Source: Team_Talk
Gough tips Weir to carry on playing
Weir, who signed for Rangers in January 2007, will be 39 on Sunday and there has been ongoing speculation surrounding his possible retirement at the end of the season.
Gough was captain at Ibrox during the nine-in-a-row years of the late 1980s and 1990s - and the former Scotland international then played to the same age as Weir as his defensive partner at Everton.
The former Livingston manager, at Hampden to promote Setanta's coverage of Saturday's Old Firm game at Ibrox, claims age is no barrier.
"The last two or three weeks have been unsettling for the club and I think Davie Weir has been a steadying influence," Gough said. "I am going up to Murray Park to see the lads so I will have a chat with him then.
"I would love to see him do another season if he feels capable of doing so.
"I finished with Everton when I was 39 but I felt I could have played for another year. I stopped for family reasons.
"I suppose only he and Walter Smith can decide if he will stay but I hope it happens.
"I think he has really helped Madjid Bougherra settle in the same way, I hope, that I helped Davie 10 years ago at Everton.
"Davie is a settling influence on any player because he is calm and he reads the game very well."
Former Celtic defender Derek Whyte is again caught up in Old Firm fever.
Whyte, who played for the Parkhead club 215 times in the 1980s and early 1990s, now lives in England but was at Hampden with Gough to publicise the crunch game in which Celtic hope to at least maintain their one-point lead over the Light Blues at the top of the Scottish Premier League.
The former Scotland defender said: "I have arguments with my colleagues in England about the Old Firm game.
"They talk about Arsenal versus Chelsea or Manchester City versus Manchester United but this is the biggest game in the world by far.
"The nerves and the build-up is unbelievable. I don't think they ever change. The hype is incredible and as a Celtic player going to Ibrox, the nerves are affected because it's not just your team-mates and supporters, it's families that are affected and people being slagged off when they go in to work.
"I still think it is just as dramatic as ever and I just love it. It is the best in the world."
Rangers v Celtic 1st Goalscorer: Weir, D. 40/1
