From 1 January 1986, the side won only a quarter of the remaining sixteen league fixtures. There was no hope of a trophy, after defeats in the Scottish Cup third round and the League Cup semi-final. Wallace resigned as manager of the club on 7 April 1986. He was to jump before being pushed by the then newly appointed Rangers chairman David Holmes. Holmes had gone on record saying that the slump the club was in could not be allowed to go on. Wallace's side might have won the League Cup twice in a row, but the league form remained indifferent. The continuing dominance of the Aberdeen side of the 1980s, coupled with strong Dundee United and Celtic teams that offered periodic challenges to Aberdeen's ascendancy, placed Wallace under increasing pressure. By the 1985–86 season, Rangers had slipped to fifth place in the league. The search for Wallace's replacement was a brief one. The Souness revolution (1986–1991) On 7 April 1986, Graeme Souness was appointed as Rangers' first player-manager by chairman David Holmes. Souness had previously been playing in Italy with Sampdoria, and made the move to Glasgow for a £300,000 fee. This was the first of many big-money transfer deals to be made at Ibrox. Souness' first moves were to bring in Walter Smith from Dundee United as his assistant and ex-Coventry City manager Don Mackay as reserve-team coach. Souness' first match in charge of Rangers was the club's final league fixture of the season, on 3 May 1986. Souness and Smith were introduced to the 22,000 crowd at Ibrox and were given a rousing reception. The team then went on to defeat Motherwell 2–0 to clinch the final qualification spot for the following season's UEFA Cup in what had been an otherwise unnotable year for the club. Six days later, Souness won his first trophy at Rangers when they defeated Celtic 3–2 after extra time in the Glasgow Cup Final, Ally McCoist scored a hat-trick in front of over 40,000 fans at Ibrox. Souness' first flurry into the transfer market over the summer resulted in a £175,000 purchase of Colin West. The investment made in West was small compared to that made in other members of the playing staff. Souness took advantage of the European competition ban imposed by UEFA on English clubs after the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Due to this, plus a sizeable transfer budget, he was