Souness Out!

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

i do'nt know why everyone is gloating in sourpuss's failure because i think MARK HUGHES will be top off freddie's list when he needs a new manager

364508[/snapback]

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO...THAT REALLY WOULD BE TWISTING THE KNIFE!!!!!

[G Somerset Rover]

Despite Hughes' growing reputation i dont think he'l plunge for another Rovers manager after Soueys efforts. By the way though, not that Im intentionally trying to defend a man whose spent that much there, but only about 2 out of the previous 4 or 5 managers have a better winning % than him. Still a team managed correctly with Emre, Parker, Bowyer, Dyer, Luque, Shearer, Owen and Solano should be top 5.

Edited December 2, 2005 by Somerset Rover!

[Billy Castell]

If the Geordies did poach Hughes, I'd personally go and poo in fat Freddies hat. I like what he is doing here, and fingers crossed he'll stay. Maybe Steve Bruce will be tempted to leave Brum.

http://www.willhill.com/iibs/EN/buildcoupo...choice=FB828738

The link is William Hill's take on who is the next Portsmouth manager, and who's next for the chop. Don't understand the figures, but Souness looks like he's on thin ice.

[Napoleon]

I think Hughes would be too sensible to go to Newcastle in the event of an offer. A large part of Souness' motivation for going there was that it was probably his last chance to manage a 'big club' again. Hughes has no need to risk a move somewhere where he would have to put up with constant fan attention and interfering board members, when he can continue to progress at Rovers and maybe move to a better club than Newcastle somewhere down the line.

Edited December 2, 2005 by Napoleon

[Jan]

Anyone spot the deliberate mistake?

Ps- not having a go at Souness- and this is from ITV football!!

Souness not leaving Tynecastle

Newcastle manager Graeme Souness has promised he will not walk away from St James' Park as the pressure mounts.

The 52-year-old Scot was left in little doubt about the dwindling patience of the club's fans as they vented their anger after Wednesday night's dismal 1-0 Carling Cup fourth-round defeat against what was effectively Wigan's reserve team.

However, he insists his personal pride and his belief that the situation will improve will not allow him to quit his job after a 15-month rollercoaster ride on Tyneside which continues with a must-win clash with Aston Villa at St James' Park on Saturday.

"That can never happen and there are a number of reasons why that can never happen," he said.

"The single biggest reason that can never happen is because long after football, I have to look at myself in the mirror when I'm shaving, brushing my hair - or what's left of my hair.

"It can never happen, so really, it's a waste of time anybody ever asking that question.

"I understand I personally have been getting a great deal of criticism, but that's the price on the ticket. I can understand our fans' disappointment, frustration, anger at the way we played at Wigan.

"I would not argue with anyone who said we were poor, we were bad on the night. That can happen to any team. We were just poor, and that can happen.

"It's happened before and it will happen again."

Chairman Freddy Shepherd called for a united front in the wake of the Wigan debacle as speculation mounted he could be ready to act, although club insiders on Friday dismissed claims that Bolton's Sam Allardyce, one of the men sounded out following Sir Bobby Robson's departure, is being lined up as a replacement.

Bookmakers Ladbrokes have quoted Souness as 7/4 favourite to become the next Barclays Premiership boss to lose his job with David O'Leary, the man in the opposing dug-out on Saturday, just behind him at 9/4.

However, he insists he has not been issued with an ultimatum by Shepherd.

"No," he said. "But it's an important game for us, I'd be a fool not to realise that.

"Football is just like life; you only find out about people and find out about yourself when you are under pressure.

"I'm an experienced manager and this is not the first time I have been in a situation like this, and I know how to deal with it.

"My take on it is that at this club, along with maybe one or two other clubs in the UK, you are only two games away from the situation we find ourselves in.

"That is the nature of it here on Tyneside and it's something I knew before I put pen to paper to sign the contract I've got. It's quite a unique place, but I'm a big boy and I understand how the game works.

"At the end of the day, it will be the same when I leave here, the next person in my seat will have to endure the same experiences. But that's the price on the ticket and if you are manager of Newcastle United, you have to learn to live with that.

"That's the way it is on Tyneside. Looking from afar, there has to be more than just the fact that they have been unlucky over 40 years or that the teams have not been good enough over 40 years.

"Just maybe we over-react to everything too much. That puts pressure on everybody, that brings pressure to bear on people who have to make important decisions and, as anyone would tell you, the secret of any successful football club is continuity."

Souness will be without key players with Owen again missing - the Magpies have not scored a goal in the three games since he damaged his groin - and Emre sidelined by a hamstring strain rather than the tear which was first feared.

Celestine Babayaro is suspended after his clash with Everton's Tim Cahill, but Titus Bramble and Shola Ameobi are expected to be fit.

[joey_big_nose]

I can see why you didn't castigate him, he did an excellent job of making himself look a fool without any help!

"The single biggest reason that can never happen is because long after football, I have to look at myself in the mirror when I'm shaving, brushing my hair - or what's left of my hair.

"I would not argue with anyone who said we were poor, we were bad on the night. That can happen to any team. We were just poor, and that can happen.

"At the end of the day, it will be the same when I leave here, the next person in my seat will have to endure the same experiences. But that's the price on the ticket and if you are manager of Newcastle United, you have to learn to live with that.

It doesn't sound like he is brimming with ideas....

[USABlue]

But that's the price on the ticket and if you are manager of Newcastle United, you have to learn to live with that.

It doesn't sound like he is brimming with ideas....

364589[/snapback]

What about when you were manager of Blackburn Rovers, what did you learn to live with? Hamstrung Rovers, now Hamstrung Toon, it's the training pitches? Grab a knob Graeme, it's 2005. Players now are finely tunes athletes, a quick kick around 2 or 3 times a week is not enough. I am so angry at myself for blindly following this individual. (Note, I did not say man) So many things have become so much clearer since he left. He engineered his move (remember the call about Shearer, was it? or was it Hi Freddy I'm available?)

My apologies to those who I defended him against, Revidge is one, jim you don't count cos your only beef was about a hello to your lad not football,

The man has taken a HUGE club with all the potential in the World and made them a pile of ######. (laughing stock) They are below us FFS.

Selling Duffer and Dunn, compounded with Matty's career ending injury found him out. Our three crown jewels were carrying the man in spite of himself.

As they disappeared so did we as a team.

My humblest apologies but I never saw it then, I do now. I see him differently now, I really do, thanks for everything GS but the whole world now knows what I did not. You are lost in the past, you were a great player but one MUST roll with the changes.

May Cotterill go to Toon and Burnley come begging for your services. Just reward cos I really feel, belatedly, that not only did you (Please don't use that word again) us but you knew what you were doning when you did it.

[blue/white]

USABlue...

your last post sounded like Tony Soprano venting in Dr. Melfi's office. (complete with passionate rant)

Well done, Mate. I second your sentiments.

Edited December 2, 2005 by blue/white

[M-K]

@USA's rant:

What's the problem with Souness and why do you need to hate him so much? I thought he was pretty entertaining when he was here, he stuck up for the club, he certainly wasn't going to be pushed around by a bunch of footballers and he was a decent, quotable 'personality' manager. He was fun - Grabbi, Ferguson, Amoruso included - and that's what this is all about. Entertainment. Take it too seriously and the joy just evaporates.

Blaming him for Newcastle's crapness, well... they've been nothing better than a house of cards since the Keegan days. The people in the board room are some of the most loathsome individuals in football and, HUGE club or not, nobody deserves success. There are plenty of more worthy clubs in the lower divisions - certainly ones without such persistent delusions of grandeur.

Take 'em down, Souey!

[philipl]

That is a very open-hearted post USA but I think you are too hard on yourself.

Souness has got football management ability.

The Rovers under Kidd were the biggest disgrace in football- I remember watching us lose 2-1 at Swindon producing the most inept disjointed performance I have ever witnessed from a Blackburn team (and that is after watching some horror shows like the 0-4 at Reading, the 0-5 at Coventry and the 0-6 at Citeh).

Souness came to Rovers from the football scrap heap- he was just about unemployable but Jack saw that he could get results and boy did Souness turn us round faster than any of us expected- Promotion, League Cup then UEFA qualification through coming sixth.

The problem with Souness is his ego and nasty brutish character and with Jack dead and his managerial career rescued by three good seasons, then all the rubbish USA described above cut in.

I was slow to change sides into the anti-Souness camp but by the spring of 2004 I badly wanted Souness out of Ewood and was elated by the "humilation" of Newcastle pinching off us again. It wasn't pay back in equal measure for taking Gordon Lee, cheating us on Roger Jones, all the garbage we got from Lord westwood, Keegan's romancing of Shearer etc. but let's say that taking Souness and his garbage backroom staff plus giving us £1.65m compensation felt like it was at least the equivalent of admission of guilt.

I hated losing 0-3 to Newcastle but in a way we got a laugh on them because they didn't fire Souness. With him in charge they will occasionally flatter but will achieve nothing. Long may it continue and Fat Freddie be too scared of the cost of getting rid. Here's to the Newcastle training ground brawls and the injury list extending- hard training pitches indeed!

[colin]

"My take on it is that at this club, along with maybe one or two other clubs in the UK, you are only two games away from the situation we find ourselves in.

That's a classic.

I agree with Phillip that we are all to quick to forget that Souness pulled us out of a dire situation, cut some dead wood, some wasters, some fat-arsed layabouts, got us promoted, & won the Worthington Cup.

Then as quickly as it all went right it went all wrong.

Maybe he's a "Championship" level manager.

I think like most here I can see similarities in his time at Newcastle with his last 12 months with us. An unhappy squad, bust-ups, tactical chaos, and rank bad man-management.

If Villa win tomorrow he will be collecting his P45 (and a bag of cash.)

[pg]

USA - yes you are being too hard, and I think philipl touches on the right idea.

Souness' biggest enemy is his own ego. When Jack hired him, he had a recent string of poor jobs.. and he was returning with something to prove.

For three seasons he could do no wrong (well... maybe except for Grabbi). We played sensational football under him (watch the League Cup final and you'll cry your eyes out and what a great team we were and how it all went to waste.)

Once Souness' ego took over... and he felt that he was 'master of his domain' it was the beginning of the end.

Yes he lost the plot, but I also thank him for getting us back to the premier League and winning us a trophy.

[FourLaneBlue]

Excellent post from philipl, sums it up nicely. Personally thought he lost it when Cole went on a free. Awful decision which left us with a strikeforce made up of Dickov, Stead and the last-minute rescuse package of, er...., Jay Boothroyd.

By then though he had been placed on a long-term lucrative contract. Rovers - and especially John Williams who made it continually known that Souness was his man - got very lucky thanks to Newcastle.

[USABlue]

@USA's rant:

What's the problem with Souness and why do you need to hate him so much? I thought he was pretty entertaining when he was here, he stuck up for the club, he certainly wasn't going to be pushed around by a bunch of footballers and he was a decent, quotable 'personality' manager. He was fun - Grabbi, Ferguson, Amoruso included - and that's what this is all about. Entertainment. Take it too seriously and the joy just evaporates.

Blaming him for Newcastle's crapness, well... they've been nothing better than a house of cards since the Keegan days. The people in the board room are some of the most loathsome individuals in football and, HUGE club or not, nobody deserves success. There are plenty of more worthy clubs in the lower divisions - certainly ones without such persistent delusions of grandeur.

Take 'em down, Souey!

364628[/snapback]

Haven't been around long have you? Don't need to hate him, fact is I was one of his staunchest supporters to the end. I feel cheated by him now that's all. I still enjoy his persona, charisma and of course he always looks smart.

The 3 players you mention, how much did he spend on 'em?

We all know the Geordies have not won a lot but they have not been this bad in a long time.

[USABlue]

USABlue...

your last post sounded like Tony Soprano venting in Dr. Melfi's office.  (complete with passionate rant)

Well done, Mate.  I second your sentiments. 

364623[/snapback]

It was the Heinekens. It really does refresh the parts other beers can not reach

[ABBEY]

oops mis read it usa thought it sait refreshed prats ..oops hee hee

[Exiled_Rover]

Surely somebody's mentioned why all this is happening to him. It's the 'tash, once he shaved it off it's all been downhill for him. Samson's hair, Souness' 'tash - the stuff of legend.

[M-K]

Haven't been around long have you?  Don't need to hate him, fact is I was one of his staunchest supporters to the end.  I feel cheated by him now that's all.  I still enjoy his persona, charisma and of course he always looks smart. 

The 3 players you mention, how much did he spend on 'em?

We all know the Geordies have not won a lot but they have not been this bad in a long time.

364713[/snapback]

Is that a 'show us your credentials' challenge?

Anyway, Souness never resorted to Queiroz/McLaren tactics (it's all the supporters' fault) or Big Fat Sam-style self-pity (nobody appreciates how great I am). If he'd have done that after spaffing £15m on three no-hopers then maybe we'd all be entitled to call him a waste of space, but since it wasn't your money or mine...

Edited December 3, 2005 by M-K

[rover6]

I think some of you are forgeting Souness' major foible after his abject handling of big ego players.

Souness has no tactical nouse whatsoever. He admitted as much when he said that he wasn't a big one for tactics. He got out-thought by Martin O'Neil in the second leg of the Celtic tie and his nonsensical fantasies of Dominic Matteo being the next Damien Duff just summed things up.

Yes, he dragged a floundering club up by its boot-straps when we seemed doomed never to return to the Premiership. He deserves praise for that and for taking us into sixth. However imo Sam Allardyce deserved more praise for getting his team of lower earners up after we pipped them to automatic qualification.

Souness got the best out of players by giving them freedom to express themselves. The likes of Dunn, Duff and Jansen were a highly gifted bunch, needless to say, and they excelled at first.

However, when things went the shape of the pear, these players needed tactical direction and that was not forthcoming from Souey. Souness achieved some good things at Rovers, but so did Gerard Houllier but I doubt the Liverpool fans remember him with much fondness.

[1864roverite]

some breaking news in the newcastle chronicle

news reports are surfacing that McCleish will be sacked at Rangers after todays game versus Milan and that Souness will be reinstated at Ibrox after a compensation package of £900.000.00 has been agreed between Murray and Shepherd.

[USABlue]

some breaking news in the newcastle chronicle

news reports are surfacing that McCleish will be sacked at Rangers after todays game versus Milan and that Souness will be reinstated at Ibrox after a compensation package of £900.000.00 has been agreed between Murray and Shepherd.

365370[/snapback]

That should have the Celtic fans jumping up and down for joy.

[Jan]

Well, he was successful there before. However that was before his ego overtook his talent. Also as it would mean that he has cheated the sack yet again I think he'd be even more arrogant, so on balance it would be good for Celtic.

And for me, perfect symmetry.

[bob fleming]

He's denying it.

"It's too early at the moment for this to happen. I'm not going to go back to Rangers until I've bought some more bad players from them for too much money." Souness should probably have said earlier today, but didn't.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

He'll be gone in a flash if Rangers want him...tell you what Souey, you've more lives than a cat sunshine!

[roversmum]

If he went back to Rangers, d'you think we might be able to sell him a couple of players? Amo, Flitty and Douglas spring to mind - and I'm sure there are one or two others who might like a change as well.........