| A mercurial winger and master of the 'Double Shuffle', Mark Walters
arrived in Glasgow on 31 December 1987. Born in Birmingham on 2 June
1964, Walters had been on the books at his boyhood heroes Aston Villa
since his school days, making his first-team debut at the age of 17, but
he was tempted north by Graeme Souness, who beat off competition from
Everton and Derby County to secure the Englishman's signature for £500,000.
He made his debut against Celtic at Parkhead on 2 January
1988. It proved to be an inauspicious start for the new boy, as Celtic
won 2-0, but Walters soon found his feet and was soon entertaining the
Rangers supporters with his stunning array of skills and tricks. He had
the ability to ghost past defenders, tying them in knots with his
twisting and turning, and his 'Double Shuffle', a skill he had honed
since his childhood, became a feature of his game. Although most
defenders expected it, they were unable to stop Walters as he dummied
his way beyond them before delivering a menacing cross into the danger
area. In common with most wingers, he was afflicted by inconsistency and
some critics felt that his work-rate was questionable, but on his day
he was mesmerising and a potent attacking weapon in the Rangers arsenal.
Mark
was a threat in front of goal too, possessing a powerful shot and the
skill to impart bend and swerve on to the ball to take it out of the
reach of goalkeepers. He was also an expert penalty taker, with two
spot-kicks against Celtic among the highlights of his three-and-a-half
year stay at Ibrox.
Although he failed to pick up any honours in
the 1987/88 season, Walters enjoyed a fruitful first full season in
Scotland, as he picked up a League Championship medal and a winners
badge in the Scottish League Cup. He scored seventeen goals in
forty-eight appearances, and included in his haul were four league goals
against Celtic and a double in the semi-final of the League Cup against
Hearts.
By the time the 1989/90 season dawned, Walters had made
the number 11 jersey his own, which effectively signalled the end of the
masterful Davie Cooper's time at Ibrox, and he enjoyed another fine
campaign, scoring twelve goals and picking up a second Championship
medal. A third followed in 1990/91, and it was Mark's cross that set up
the first of Mark Hateley's two goals in the final day title shoot-out
against Aberdeen at Ibrox. Walters also scored the opening goal against
Celtic in the League Cup Final, a match that Rangers won by two goals to
one.
His time in Scotland was not without its hardships, though.
He was Rangers' first black player since the Egyptian Mohammed Latif,
who had turned out for the club in the 1930s, and due to the paucity of
black players plying their trade north of the border at that time, Mark
was subjected to vile racist abuse at regular intervals. As well as
having to dodge the bone-jarring challenges doled out by the full-backs
he came up against, Walters also had to evade numerous objects that were
hurled at him from the crowd, including bananas, golf balls, and even a
pig's leg! The fact that Mark was able to rise above this odious abuse
and turn on the dazzling displays that he did spoke volumes for his
strength of character.
After making 143 appearances and scoring
fifty-two goals, Mark Walters left Rangers in the summer of 1991 to join
Graeme Souness at Liverpool. The winger, who cost Liverpool £1.25
million, felt that the move to England would aid his quest to become a
regular in the England team, but he failed to add to the solitary cap
that he earned at the end of his final season in Glasgow.
Mark
spent five years at Anfield, winning the FA Cup in 1992 and the League
Cup in 1995, before moving on to Southampton, Swindon Town and Bristol
Rovers. Now retired, he coaches kids at the Aston Villa academy and is a
regular for Rangers at Sky Sports' Masters Football tournament.
(Alistair Aird, Author of Ally McCoist - Portrait of a Hero)
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