VALUR BOSS: I SIGNED FOR SOUNESS’ GERS
VAluR boss Arnar Gretarsson knows all about Scottish football – because he had a forgotten spell at Rangers under Graeme Souness.
St Mirren welcome the Icelandic side to Paisley this week for the return leg of their europa Conference league second-qualifying round after a goalless draw in Reykjavik.
Ibrox legend Souness revolutionised the club and the Scottish game in 1986 when he swooped for a host of top stars including several members of the england team, which seems incredible now.
But even die-hard Rangers fans would struggle to name one of the foreign imports he brought over – such as Icelandic star Gretarsson.
And he recalled his time at Ibrox with some huge names as colleagues, although he failed to play a match for the club before returning to his homeland.
Gretarsson, who also went on to play for AeK Athens and was capped 71 times, said: “I had a fantastic experience at Rangers.
“When I went over they had just signed Maurice Johnston, Souness was the manager and Walter Smith was his assistant.
“At the time they only had two foreign players. I was one of them and the Israeli goalkeeper Bonni Ginzburg arrived around the same time.
“But they had four england internationals – just think about that, can you ever imagine that again at Rangers or Celtic?
“They were a massive club, right up with liverpool and Manchester united. We had Ian Durrant, Chris Woods, Gary Stevens, Trevor Steven, Terry Butcher, great players like that. My coaches in the reserves were Jimmy Nicholl and John McGregor, both of them great guys. Then Richard Gough arrived as captain. Plus, of course, we had Alistair McCoist.”
But Gretarsson, who has been in charge of Valur for three years, revealed it all went wrong for him because of red tape, after he arrived from Breidablik.
He said: “I signed for two years but in the first year there was a problem with the Icelandic FA.
“Back then, there were no rules over availability of players for international windows. If a club didn’t want you to go, you didn’t go.
“So Iceland drew up a contract for overseas clubs that said if we weren’t released, there would be a penalty of around £200,000.
“Rangers looked at the contract and their lawyers said they weren’t signing.
“We had a guy playing in Stuttgart and they signed, so the Icelandic FA went back to Rangers and told them but they still said no.
“So I asked Walter Smith if I could go back to Iceland until it was sorted, not realising it would mean I was finished. They signed Alexei Mikhailichenko for £2million from Sampdoria and that was that.
“Do I regret it? No. I was young, maybe a bit silly, maybe I should have been more patient. But life works out the way it works out.”