Steve Clarke did me a favour not taking me to Euros, says Gers ace John Souttar

JOHN SOUTTAR reckons Steve Clarke did him a favour leaving him at home for the Euros.

He just didn’t realise it at the time.

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Souttar, 27, felt fit and ready to go to Germany after battling back from injury at the end of last season.

But he was cruelly cut from the provisional Scotland squad, with Clarke taking other centre-backs instead.

It was a hard one to accept for the defender.

Maybe even tougher when he watched Clarke’s team concede seven goals in three group games.

But Souttar now believes the extra rest has ended up doing him a power of good, and was much needed after a tiring 43-game season, the most he’s achieved in a 12-year career so far.

He admitted: “It was disappointing not to be involved at the Euros.

“But then again it was good for my body to get a break.

“I played a lot of football last year, and this has been the first time I’ve really had the chance to have that break and let my body recover.

“So I’m feeling good and looking forward to the start of the season.
“I wouldn’t call what happened a blessing.

“But looking back maybe it will be a good thing getting that rest and letting my body recover, because I played a lot of football compared to previous years.

“So fingers crossed in the long run I’ll be looking back thinking it was a good thing not to go.”

Souttar felt he was on his way to Germany with a chance to add to his nine caps, when he was selected as part of the provisional squad of boss Clarke.

But then the bad news came as he was axed.

He added: “I was part of the original training camp so I was close. I was as close as you can be.

“But it was a decision, one way or the other, that I wasn’t to be involved.

“I’ll handle that and move forward, and hopefully I’ll continue to get better.

“Last season was big for me to play as much football as I ended up doing.

“I got my confidence back in my body and now this year is about kicking on.

“I want to play as much football as I can, get fitter with every game, and take things from there.”

Souttar enjoyed a well-earned summer holiday before returning for pre- season, insisting he got over the pain of his Euros snub pretty quickly.

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He said: “You have to, it’s part of football.

“There are going to be disappointments, whether it’s in games or life.

“It’s then about how you handle the disappointments, and how you bounce back from them.

“It just motivated me to get better. I spent the summer looking back on my season and looking at improving where I am able to.”

Souttar is now fully focused on being ready for the big kick-off to the new season, and vowed Philippe Clement’s side will be raring to go a week on Saturday against Hearts.

This defeat to a young Manchester United team offered little encouragement to an Ibrox support worried that the squad lacks quality.

But Souttar insists they shouldn’t read too much into the loss.

He added: “It’s always difficult to tell in pre-season.

“I’ve been part of pre- season when you think you’re flying, or times when you think you’re not.

“And then it goes the opposite way when the season starts.

“It’s so hard to judge in pre-season when people don’t see the training you do.

“The games are good when there are a lot of fans. But they can become quite false because boys have sometimes got fatigue on their legs.

“Maybe you can press for 20 minutes but when the season starts it’s normal to do it for 80 or 90 minutes.

“You need that fatigue to work back to full fitness.

“But we’ll be in good shape in two weeks.

“This was a pre-season game and for the boys it was about getting some minutes in the legs.

“Some of the boys got 45 minutes here, 45 minutes there, so to get 75 minutes was good.

“It’s all about building up for the first league game in two weeks.

“It was well documented that a lot of boys were going to leave the club in the summer.

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“Other boys have come in, but they have only been here two or three weeks so it’s going to take time.

“Especially when some of them have come from different countries and speak different languages.

“It’s going to take time to gel, but this game was another step towards that.”

Souttar also insists the Rangers squad cannot get distracted by the departure of skipper James Tavernier should his move to Turkiye get finalised.

He said: “I don’t think it’s a disruption at all. It’s part of football.

“In every transfer window at clubs like this there are going to be people linked with going and people linked with different things.

“That’s just one of these things, being part of Rangers.

“It’s going to happen, and it’s just important the boys here focus on playing football, and concentrate on training every day.

“Everything else will take care of itself.”

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