No way John will suffer my fate at Ibrox
Twenty two years before Rangers snapped up John Souttar from Hearts, they signed Paul Ritchie from the Tynecastle club.
Defender Souttar, aged 25 and capped six times by Scotland, was signed on a Bosman.
Centre-half Ritchie, 24 at the time and also six-times capped, joined Gers at the end of his Jambos contract.
Ritchie moved along the M8 dreaming of racking up trophies but – in less than 11 weeks – he’d been sold by Dick Advocaat to Manchester City, newly promoted to England’s top flight.
However, although he was shunted without seeing a minute of first-team action, Ritchie insists that Souttar won’t share his Ibrox nightmare because he’s a better all-round player.
Ritchie said: “John won’t have similar problems – apart from anything else, he’s a better player than I was.
“The only disappointing aspect for me is that Hearts didn’t get a fee for him after sticking by him during his serious injuries.
“He’ll fit into the Rangers team the way I thought I would. John is ahead of where I was in terms of Scotland caps and the level of play he produces.
“The way he plays, he could be a midfielder. His use of the ball is excellent and that wasn’t me at all. But that wasn’t the reason I didn’t get a game because, back then, cent re- backs stuck to defending.
“I’ve no doubts that John will be a tremendous signing for Rangers and he’ll have a successful time there.
“It says a lot about him that his last game for Hearts was in the Scottish Cup Final against his new club and he was Hearts’ best player.
“He reminds me a lot of Alan McLaren and Craig Levein. I played with both at Hearts and they were ahead of their time as they liked to bring the ball out from the back.
“John will also pick up more appearances for Scotland now because his profile will be raised and he’ll play in European ties on a regular basis.”
Ritchie – now a youth coach for San Diego, a club affiliated to LA Galaxy – admits his Gers experience shocked him.
He said: “It was a difficult time. The problem, I think, was that I was a chairman’s signing rather than a manager’s signing.
“Ranger s had been criticised for not buying Scottish players and I believe that David Murray was responsible for me arriving rather than Dick Advocaat.
“He wanted to put his own stamp on it and bring in home-grown talent but I don’t think the manager was copied in on that memo.
“When I look back, with the quality Rangers had, I was always going to be way down the pecking order.
“The l ikes of Lorenzo Amoruso, Craig Moore, Bert Konterman and Serg io Porrini were there but I got the impression very quickly on our pre- season tour of Holland that Advocaat just didn’t fancy me.
“I made one or two mistakes in those friendlies and scoring an own goal in one of them didn’t help.
“The turning point for me was when Advocaat took 19 players to Denmark for a Champions League qualifier at the start of August and I was left behind. Scott Wilson went in my place and I was told I had no future at the club.
“When I went to see Dick he told me I could stay if I wanted to but that I could also leave. I found that strange after such a short time at the club but two days later I was called by the club to say that the gaffer had accepted an offer from Man City for me.”