Graeme Souness spots rising Celtic fury as Rangers icon spreads the word on brutal Glasgow rule in effect

Graeme Souness has praised Philippe Clement for his ability to create a system to get the best out the Rangers players at his disposal - as he urged the Belgian to keep the spotlight on Celtic in the “brutal” west of Scotland football environment.

The Ibrox icon was delighted to see the former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco gaffer land his first piece of silverware after just two months in the Light Blues hot-seat with a 1-0 win over Aberdeen in the Viaplay Cup final at Hampden on Sunday. Souness helped the Rangers board with the interview process in finding Michael Beale’s successor, although later admitted he would have gone for Frank Lampard if it had been down to him.

But Clement did impress him and Souness admitted he would have responded to the Belgian as a player himself. Rangers’ cup win came 24 hours after Celtic suffered a shock home defeat to Hearts which means the Light Blues could hit top spot in the Scottish Premiership if they win their two games in hand over their rivals. There were anti-board chants at Parkhead despite more than a decade of being the dominant force in Scottish football. And, speaking on talkSPORT, Souness said: “Does that not tell you everything about the west of Scotland? They’ve won 11 leagues out of the last 12 years and they’re sitting top of the league at Christmas time. It tells you everything you need to know! You want the spotlight on the other team, not you. Because it can be brutal.”

And on Clement he said: “You hear it trotted out all the time ‘he plays the game the right way’ but what he’s realised is that you have to get best out of everyone you’re working with and he's doing that. He mixes it up. It’s not always rolled out from the back and tippy-tappy stuff on your own