rangers chairman to boost the playing staff.

Talk of £30million investments and doing ‘whatever it takes’ has raised expectation levels that heavy funding was to be ploughed into the Gers first-team. These are claims which Souness, who came close to taking over the club along with Brian Kennedy back in 2014, reckons have gone unfulfilled.

“If you make promises to football supporters it makes life double difficult if you don’t keep them,” he said.

“Along with Brian Kennedy we were very close, we actually thought we had it. There was going to be a hard sell, that’s one of the things we were going to say on day one.

“This is not going to be a short or easy road, there’s a long way to get it back anywhere near where you want it to be because you can’t spend money you don’t have.

“That was the message we’d have put across on day one and every day we needed to say it.

“Where the problem arises for Rangers supporters now is if the owner has come out and said he’s going to put money in and he hasn’t, then he’s caused himself a problem.”

Souness is clear investment is needed at Ibrox if Rangers are to mount any sort of challenge in the coming years.

In the eyes of many Light Blue supporters, this campaign was always going to be one of consolidation after being promoted from the Championship, even if the heat of the moment has raised hopes of something more.

But it remains unclear how much longer this club will remain in a state of transition before the natives start to become even more restless.

“I don’t think there’s any surprises,” said Souness. “Celtic bopping that at Parkhead early in the season, predictable. Rangers narrowly losing to them in the cup, predictable.

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“Hopefully they can go one better on Hogmanay. Is it impossible? No. Is it likely? No. That’s reality for Rangers and their supporters.

“I don’t think the manager has been given any chance.”

He added: “You can’t look into a crystal ball but what you can say is if money is put on the table and you get half your signings right then you are going to be better next time around.

“If there is no money put on the table and you are buying the same types of players and that’s your market, then you won’t improve.

“There is no coach out there that could take that group and make them into Barcelona.”

Sky Sports will show the biggest head to heads over the festive season, including Manchester City v Chelsea this Saturday and the Old Firm derby on New Year’s Eve.