Souness on Rovers

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

27 minutes ago, Stuart said:

He left the club in the PL.

Personally I thought his biggest mistake was signing Dwight Yorke. Cole has been reinvigorated and Yorke brought him down again, and Souness along with him.

I agree Stuart, Yorke was a major flop. Not only did he fail to shine but he had a really bad effect on Andy Cole.

[BRFC4EVA]

Think it is important that there isn't too much revisionism going on here. What do they say about childbirth? There is an inbuilt part of a women's brain that tries to make her forget just how horrific childbirth was so that she goes back and does it again.

Souness was a fantastic manager for 3 seasons with us. A born winner who bought and sold well, assembled a great team and was tactically very asute. I was at the fulham for the first game (was it the first game, maybe that's just selective memory) the 2-2 draw. And standing on that open terrace behind the goal, such renewed enthusiasm amongst our supporters.

However there is no doubt that it went seriously wrong in that 4th season. We were very lucky not to have gone down and he should have been fired well before Newcastle came in. And I remember what our fans were saying. I remember the frustration and I remember the forum. I feel that maybe others don't. Or it has been dimmed over time..

JW must have thought all his Christmases had come at once, instead of us paying him compo, we rec'd compo for Souness going. It also got him out of jail cos it was a decision that should have been made months previous. 

Like I said remember the good times, but don't gloss over the final 15 months which were horrific. He also left us with a pretty shite squad, with just Stead and dickov as our senior strikers!

Edited August 14, 2021 by BRFC4EVA

[booth]

Can we get him back?

[jim mk2]

It was surprising that Souness said he was disappointed by Cole and Yorke. Cole was an honest pro for us overall compared to Yorke who apart from a few games played as though he was doing us a favour just turning up. Good interview and it was nice of Souness to give us a glimpse of his multi million pound home too. Is John Williams still around? Getting him to interview and lift the lid on his time at Rovers would be interesting. 

[LDRover]

2 hours ago, Gav said:

He delayed coming out at the start of the game too, just to let the locals know he was here 😂

Brilliant stuff from Souness, pity John Williams didn’t take the larger allocation, more Rovers fans could have experienced that night, even in defeat.

As Jim says above, we tonked then on the night but conceded a sloppy goal against the run of play, the home performance was rubbish.

We went in a partisan Celtic pub before the game called The Springfield Vaults. One of our lads was a Rangers, as well as Rovers fan and got a call from his wife while in there. His ringtone? The sash......that was pretty hairy.

[Waggy76]

1 hour ago, jim mk2 said:

It was surprising that Souness said he was disappointed by Cole and Yorke. Cole was an honest pro for us overall compared to Yorke who apart from a few games played as though he was doing us a favour just turning up. Good interview and it was nice of Souness to give us a glimpse of his multi million pound home too. Is John Williams still around? Getting him to interview and lift the lid on his time at Rovers would be interesting. 

Maybe he meant when they were paired up again...

I thought Cole was very good until Yorke appeared ..

[TheRoversReturn]

Initially however, Cole and Yorke were a hit. In their first season together, we finished sixth after all. However, that was the high point in the Souness journey. If Newcastle had come in for him, we'd be asking if Souness was actually our greatest ever manager and comparing him with Dalglish, albeit with fewer resources (compared to the other clubs). He'd picked up a shamble in the second tier, got us promoted with one of the most exciting sides any of us could remember, kept us up and won us our only cup in what is now almost the last century (Full Member's Cup doesn't quite count!) and took us into Europe twice, once via the league.

Alas, that 2003-04 season was a disaster. New signings did not work, especially those from Rangers (Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso, others like Brett Emerton, Andy Todd or Michael Gray did ok for Rovers eventually but were still a step down from the likes of Duff, Berg and Bjornebye), which combined with injuries permanently having an effect on some quality players (David Thompson and Matt Jansen were at the club, but not the same), by then players either left for better climes or had fallen out with Souey (Duff went to Chelsea and GS failed to adequately replace him, Dunn went off to fall over his own feet doing a stepover at Big Club Birmingham City 

 and Souey had simply reached the end of his time here. It's so difficult to get rid of a manager who has been so good for the club. Souey's highs were so much higher than Mowbray's. We played thrilling football in those days.

The game which represented the high point was the final game of the season. Needing a win at White Hart Lane to be certain of Uefa Cup qualification, we absolutely plastered them. The previously maligned Yorke opened the scoring to cap a good first season at the club (he wasn't prolific, but he often scored important goals in tight matches), then Craig Hignett doubled our lead. Gus Poyet was then sent off for them, before a goal from Damien Duff on his Rovers swansong and Andy Cole (he was never prolific for us after his first, glorious half season which shot us to safety and the Worthington Cup) put the icing on the cake. It was the pinnacle of the Souness years

https://ar-ar.facebook.com/1Rovers/videos/️-on-this-day-spurs-0-4-rovers/268217960984999/ 

Alas, it all went downhill from there. Duff and Dunn went that summer, Jansen never did recover as a footballer from his motorbike accident in Rome the year before, the new signings were downgrades and Souness...he couldn't reverse the decline. Hubris. All the tales and gossip from that time described a toxic workplace. The magic had gone. It's easy to try and blame this player or that one person, but it tends to be a funny old thing when things go wrong. Souness of course takes a lot of the blame for the decline after the summer, but all had their own part to play. We got lucky when Newcastle came in throwing money at us and lucky again when Hughes turned out to be the perfect replacement for the absolute shambles we'd become (was it Dickov, Kuqi and Stead as our attacking talent by then a year or so after Jansen, Cole & Yorke, dear me...) as, even though he had plenty of potential, he had never managed a club before (he was with Wales) and every appointment is a gamble to some extent. But, recover we did.

I think in the end we just about got away with the timing and thank Newcastle for that. Any longer and we wouldn't have avoided relegation in 2004-05. 

Overall, though, Souness is rightly remembered as one of the great Rovers managers. My three favourite games from his reign in reverse order are...

3. Thrashing West Ham. We were back in the big time!

 2. Smashing our promotion rivals Bolton at the Breezeblock - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/1184772.stm

and, of course...

1. A glorious day at Cardiff under the roof. 

Dear me, what a club we used to have! Behind the scenes as well as on the pitch. For a decade we were known as the best-run club in the country. Regular Wembley visits, regular forays into Europe (we even won a couple of games as well under Sparky!) and regular pride to be had in being a supporter of Blackburn Rovers FC.

We'll always have the memories. Treasure them. Will we ever feel that same kind of pride in our club? One day we will, one day we'll have owners who give a shit. That was quite a ride, the Pride of Lancashire.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Rovers 5  Burnley 0

Ruthlessly took them apart.

Edited August 14, 2021 by SIMON GARNERS 194

[TheRoversReturn]

5 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

Rovers 5  Burnley 0

Ruthlessly took them apart.

Which was better? That or the "2-0 in your Dingledome" earlier on that season when their fans were so enraged that smashed up their own town centre?!?!? Hahaha...great days!

 

[jim mk2]

2 hours ago, TheRoversReturn said:

I think in the end we just about got away with the timing and thank Newcastle for that. Any longer and we wouldn't have avoided relegation in 2004-05. 

Good post

The question always was, why didn't Williams sack Souness when it was clear by that stage he was a failing manager?

Williams gets lots of praise but that lack of action over Souness (and the Ince appointment) shows he didn't always get it right

 

[phili]

6 hours ago, jim mk2 said:

Good post

The question always was, why didn't Williams sack Souness when it was clear by that stage he was a failing manager?

Williams gets lots of praise but that lack of action over Souness (and the Ince appointment) shows he didn't always get it right

 

He always rectified his mistakes though unlike nowadays.

[DE.]

A couple of blasts from the BRFCS past...

Souness Must Go ? - October 2003

Souness Goes to Newcastle - September 2004

[roverandout]

9 hours ago, TheRoversReturn said:

Initially however, Cole and Yorke were a hit. In their first season together, we finished sixth after all. However, that was the high point in the Souness journey. If Newcastle had come in for him, we'd be asking if Souness was actually our greatest ever manager and comparing him with Dalglish, albeit with fewer resources (compared to the other clubs). He'd picked up a shamble in the second tier, got us promoted with one of the most exciting sides any of us could remember, kept us up and won us our only cup in what is now almost the last century (Full Member's Cup doesn't quite count!) and took us into Europe twice, once via the league.

Alas, that 2003-04 season was a disaster. New signings did not work, especially those from Rangers (Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso, others like Brett Emerton, Andy Todd or Michael Gray did ok for Rovers eventually but were still a step down from the likes of Duff, Berg and Bjornebye), which combined with injuries permanently having an effect on some quality players (David Thompson and Matt Jansen were at the club, but not the same), by then players either left for better climes or had fallen out with Souey (Duff went to Chelsea and GS failed to adequately replace him, Dunn went off to fall over his own feet doing a stepover at Big Club Birmingham City 

 and Souey had simply reached the end of his time here. It's so difficult to get rid of a manager who has been so good for the club. Souey's highs were so much higher than Mowbray's. We played thrilling football in those days.

The game which represented the high point was the final game of the season. Needing a win at White Hart Lane to be certain of Uefa Cup qualification, we absolutely plastered them. The previously maligned Yorke opened the scoring to cap a good first season at the club (he wasn't prolific, but he often scored important goals in tight matches), then Craig Hignett doubled our lead. Gus Poyet was then sent off for them, before a goal from Damien Duff on his Rovers swansong and Andy Cole (he was never prolific for us after his first, glorious half season which shot us to safety and the Worthington Cup) put the icing on the cake. It was the pinnacle of the Souness years

https://ar-ar.facebook.com/1Rovers/videos/️-on-this-day-spurs-0-4-rovers/268217960984999/ 

Alas, it all went downhill from there. Duff and Dunn went that summer, Jansen never did recover as a footballer from his motorbike accident in Rome the year before, the new signings were downgrades and Souness...he couldn't reverse the decline. Hubris. All the tales and gossip from that time described a toxic workplace. The magic had gone. It's easy to try and blame this player or that one person, but it tends to be a funny old thing when things go wrong. Souness of course takes a lot of the blame for the decline after the summer, but all had their own part to play. We got lucky when Newcastle came in throwing money at us and lucky again when Hughes turned out to be the perfect replacement for the absolute shambles we'd become (was it Dickov, Kuqi and Stead as our attacking talent by then a year or so after Jansen, Cole & Yorke, dear me...) as, even though he had plenty of potential, he had never managed a club before (he was with Wales) and every appointment is a gamble to some extent. But, recover we did.

I think in the end we just about got away with the timing and thank Newcastle for that. Any longer and we wouldn't have avoided relegation in 2004-05. 

Overall, though, Souness is rightly remembered as one of the great Rovers managers. My three favourite games from his reign in reverse order are...

3. Thrashing West Ham. We were back in the big time!

 2. Smashing our promotion rivals Bolton at the Breezeblock - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_div_1/1184772.stm

and, of course...

1. A glorious day at Cardiff under the roof. 

Dear me, what a club we used to have! Behind the scenes as well as on the pitch. For a decade we were known as the best-run club in the country. Regular Wembley visits, regular forays into Europe (we even won a couple of games as well under Sparky!) and regular pride to be had in being a supporter of Blackburn Rovers FC.

We'll always have the memories. Treasure them. Will we ever feel that same kind of pride in our club? One day we will, one day we'll have owners who give a shit. That was quite a ride, the Pride of Lancashire.

Lorenzo amoruso was a good guy I heard. He once sat with the rovers fans. Something most players would feel beneath them.  But he was abused and told to f*ck off. This is what I heard somewhere 

[roverandout]

34 minutes ago, DE. said:

A couple of blasts from the BRFCS past...

Souness Must Go ? - October 2003

Souness Goes to Newcastle - September 2004

Some names that I forgot were on here. abbey.  Whatever happened to him. Thenodrog. Jan. Takes me back to the old days

Edited August 14, 2021 by roverandout

[DE.]

Interesting how worried people were about Barry Ferguson being poached, considering how few positive contributions he ended up giving the club. Also funny to see so many people advocating Gordon Strachan as our next manager. He'd done alright at Southampton but for some reason seemed very highly regarded on here back then.

[Waggy76]

26 minutes ago, roverandout said:

Lorenzo amoruso was a good guy I heard. He once sat with the rovers fans. Something most players would feel beneath them.  But he was abused and told to f*ck off. This is what I heard somewhere 

Liverpool away losing 3 nil at half time ..

He was in the crowd that afternoon , whether he was abused , don't know..

[Armchair supporter supremo]

14 hours ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

I agree Stuart, Yorke was a major flop. Not only did he fail to shine but he had a really bad effect on Andy Cole.

absolutely! Cole was in great form and looked to be really enjoying his football before Yorke joined. 

[47er]

2 hours ago, DE. said:

A couple of blasts from the BRFCS past...

Souness Must Go ? - October 2003

Souness Goes to Newcastle - September 2004

Really interesting read that! So many posters who don't post anymore. Systematic of our decline.

PS---Rover 6 was right!!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, Armchair supporter supremo said:

absolutely! Cole was in great form and looked to be really enjoying his football before Yorke joined. 

Cole and Jansen were a terrific partnership. Once Yorke arrived he seemed to have a competition with Cole as to who was going to run the least.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

9 hours ago, 47er said:

Really interesting read that! So many posters who don't post anymore. Systematic of our decline.

PS---Rover 6 was right!!

Most of those will have walked away from the club and football in general.

[47er]

2 minutes ago, Tyrone Shoelaces said:

Most of those will have walked away from the club and football in general.

I'll bet Jan hasn't!

[DE.]

You see a lot of older members last visit being between 2011 - 2014. Quite a lot in 2016 as well. The Venky effect. 

[47er]

Interesting to read on that thread posters saying "if we sacked him who would we get who would be better"!!

We get that everytime a manager is clearly failing. To those who wrote that then and to those who say that now please remember he did leave and we did get someone better!!

[DE.]

Yes, there was definitely a line of thinking that Souey was as good as it was going to get for us. 

[LDRover]

14 hours ago, DE. said:

A couple of blasts from the BRFCS past...

Souness Must Go ? - October 2003

Souness Goes to Newcastle - September 2004

Rover6, he was a boyo wasn't he. He was big on getting young players into the team from the academy if I remember correctly.

To be fair to him, he was never afraid to voice an unpopular opinion and always put them across with good reasoning. He was a good poster - is he still on here under another 'name'?

Edited August 15, 2021 by LDRover