[Archived] Souey Sets Sights On Palace

[FourLaneBlue]

Celtic, Scotland, Blackburn and wherever Crofty's playing

In that order?

You've missed 'whoever is playing Souness that week" off your list.

[pleasure]

Two facts for the summer debate(?)

Souness and Jordan are big mates(must admit to being disappointed with Jordan) and when Souness came to Ewood he had the 3 Gems just starting to make their mark(Dunn,Duff and Jansen)....all the team needed was frightening and a number of the rubber dinghy boys removing(Grayson,McAteer,and lots of centre-forwards)

duff & dunn were almost on their way out. dunny def asked for a transfer and i heard duff did (whilst not getting a look-in under parkes! ).

jansen always had a lot of talent, but was very much a head-down merchant- who'd never pass (and was often sub - until christmas 2000).

souey and his staff deserve credit for moulding jansen into the player he became.

[ihtd]

duff & dunn were almost on their way out. dunny def asked for a transfer and i heard duff did (whilst not getting a look-in under parkes! ).

That is right, Dunny requested a transfer and removed his request when Souness took over. If we had lost both of those two we probably wouldn't have come back up, just think back to how valuable those two were to us in Div 1, Duff used to terrorise defences and Dunn would make a killer pass to Jansen or Bent. I have always creditted Souness with making Matt Jansen, he may not have been the bloke who signed him but he made him. That makes me think he is a good coach but i also feel he is not a coach who can stay at a club for a long time. He becomes stale, he's tactics become repetitive and easily worked out and his transfer dealings become strange in terms of who he buys and why.

Could we start like a mini-list of Soueys good and bad signings for us because i have always felt a manager is just as good as the players at his disposal and when a manager like Souness has had funds availible pretty much wherever he's been, IMO they have no excuse for buying crap players.

I'll start;

Good

• Craig Short
• Brad Friedel
• Tugay
• Henning Berg
• Paul Dickov (he did a job for us)
• Steven Reid ( he signed him but Sparky made him)

I'll leave the rest to maybe be debated as there are some good players i have missed out

Bad

• Javier De Pedro
• Dominic Matteo
• Lorenzo Amoruso
• Vratislav Gresko (good on loan, shocking when signed knee injury more likely to be at fault)
• Jon Stead (half season wonder)
• Corrado (Ciccio) Grabbi
• Brett Emerton
• Barry (Crybaby) Ferguson

Again i've left many off for others to maybe mention.

[mhead]

Duff and Dunn ON THEIR WAY OUT!

Jansen made by Souness? Are you trying to rewrite history...Souness had a good legacy from our Youth team(most of whom have finished up at Big Club),he also had 3 good years during which his bullying style worked,then it all fell apart.Thanks for the 3 years but most of all for harnessing the 3 gems for our pleasure.

[trs]

The last 18 months of Souey's reign at ewood was an absolute disaster. His constant falling out with top players was just bloody suicide, this obviously led to poor team morale and that was plain to see in the dross that was being served up on the pitch.

However, that will not take away the good memories we should have of the man.

The promotion season, worthy trophy and a top 6 finish in the prem must count for something, and on a personal note I will never forget him on the touchline at celtic, jacket undone chest out and going to war with the less than friendly baying mob behind him.

Good lad Souey and good luck!

[Fife Rover]

i'll agree with that, sourpuss came in and done the business back then for us, automatic promotion too.

depending on the relationship with simon jordan and how the players react to his management style shall i say, he could turn them into promotion candinates or ruin them and get relegated!!!

He could also use his knowledge of Rovers players to the advantage of Palace, and come sniffing round some of our fringe players.

[Nayef]

I'd add to that good list with a certain norsk God who's done ok with us.

[joey_big_nose]

Good

• Craig Short
• Brad Friedel
• Tugay
• Henning Berg
• Paul Dickov (he did a job for us)
• Steven Reid ( he signed him but Sparky made him)

You can add to gooduns:

• Lucas Niell
• Mark Hughes (massive signing!)
• And, to an extent, David Thompson who was excellent for a while.
• Michael Gray has looked a bit of a bargain too in the long run.
• Pedersen
• ANd how can we forget Andy Todd?

• More bads:
• Andresen (wasn't anything special. Not sure if he was bad as such?
• Dwight Yorke (debatable. Was quite good when he first signed for us and we finished sixth. And then was utter pants)

[FourLaneBlue]

Duff and Dunn ON THEIR WAY OUT!

Jansen made by Souness? Are you trying to rewrite history...S

No that is true what he said. Whatever his later faults Souness did bring on those three. None of them were pulling up trees before he came and he did back them in his team.

Wasn't Dunn halfway out the door to some club before Souness arrived, or was that Jansen???

[all you need is duff]

duff & dunn were almost on their way out. dunny def asked for a transfer and i heard duff did (whilst not getting a look-in under parkes! ).

jansen always had a lot of talent, but was very much a head-down merchant- who'd never pass (and was often sub - until christmas 2000).

souey and his staff deserve credit for moulding jansen into the player he became.

Yet again Pleasure, your "sources" are wrong. Duff regularly played under Parkes and in fact won our Player of the Season award in our first season in Division one (1999-2000).

[Simon Says]

I think it was Jansen who was half out the door FLB.

He was on his way to Rangers when Souness arrived. Souey insisted he stayed put.

[Presty On Tour]

if souness takes the palace job and with matty jansen out of contract at bolton, the former palace player may return to selhurst park and work under souness again to spearhead their challenge for promotion.

[Jan]

He could also use his knowledge of Rovers players to the advantage of Palace, and come sniffing round some of our fringe players.

That would assume:

1 That he actually knows anything about the REAL capabilities of the players he nearly ruined and

2 That he would actually set tactics to deal with them (we know he never did with us- we played a certain way regardless of whom we played)

[pleasure]

I'd add to that good list with a certain norsk God who's done ok with us.

is GS gonna sign martin andresen again ?

[Anti-Man Utd]

It was actually Brian Kidd who signed Craig Short.

The circumstances between Palace 2006 and BRFC in 2000 are completely different. They don't have the financial resources that Rovers had.

Speaking of 99-00 some people have gone as far to say the club was slipping towards league 1 when Souness arrived. Situation was nowhere near that bad.

[Eddie]

I think you forget just how poor a side we were. Promotion was a very long way off and up until the upturn in form when Parkes first took charge we were looking like a side that could have gone down.

[FourLaneBlue]

I think you forget just how poor a side we were. Promotion was a very long way off and up until the upturn in form when Parkes first took charge we were looking like a side that could have gone down.

Think you are overexaggerting just a shedload there Eddie - we weren't in danger of joining a relegation scrap.

[philipl]

Sorry FLB, Kiddo would have taken us down again.

The performance I saw by Rovers at Swindon in 99/00 was the worst ever, I mean EVER.

[joey_big_nose]

That would assume:

1 That he actually knows anything about the REAL capabilities of the players he nearly ruined and

2 That he would actually set tactics to deal with them (we know he never did with us- we played a certain way regardless of whom we played)

Jan, some of your favourite players at the club are Souness signings: Freidal, Todd, Niell, Tugay. Give the man some credit.

Personally if you look at transfer record I reckon it's better when he has no money, as then he seems to pull off some outstanding coups. If I was the paalce chairman I would be encouraged by that record.

[BuckyRover]

I would agree that when Souness took over, we looked more like going down than going up.

He did more good than bad

[FourLaneBlue]

Sorry FLB, Kiddo would have taken us down again.

The performance I saw by Rovers at Swindon in 99/00 was the worst ever, I mean EVER.

No way were we going down - the worst we must have been was about 15th.

We were midtable mediocrity all that season.

[MI ROVER]

I am with philipl on this one our preformances under Kidd were the worst I have ever seen. I remember standing up in the bburn end one cold tue night I think against watford screaming for kidds head that guy was a complete waste of time. What has he done since ?

[FourLaneBlue]

We sacked him at about the end of October as we were pottering around midtable. Now I know we have some Mystic Megs on here but to suggest we would have been relegated again...no, sorry. We wouldn't have been. Not with that squad.

Even Kidd couldn't have managed that.

Edited May 26, 2006 by FourLaneBlue

[rover6]

Jan, some of your favourite players at the club are Souness signings: Freidal, Todd, Niell, Tugay. Give the man some credit.

Okay, some will consider this as just plain anti-Souness diatribe but imo the signings of Friedel and Tugay are not as praiseworthy as some think. The main reason being Souness actually worked with the two guys at previous clubs, so in terms of scouting the players - he didn't.

If you worked first hand with Friedel and Tugay, I think it'd be obvious, even if your name is Brian Kidd, that they were potential good signings for a Prem club.

However, taking a risk on a guy that you've never worked with before but merely scouted requires real judgement and imo is a truer test of whether someone has an eye for a player. So the signing of MGP and Todd are major feathers in Souey's cap.

But the success of signings can never be the most major criterion on whether someone is a good manager. So many factors make this the case. For example, you could just be unlucky with new signings who get injured or don't settle or lose confidence after suffering the wrath of supporters.

Also, is signing players that difficult? I mean is it that difficult to spot a decent player if you have followed football from a young age and have a certain amount of intelligence? Surely, coaching players and managing them to maximise their potential is the hardest part?

Edited May 26, 2006 by rover6

[MI ROVER]

FLB you obviously never had the pleasure of watching rovers week in week out under Kidd !!