Graeme Souness is "disappointed" that he could not come to an agreement with Rangers about returning to the club.
The former Rangers player and manager held talks with CEO James Bisgrove about an ambassadorial role. However, the 70-year-old want to be more involved in the football side of the club.
"Am I disappointed, I suppose I am," Souness told the Big Scottish Football Podcast.
"I still think I've got my marbles and at my age, I still remember what you need to do to win football matches. I'm a wee bit disappointed but I've still got plenty to be getting on with in my life like my charity work."
🎉 WE ARE BACK 🎉@stevenmill & @EwenDCameron return for a brand new season!
Episode 48- Reading between the lines 📖
⚽️ Predictions
⚽️ Celeb Spotting
⚽️ Graeme Souness exclusiveWATCH 📺- https://t.co/lqwbqMBXPN
LISTEN 📻- https://t.co/oWtXfMG57g pic.twitter.com/WmSKr6IpiA— The Big Scottish Football Podcast (@bigfootballscot) August 3, 2023
Souness continued: "Without going into any great detail. I had a couple of meetings with James Bisgrove but ultimately decided it [an ambassadorial role] wasn't for me.
'Rangers not a million miles behind Celtic'
"I felt I had something to offer but maybe it wasn't seen as a road they wanted to go down from their point [of view].
"I'm a great believer you can never have enough football people around the place. I look at the likes of... The most recent example would be Todd Boehly at Chelsea, where you've got someone new coming in and not having any football knowledge around him and they made loads of mistakes.
"Ed Woodward at Man Utd after Fergie left, he was making all the big football calls and look how well they did with that.
"The game is littered with it. You've Mohshiri at Everton, Ellis Short at Sunderland, Mel Morris at Derby. There is a whole litany of smart people going into football clubs and not getting it right. I felt I had something to offer but it wasn't the way they wanted to go."
Souness believes that Rangers are "not a million miles behind Celtic".
"Celtic are obviously in the box seat because of their recent success and the belief they carry going into the new season," he added.
"But we've got a new manager (Michael Beale) with new players, and hopefully win the first Old Firm game, put the pressure back on Celtic and see how they deal with it rather than us dealing with it.
"That is a big game coming up. You can put a marker down in the first one. My experience of the Scottish league is that you can be playing the best football, have the best players playing the best football, but you lose the first Old Firm game then all the pressure comes on you because the team that is top plays with the greater freedom."
In Pictures: Thousands Turn Out For Ireland World Cup Homecoming
