Garry Flitcroft has respect for Graeme Souness, and a similar style of play

The Scottish champions were left indignant ahead of the return at Ewood Park in four days time over the Blackburn skipper declaring no Celtic player impressed and that his boss had said it was "men against boys" in the encounter Celtic won 1-0, despite being left panting by their opponents’ passing poise.

But this obscured the fact that Flitcroft’s free and easy comments indicate camaraderie has replaced conflict in the modus operandi of the, previously, snarling figure of Souness: behind closed doors as well as in public. Intriguingly, however, this could play into Celtic’s hands if the one-off nature of Thursday’s confrontation turns it into a mud and nettles affair.

The Blackburn midfielder talks of his manager having "mellowed" and being more "relaxed", traits that can be traced to Souness’ heart bypass surgery.

"He still joins in training, but is relaxed and that rubs off on the lads," says Flitcroft (below). "Most of all he gives you confidence to go out and play."

The tantrums in the dressing room that were formerly a Souness trademark are no more. At Liverpool, the Scot was happy to allow his captain Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock to grab team-mates by the throat as a means of geeing them up.

Now Flitcroft performs the role simply with well-chosen words, the man signed to the Lancashire club from Bury for 3.5m in March 1996 by Kenny Dalglish doing his master’s bidding without the need to instil fear or rely on force.

"It is just a respect thing," Flitcroft says, admitting it was a "proud moment" when Souness handed him the captaincy on taking the managerial reins at Ewood Park in March 2000. "He knows I do my talking on the pitch and he doesn’t have to say a lot to me. In the dressing room I try to motivate the lads as much as I can and he will do it in there too so it works quite well."

Flitcroft claims the pair have a "tremendous amount" of mutual respect and that as a player he has gone from "strength to strength" since being given the armband by what he describes as "a man manager". The two also share a chequered private life that has been feasted over on the front pages of the newspapers, the married Flitcroft going to the courts in a failed attempt to prevent publication of the details of his liaisons with a lap dancer.

A shoddy affair, Souness was guilty of showing a lack of class in his professional duties in his early days as a manager with Rangers and Liverpool, whether in becoming embroiled in spats with tea ladies and journalists while at Ibrox or signing hammer throwers like Ruddock and Julian Dicks on Merseyside.

This conflicted with his own self-image as an urbane character and cerebral footballer. These are now shining through in the latest phase of his glorious career. His road to Damascus was a route that took him from Galatasaray to Southampton before brief tenures with Torino and Benfica.

The stylish manner of his team and the bravura performance he gave in preening and parading himself in front of the technical area at Celtic Park during the first leg speak of the lessons he has learned. Souness’ passion for the game has not been diluted by health problems, but rather refined.

"In all the time I’ve been with him, he has probably only had to go mad at us on three or four occasions," says Flitcroft. "After those he has come into training and been joining in and kept things fun. That is why the lads want to play football for him."

It is the brand of football Blackburn play that may come under the microscope as they try to overturn a 1-0 deficit on Thursday. Souness’ side may be riding high in the Premiership but, since losing to Celtic, ahead of this weekend they had played two games without winning outright. A 0-0 draw at Aston Villa last weekend was followed by a Worthington Cup win on penalties against Walsall, after they drew 2-2 with the First Division side at home in the competition they won last season to secure a UEFA Cup place.

Souness may have disparaged Celtic for playing "big lumps" but these figures could possess the desired qualities in a 90 minutes that is sure to be frantic. That may not suit the measured play he has cultivated in giving expression to flair players such as Tugay, David Thompson and Damien Duff.

The cutting edge has sometimes been missing, with the partnership of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole so far having failed to plunder goals at the expected rate. Where Flitcroft is concerned, any deficiencies in the ranks would seem to pale when set against the disappointing showing from Celtic in the first leg. "I thought they would pressurise a lot more and thought the crowd would get behind them a lot more," he states. "We totally dominated and their fans couldn’t get behind their team. Let’s hope when it comes to Ewood we can play the same again and create a lot more chances."

Rangers have tipped the balance in their favour over recent Old Firm games by infusing their play with a nastiness that previously seemed the preserve of Celtic. It would speak of a truly changed world, and changed man, were Souness’ team to exit on Thursday through not being nasty enough. In a previous time, this would have been dismissed as a shaggy dog story.

ANDREW SMITH