What Walter did when Basile Boli 'took the p***' - Dave McPherson

Now 59, his two spells at Ibrox have won him recognition in the Ibrox Hall of Fame and an assured place in the club’s folklore.

Here in the final instalment of a two-part in-depth interview, Dave looks back on two glory-laden years after Smith sanctioned a £1.3million transfer to seal his Ibrox return in 1992.

Part one can be read here.

Southampton, Sevilla and Borussia Dortmund, Hearts skipper Dave McPherson saw moves to them all come tantalisingly close.

Yet when rising debts at the Tynecastle club did necessitate his sale in the summer of 1992 the man they called 'big Slim' will be forever thankful that it was Rangers who got a £1.3million deal over the line.

Five years after Graeme Souness brutally discarded him to the Jambos for £325,000 the market dictated that Gers paid four times that to bring Scotland’s Euro 92 centre-half back home.

McPherson is proud that it was Ibrox icon Walter Smith who made the decision to initiate his Rangers return.

He said: “It meant a lot to me that it was Walter who signed me.

“I knew it wasn’t his decision to see me leave Rangers in 1987 and that was vindicated when he brought me back five years later.

“It was an easy yes for me but if it had been a Bosman situation it would have been a more difficult call.

“I had offers from Southampton, Sevilla and Dortmund when I was at Hearts and, for one reason or another, they didn’t get over the line.”

An inside story of Southampton boss Chris Nicholl’s pursuit of McPherson gives a telling insight into life as a top player before the Jean-Marc Bosman ruling in 1995 assured stars of freedom of movement in the marketplace.

Before the widespread use of mobile phones, it was common practice for journalists to request a phone interview with a player to preview matches.

After training Dave would settle himself in a little office off Tynecastle’s main entrance to conduct his media duties with some of the national press.

And he smiled: “Little came out about this at the time but there’s a brilliant true story about that first bid from Southampton.

“This was before mobile phones and I was in a little office at Hearts doing an interview on the phone with a journalist.

“So I am giving the interview and there was a fax machine beside me. It buzzed away and made that incoming noise.

“I saw the crest of Southampton FC appear and the message said: 'Southampton FC offer £1m for the services of Dave McPherson.'

“I was stunned and I cut the interview short to tell my missus and discuss what we should do.

“There was silence from the club, though, so I left it a week and I asked the boss Alex MacDonald if anyone had put in an offer for me.

“He said: ‘No. Not a soul, no one is interested in you.’

“That was football back then, it was pre-Bosman and it was just swept under the carpet!

“So Southampton didn’t happen and Murdo MacLeod spoke to me when he was at Borussia Dortmund and told me there was definite confirmed interest and would I go? I said yes but again the clubs couldn’t agree a deal.

“Then I was out of contract at Hearts when they accepted that big offer from Gers and I went back in 1992.”

Fresh from a summer at the heart of the Scotland defence in the European Championship Finals in Sweden alongside Richard Gough, McPherson was 28 and in his prime.

Gough, Goram and McPherson at Euro 92 (Image: SNS)

Smith wanted to see that partnership continue to flourish at the core of Gers, fate had other ideas.

Dave said: “I came back as a centre-back but then Gary Stevens got injured and Walter said he knew it wasn’t my favourite position but he was going to have to play me there. That was me at right-back.

“I wasn’t going to say no to Walter, this was the club I loved and grew up supporting and I’d play anywhere.

“We went on a winning streak and what was I going to do? I got on with it.

“We went 10 games unbeaten in the Champions League and how many teams could say that now?

“We had such a tight squad and Walter was great at resting us when we needed it.

“That team went 44 games unbeaten that season and really we just had Gary, who got injured, John Brown, Goughie, David Robertson and myself as defensive options.”

That 1992/93 season was without question Smith’s finest as Rangers manager as his team blazed through 64 matches, winning a domestic Treble and going within a heartbeat of the European Cup Final.

The bribes scandal that engulfed the eventual winners Marseille, who edged through in the group stages, still sticks in McPherson's throat to this day.

READ MORE: Inside Graeme Souness' cut-throat Rangers axing of Dave McPherson

Even though he ended up playing out of position, Smith’s decision to sign McPherson cannot be deemed anything other than an unqualified success.

Big Dave played 53 of those 64 matches in that campaign, only Robertson, Brown, Stuart McCall and Mark Hateley racked up more.

And he did it in a slot that was at first alien to him. He pointed out: “Right-back can be a graveyard position at Rangers, if you make mistakes the crowd see it right away.

“That’s the nature of the beast, though, and I learned to drown the noise out if I wasn’t having my best day.

“I grew into the position but I knew Gary Stevens was a more natural attacking full-back than me.

“Then you look at the captain James Tavernier now and he has 100 goals for the club and he’s popping up from the left-hand side to score that header in the last Old Firm game.

“I started off more defensively and in European games I’d stay back but against some of the lesser teams domestically I felt I could attack a bit more.”

The Rangers players celebrate winning the 1992/1993 Premier Division championship (Image: SNS)

Dave would be a part of the Double the following season as Gers landed their sixth successive title on the way to the Nine.

Yet Smith was looking to the future and McPherson was traded back to Hearts as part of the deal that brought Alan McLaren to Ibrox.

He is philosophical now about that move and he admitted: “At the end of 1994 I had played almost constantly for four years and it was all at the top level.

“I could tell that my body needed a rest and I knew that couldn’t happen at Rangers.”

That cycle of success as a player had started for Dave at the Italia 90 World Cup Finals.

When you assess his 27 caps as a Scotland player his timing was immaculate.

He became a trusted figure in Andy Roxburgh’s regime at the perfect juncture and he smiled: “I broke into the Scotland team at the right time, I feel my career was a story of maximising opportunities.

“With Scotland, Alex McLeish got injured and I felt like a window had just opened and I could climb through it.

“If I am truthful in that squad I don’t think too many players had a lot of warmth for Andy.

“He was very technical and had the manner of a schoolteacher but tactically he was mostly extremely sound.

“Roxburgh gave me my chance and I will always be grateful for that but we would have a meeting to decide when the next meeting was! It was too much.

“Yet the results were there, and you have to give the management credit for that.

“Look at the Euros in 92 there were only EIGHT teams in that tournament and Scotland, in effect, finished fifth.

“Imagine that now, we are heading towards a World Cup in 2026 that will have 48 teams in the Finals!

“That dilutes the quality for me, back in ’92 there can be no argument we were in with the best.”

Dave’s experience of a World Cup will always carry a lingering feeling of frustration.

He feels 1990 was a group Scotland could have emerged from but after a shock opening match defeat from Costa Rica they were always chasing a forlorn dream.

McPherson sighed: “At Italia ’90 I feel Andy and Craig Brown got it tactically wrong against Costa Rica. We played big Alan McInally up front and we were told their keeper Gabelo Conejo was a huge weakness.

“So we lumped in cross after cross and the keeper came out like a flying salmon and claimed everything!

“Then we lost a goal and we couldn’t find a way back into it.

“Sweden? We knew they were a good team but we didn’t overthink it and won 2-1.

“Against Brazil, it was heartbreaking as Jim Leighton made one slip late on. Muller capitalised and we were out.”

Two years later in Sweden, it was a different story with Scotland in a fearsome section.

The elite nature of those Finals ensured that McPherson and his centre-back partner Gough were stretched to breaking point. Physically and mentally.

Dave revealed: “That tournament was one daunting test after another for me and Goughie.

“In the first game against the Dutch it was Dennis Bergkamp and Marco van Basten.

“Then, with the Germans, it was Jurgen Klinsmann and Karl-Heinz Riedle. I loved those challenges but it was mentally so tough.

“You switch off for a millisecond and those guys punish you and that’s what happened against Holland when Bergkamp scored.

“I loved playing with Goughie, he was a born leader and had that little bit of arrogance you need as a top defender.

“Against Germany, I missed two chances at the back post that I feel I could have done better with.

“I was stretching on my left foot but those are the margins at that level.

“Now every time I meet a Scotland fan who wants to talk about that Germany game they say they were two fucking sitters!”

John Greig, Jock Wallace, Graeme Souness and Walter Smith.

In Part One of this interview we examined the uneasy relationship Dave had with his boss after Souness swaggered into Rangers to revolutionise the club in 1986.

What was his take on the other managerial mentors who guided him through nine years of his two spells at Ibrox?

Slim pointed out: “When you look back, there are not very many Gers players who will have worked under all four of those figures.

“Greigy’s big difficulty for me was having to manage players he had played beside and won Trebles with. They were ageing when he had them working under him.

“I remember a horrible incident one day when I was just breaking into the first team.

“Alex MacDonald was such a polished pro he would be in an hour before the rest of us for a game.

“He was undressed and getting everything sorted and then Greigy came in and named the team without him in it and he had to put his clothes back on.

“Imagine that as a team-mate he’d been in the trenches with, a fellow Barcelona Bear, and that’s so hard for a manager. John remains one of my all-time heroes though.

“Big Jock? He used to pass me in the corridor and say: ‘Tense your stomach muscles!’

“Then he’d punch me in the guts to test how fit I was, he was brilliant! He just loved the camaraderie of football.

“Walter would have to be the best manager I worked with, he had a bit of everything.

“A disciplinarian when he needed to be, a top tactician and a superb man-manager.

Basile Boli arrived a European Cup winner from Marseille (Image: SNS)

“I remember Basile Boli tried to take the piss by not coming with a tie on for a game and he got a warning. The second time he did it, Walter sent him home.

“This was his club, this was Rangers and there were standards.

“His big skill with players was the simplicity of his messaging and how he gave you advice.”

These days, at the age of 59, McPherson is a big presence in the lives of young footballers seeking the chance to earn a scholarship and play the game they love in the university system in the USA and Canada.

In the twilight of his own career, he lapped up 18 months in the sunshine playing for Carlton SC in Australia before returning home to Scotland.

He stressed: “I loved life in Australia and I’d have stayed longer but the franchise went bust.

“When I finished, I knew that I liked coaching and I took over as manager at Morton, I could write a book about that time in my life.

“My chairman was the late Douglas Rae and I remember I was having a meeting with a player who was slacking and he kept looking out over my shoulder out of my office window to the pitch.

“I gave him a rollicking for not paying attention then I looked over my shoulder.

“The chairman, who was in his 70s at the time, was taking the warm-up with his SUIT on.

“I am trying to give a player a row and my chairman is doing that?

"It went from bad to worse. One day he pulled me in and told me he didn’t agree with my substitutions.

“He said: ‘I’ve phoned your ex-manager Walter Smith about it and I want you to give him a call and ask him when you should make substitutions.’

“I had to go through with it and Walter was mortified. He knew how embarrassing it was for me to have to do that.

“He said to me: ‘Big man, here’s the thing about subs. I feel 50 percent of substitutions work out and you are a tactical genius, then 50 percent don’t and you are a fucking idiot.’

“That was how I saw it too so I just thanked him for his input and we hung up!”