Godwin ObajeMatt Jansen Reveals How Graeme Souness Blocked Rangers Transfer at Last Minute
Former Blackburn Rovers striker Matt Jansen has revealed he was on the verge of joining Rangers—only for the deal to collapse when Graeme Souness intervened at the eleventh hour.
Jansen, who also enjoyed spells at Crystal Palace and Carlisle United, opened up about the near move to Ibrox during a candid interview in which he reflected on a pivotal moment in his career. Frustrated by a lack of game time under caretaker boss Tony Parkes following the departure of Brian Kidd, Jansen was tempted north of the border when Rangers came calling.
“I was in and out of the team so I was a little bit frustrated and Rangers came in and tabled a bid for me,” he told Live Casinos. “I kind of agreed to it, and then Graeme Souness was appointed, and then Souness didn’t want me to go and I played from then on in.”
It was a dramatic turn of events that ultimately reshaped Jansen’s future. What looked like a near-certain switch to the Scottish Premiership giants instead became the beginning of the most successful period of his career at Ewood Park.
“It was nearly a done deal but Souness came in and stopped it. I don’t regret it,” he added. “I had my most successful time under Souness. We won the League Cup and I got called up for England when I was flying.”
Indeed, Jansen would go on to become a key figure under Souness, starring in Blackburn’s 2002 League Cup triumph and earning an England call-up, although injury ultimately robbed him of the opportunity to feature at the World Cup that year.
While the move to Rangers never materialised, the striker holds no bitterness—only a curiosity about what might have been had the timing been slightly different.
“If it had been a few weeks later I would have been at Rangers, so who knows what would have happened. But I loved my time under Souness and my biggest successes were under him, so I don’t regret it. He just stopped the move. He just muted it. He just said, ‘No, he’s staying here’,” Jansen recalled.
The story is yet another example of how the unpredictable nature of football transfers can shape a player’s trajectory. For Jansen, what initially looked like a setback turned into a defining chapter of his career.
Graeme Souness, of course, remains a legendary figure at Ibrox for his transformative spell as Rangers manager in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and his decision to keep Jansen at Blackburn speaks volumes about his eye for talent and ability to galvanise a squad.
Jansen’s comments offer a fascinating glimpse into a “what-if” moment that could have seen him don the blue of Rangers. Instead, he stayed in England—and carved out a memorable chapter in the history of Blackburn Rovers.
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