Ray Houghton On His Biggest Career Regret And Rejecting Rangers Move

"You don't want to be the bad guy, but it still rankles with me," admitted Ray Houghton as he mulled what he said was his biggest regret in football.

Ray Houghton won two league titles, two FA Cups, two League Cups in his club career and represented Ireland at three major tournaments, scoring memorable goals in wins over England (at Euro '88) and Italy (at USA '94).

The Glasgow native, who qualified to play for Ireland through his Donegal father, started off in professional football with West Ham but only made one senior appearance in his three years with the Londoners. He recalled, in a recent interview with Four Four Two, scoring 19 goals from midfield in his final season with the Hammers' youth team.

"In today's football," he remarked, "I'd probably have got a five-year contract on £100,000 a week. But the manager decided to let me go - work that out if you can. It's still tough to take now."

Houghton went on to play three seasons with Fulham before, in 1985, switching to Oxford United and helping them win a League Cup. He was signed by Liverpool for £825,000, in 1987, and had five enjoyable years on Merseyside. Houghton helped Liverpool to two league titles but lists not fouling Arsenal's Mickey Thomas as his biggest career regret.

Thomas scored a goal at Anfield, in 1989, that secured the Gunners a 2-0 victory they needed to pip Liverpool on goal difference to clinch the title. Many Reds supporters have lamented John Barnes pushing for an equaliser, rather than running down the clock, only to lose possession to Tony Adams. Houghton hared back and could not prevent the Thomas goal, and declared:

It's still the biggest regret, not scything Thomas down, that night. You don't want to be the bad guy, but it rankles with me."

When one looks back at footage of the goal, Houghton is being somewhat harsh on himself. He does well to get back on put pressure on Thomas, but opts not to slide and take the Gunners midfielder out. Had he done so, it still would have been a penalty to Arsenal.

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Houghton has also spoken about turning down the chance to become, at the time, only the second Catholic player to sign for Glasgow Rangers.

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How Ray Houghton almost ended up at Rangers

Back in 2014, Ray Houghton reflected on choosing a move to Liverpool over Rangers, in 1987.

"I remember when I ended up going to Liverpool from Oxford," he told the Irish Independent. "I got hate mail from Rangers fans because there was chat that I was going up there – I was getting death threats, this that and the other.

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"I got some mail suggesting it would be best for me not to go there," Houghton said of Rangers in that Four Four Two interview. "I understood Rangers fans who wouldn't have been too happy to see a Catholic lining out for them."

Rangers would eventually make former Celtic forward Mo Johnston their first major Catholic signing, in 1989. Former Celtic player Frank McAvennie recently recalled how Ally McCoist went out of his way to wind up Johnston when he first arrived at the club.

Some of the boys made him welcome when Mo first came in, especially 'Coisty'. Mo arrived into the team hotel for dinner and Coisty put a chair away over in the corner - one chair, one knife and fork, over there. Mo was going around getting introduced to everyone at dinner, but there were no spaces. Go on over there, they point, as the other boys are sitting there, eating away. Welcome to Rangers!"

Graeme Souness was player-manager for Rangers, at the time. The Scot became Liverpool manager in 1991 and Houghton lasted just a season under him, before he was shipped off to Aston Villa.

"It was down to money," Houghton insisted. "Graeme wouldn't pay me anywhere near what some other players were on, and his argument was that I wasn't someone he'd signed... I don't think he treated me the right way."

The pair both worked for RTÉ for a number of years, covering matches, and Houghton said his Liverpool departure was never discussed during their time together.

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