Souness Out!

[broadsword]

[Shaddy]

[philipl]

I am laughing out loud.

[Scotty]

Marvellous. But you forgot to mention Rooney!!

[colin]

Made me laugh too.

[Flopsy]

can we get back to the topic, which if i guess rightly is about bitterness and pettiness aimed against our second most succesful manager

[colin]

can we get back to the topic, which if i guess rightly is about bitterness and pettiness aimed against our second most succesful manager

324864[/snapback]

Oh stop it. Bellamy has just posted one of the best micky-taking messages ever seen on here.

Have another read.

Edited June 17, 2005 by colin

[Flopsy]

I know, and have put some money on the Arizona Diamondbacks - its defiantely their year this year

[ABBEY]

my team flopsy!!

[Eddie]

Quality post there Grooby, should probably just save time and give you a Grooby now.

[philipl]

Sorry to detract from Bellamy's masterpiece but this is an excellent candid assessment of Parker's move to Newcastle. Love the line "Parker is the trophy".

[blue phil]

Nice one , Bellamy ; glad I didn't miss that one

[LeftWinger]

Arsenal (A)

West Ham (H)

Bolton (A)

Man Utd (H)

Fulham (H)

ROVERS (A)

Wouldn't it be funny if Rovers away was Souness' last game in charge . It's quite a tough start- and Newcastle like to sack Managers early.

[1864roverite]

From www.blueandwhites.com

an interesting read

Author - Danny Woodworth

Mark Hughes vs Graeme Souness

Date - 20:19 Friday 24th June 2005

When Graeme Souness left Blackburn Rovers to join "one of the biggest clubs in the world" last September, he must have been relieved to have left a club that was struggling at the wrong end of the table - pundits too believed that Souness had a lucky escape to Newcastle, but who has really benefited from it all?

Mark Hughes and Graeme Souness were both legends as players in their respective eras, so it was inevitable that both of them would delve into management after retirement to try and rub off some of their skills into the clubs that they take over.

Graeme Souness was officially appointed as Newcastle United's manager on Monday the 13th of September 2004, a week after resigning from his post at Ewood Park, replacing Sir Bobby Robson. Mark Hughes was appointed manager of Blackburn Rovers a few days later, on Wednesday the 15th of September 2004, although he was only fully committed to the club after his last game in charge of the Welsh National side, in mid-October.

Souness is a veteran in club management having been in the business for over a decade, whereas Mark Hughes has only been in club management for 9 months - so would it be expected that Graeme Souness is the better manager?

Statistics & Performances

Statistics don't lie, and the following table shows how:

with a smaller club with less expectations,

with significantly lower transfer funds,

a significantly lower wage budget,

significantly lower income (through TV revenue and gate receipts),

much less talented players (quality and quantity) at his disposal,

and a short managerial career,

Mark Hughes has still managed to do a better job in the Premiership with Blackburn than Graeme Souness has done with Newcastle.

Manager

Pld

W

D

L

F

A

GD

PTS

Mark Hughes

33

9

13

11

28

32

-4

40

Graeme Souness

33

9

12

12

38

48

-10

39

OK, so Mark Hughes has had some pretty shocking performances - Fulham (H), Bournemouth, and Chelsea (A) all spring to mind, but Graeme Souness has endured some pretty torrid times in his spell at St. James Park; after missing literally hundreds of chances in a game at home to Fulham, Newcastle still managed to lose the game 4-1. There was the disbelief of watching Souness' first-team side struggle to overcome a club 6 tiers below themselves in the FA Cup, and then there was of course talk of Newcastle winning their first trophy for 50 odd years, only for the Toon Army to watch their team bow out of two competitions in the space of four days, conceding four goals in each game.

Mark Hughes' Blackburn have been criticised for being over-aggressive and producing rubbish football (mostly through a lack of goals), but considering Newcastle had talented strikers and midfielders more than capable of scoring hatfuls of goals (like Shearer, Bellamy, Kluivert, Dyer, Jenas, Bowyer and Robert), to just score 10 more goals in the league than Blackburn did (during the two managers' respective stints at their clubs) is a bit of joke.

Reputation

First impressions are always vital, and the reaction the two sets of supporters displayed to their new managers just showed how much respect Mark Hughes and Graeme Souness have in the game. Fans in Blackburn were confident that Mark Hughes was the right man to take the club forward, and Hughes enjoyed a fantastic reception in his first game at home to Portsmouth. On the other hand things weren't so rosy up in Newcastle after fans had learnt that Graeme Souness would be the successor to Sir Bobby Robson - disgusted Geordies vented their disappointment of appointing a manager that was only weeks away from the sack at Ewood Park. Souness was so endeared by the Newcastle public that they created a special website for him - www.souness-out.co.uk!

In terms of first reactions from the club's players, Mark Hughes did have a slight advantage because he had already spent 2 years as a Blackburn player, and therefore did know a lot of the players at Ewood Park well. But his coaching techniques and the impact he has made at Ewood Park has certainly not gone unnoticed:

"Mark always struck me as a forward thinker - he's always coming up with new ideas. I always thought he would make a good manager, he's much more of a thinker than a shouter or a brawler." Craig Short

"It is a huge achievement [to move away from relegation in Hughes' first season at the club]. When Mark came in we were in a bit of disarray, but from the day he arrived we worked on our fitness - everyone is better for that, and it has shown in our performances." Brett Emerton

"Although Mark has not been in club management that long, I still rate him as one of the best. I know what he did with Wales, and I can see him doing the same with Blackburn." Robbie Savage

...just a selection of the many tributes Mark Hughes has received.

But, up in Newcastle Souness' reputation is about as respected as the Crazy Frog - Craig Bellamy's face when he was interviewed just after learning Souness had been appointed was an absolute picture. So far Souness has managed to fall out with Craig Bellamy, Kieran Dyer, Lee Bowyer, Laurent Robert and Patrick Kluivert, and those were just the scuffles announced publicly. With all the players Souness has fallen out with in his time at Blackburn and Newcastle, we could probably make up quite a strong starting 11.

All these little disagreements between Souness and his players don't even scratch the surface though. There was all that bother with Newcastle's players behaviour in a hotel a few months ago, and who could ever forget the fantastic fight on pitch between Lee Bowyer and Kieran Dyer after Aston Villa were trouncing Newcastle 3-0?

Souness' reputation with the FA hasn't exactly improved either. He was recently given a £10 000 fine and a 2 match suspended touchline-ban after complaining about Barry Knight giving Everton a free-kick that lead to Newcastle conceding a goal...Knight's not an Everton fan is he Souey?

Souness the disciplinarian? Don't make me laugh.

Signings

With the ability to attract better players with a bigger club reputation, more transfer fees and higher wages, Souness should have been able to put together a decent team by now. Having just signed Scott Parker, and being linked with the likes of Figo, Emre and Andy Johnson, Souness looks to be doing something right in the transfer market for once.

So far Souness has spent around £20 million on players since taking over last September, and the most of them have not had a major impact on his team; especially Nicky Butt, who has had a torrid time in the centre of the Magpies' midfield.

Hughes' transfer slate isn't completely clean either though - Robbie Savage has not impressed much, and Youri Djorkaeff was a one game wonder. But, by finding Aaron Mokoena and Ryan Nelson from virtual obscurity, he has really installed confidence in the Blackburn fans about the type of quality player he is capable of finding, and on a shoe string budget as well...the new Sam Allardyce?

The Future

After successfully steering Rovers away from the relegation zone (when it looked more than likely that Rovers would go down under Souness), Mark Hughes now has at least two more years left on his contract to start moving Blackburn Rovers up the league again. He might not have extravagant transfer funds to spend, and he might have to put up with home games that are half-full and seriously lacking in atmosphere, but Mark Hughes has the full backing of the Blackburn fans, as everyone connected with the club up to the boardroom level has full confidence in his ability.

Hughes has two more years left, Souness will be lucky to get two more months left once the season starts, if Newcastle continue their notorious trend of starting poorly to every season. Although Souness has been spending lavishly his £20 million budget for this season, most of his squad will probably be knackered by Christmas anyway as they have a nice campaign in the Intertoto Cup to look forward to, starting in the next couple of weeks.

So who had the lucky escape then?

Blackburn Rovers, not Graeme Souness.

Edited June 24, 2005 by den

[Jan]

Absolutely brilliant. And every word of it true.

[Radagast]

Except the bit where it says he signed Nicky Butt, for one thing.

[jim mk2]

Laurent Robert puts the boot into Souness in a double page spread in tomorrow's papers.

[philipl]

BBC headline- quite probably the right analysis but the wrong man delivering it.

I have often wondered how the Rovers managed to maintain the outwards facade of relative civilisation if Souness really did behave in the Managerial position the way it appears he did conduct himself.

[T4E]

Souness is rapidly turnig himself into a charicature, seemingly deliberately living up to his reputation time and time again. Surely no man could be so stubborn or naive for it all to be one big coincidence.

[Alan75]

Laurent Robert puts the boot into Souness in a double page spread in tomorrow's papers.

327498[/snapback]

Heck I bet he wished hed waited until the weekend

Newcastle have fined Laurent Robert two weeks' wages for his stinging attack on manager Graeme Souness - even though he has agreed a move to Portsmouth.

The French winger, 30, told The Sun that the Magpies would have lifted the 2005 Uefa Cup "if Souness had the intelligence to see what was going on".

"If he keeps going like he has, he'll get fired and deserve it," he added.

But Newcastle are still paying his wages until Friday and have disciplined him "for a breach of club discipline".

[Nayef]

Heck I bet he wished hed waited until the weekend 

so he doesn't get paid until friday.

Oh no! Let's start a collection to ensure he doesn't lose his mortgage.

[AussieinUk]

Heck I bet he wished hed waited until the weekend 

Newcastle have fined Laurent Robert two weeks' wages for his stinging attack on manager Graeme Souness - even though he has agreed a move to Portsmouth.

The French winger, 30, told The Sun that the Magpies would have lifted the 2005 Uefa Cup "if Souness had the intelligence to see what was going on".

"If he keeps going like he has, he'll get fired and deserve it," he added.

But Newcastle are still paying his wages until Friday and have disciplined him "for a breach of club discipline".

327664[/snapback]

- Newcastle is always there to cheer me up! Souness is such a pety Bar Steward..

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Even though the criticism of Souness was delivered by an enigmatic and somewhat recalcitrant Frenchman, it was still another indictment of Souey's managerial style.

According to Laurent Robert: "Souness lacks the respect from his squad that Sir Bobby Robson enjoyed. I knew from the first day under Souness that things were going to get worse - and I'm not the only player who thinks that."

"Souness uses outdated methods. I can only see a lot more pain for the players, fans, and the chairman while he remains manager."

"Souness is always moaning that he needs new players. But the Newcastle team should be doing a lot better with the players they already have. Souness will get nowhere by screaming at players and slamming doors," added the Frenchman.

"What Newcastle did to Sir Bobby was bizarre. They just threw him out, when I believe that he would have got things going again. Sir Bobby may be older than Souness, but we saw more of him and the training was better under him."

"We could have won the UEFA Cup last season if Souness had possessed the intelligence. If he keeps going like he has been he'll get fired. And he'll deserve it," said Robert.

[booth]

    - Newcastle is always there to cheer me up! Souness is such a pety Bar Steward..

327692[/snapback]

And you can always be sure of the Geordies crying at the end of the season on Sky Sports, it's become a footballing tradition.

And every five years an alleged scandal involving the chairman and a hooker

[colin]

Excellent post there 1864,

as every day passes since GS went to Newcastle I think that we were lucky that they took him off our hands.

I'll take Flopsy's point that he is our second most sucessful manager (in the last 50 years maybe,) but he was fast losing the plot at Ewood. He seems to be carrying on where he left off here at SJP, blanking players, creating rifts and general discord.

Our gain is their loss. A bit like The Red Scum would have considered Kidd's departure to Ewood.