Souness must go ?

[tcj_jones]

Back on topic, I just don't understand how anybody can be pessimistic about our activitiesso far this summer. It is still early in the summer break and we have made nothing but positive moves; we've bought a proven international and an excellent solution to our left sided problem, a decent striker, who even if somebody considered a bad signing, looks to be nothing more then a backup or rotation player, we've been chasing decent players like Pedersen and Mateo, the latter of which we still have a chance of getting and we have re-shuffled the back room staff. Im very optimistic about next season and have been very impressed by what has transpired so far this summer.

Edited July 4, 2004 by tcj_jones

[waggy]

tcj-jones you do not live with tris do you,very positve thinking it's usually better to think we may stave off relegation,then if we do it's a bonus

[FourLaneBlue]

waggy is...

....The Rebel Without a Cause.

Cheer up will you...we don't even kick off for six weeks!

[waggy]

this weekends revalations about many roverites favourite son,mr andrew cole.could see souey's crown slipping a little more.

[Jan]

Hope so

really want to renew my season ticket, but won't until Souness goes

Edited July 12, 2004 by Jan

[Simon Says]

Hope so

really want to renew my season ticket, but won't until Souness goes

Sad. Vey sad.

Do you know how pathetic that makes you?

[trueblue]

Hope so

really want to renew my season ticket, but won't until Souness goes

Do you think we're gonna miss 1 person not getting a season ticket ??

I think not !

Support like yours we can do without ! If you were any kind of Rovers fan, whoever the manager is and whether you liked him or not would not be a factor in your buying a season ticket... It would be your love for the club (and it's clear you don't have any !!!)

[AllRoverAsia]

For a horrible moment I thought this was a 'Souness Out' thread. Now having read a few recent posts I haven't a clue what you are on about. Summer madness perhaps.

[greggyk]

oh how opinions will change again when we beat WBA on the 14th!

Edited July 12, 2004 by greggyk

[waggy]

just like when we beat wolves 5-0,emerton was better than duff,we were champions league material

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Just out of interest, Souness is currently joint 2nd favourite with the bookies in the traditional "Sack Race" - ie to be the first Premiership manager to leave his job through either resignation or dismissal during the 2004-05 season.

Kevin Keegan, perhaps unsurprisingly, is the 7-2 outright favourite to be the first Premiership casualty.

Current odds with Bet365 to be the first to go are:

7-2 K Keegan

5-1 H Redknapp, G Souness

9-1 Bobby Robson

12-1 D Moyes, I Dowie.

20-1 P Sturrock, G Megson, N Worthington, A Curbishley

25-1 S McClaren, C Coleman, J Santini, D O'Leary

33-1 S Bruce, S Allardyce

40-1 A Ferguson

50-1 J Mourinho, R Benitez

66-1 A Wenger

Picking the first to go is fairly difficult at this stage.

As well as Keegan, David Moyes will be under pressure if results at Everton are poor again, especially with the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Rooney and with the club having flirted with relegation last season.

The bookies obviously feel that the uneasy truce down at Portsmouth between 'Appy 'Arry and the arrogant Serb Milan Mandaric could flare up again. I understand there have also been a few murmurs of discontent among fans at local rivals Southampton, concerned at the new regime of Rover6's managerial idol, Paul Sturrock.

Sturrock's signing of the ex-Pompey beanpole striker Peter Crouch for £2m hasn't gone down too well with the Saints fans - who are concerned at the prospect of long-ball football being played. There have also been some whisperings in the press that some of the Saints players are unhappy with Sturrock's training routines.

Edited July 12, 2004 by Anti Euro Smiths Fan

[FourLaneBlue]

just like when we beat wolves 5-0,emerton was better than duff,we were champions league material

Or 5-1 even...and I bet you were you thinking of a challenge for Champions League places just like the rest of us.

Here's to a less disappointing last 37 league games this season...the first game we got spot on!!!

Edited July 13, 2004 by FourLaneBlue

[roversmum]

I'm getting fed up with all this trouble in't camp sort of stuff.

As far as I'm concerned, the players are being paid (and not too badly might I say) to play for Blackburn Rovers under the leadership of Mr Graeme Souness.

So, Mr Souness rightly assumes that it is up to him to tell them to get off their backsides and do some work; or that a training trip does not give anyone the right to slip off home a day early without permission and then complain to the Union when the boss is not best pleased; and that if they go missing during matches they are likely not to be first choice as captain next season..................etc. etc. etc. To right it's up to him, and it's about time they got on with the job.

Souness mentioned somthing about discipline in yesterday's Rovers World interview, and his intention for there to be more of it. Good for him.

As Alan Kelly pointed out when his contract ended, he hadn't realised just how cosseted footballers were.

So a message to the lads. Get Training. Get Fit. Get out there and do your very best for Blackburn Rovers. If you're not about doing that, then Get Lost.

[roversmum]

And remember who is the Boss.

Edited July 13, 2004 by roversmum

[rover6]

And remember who is the Boss.

On the flip-side - Souness is being paid handsomely himself to manage the team.

And managing a team entails garnering a team spirit and creating unity in the camp by being a good leader. Doesn't mean you have to be Mr Nice to everyone - but holding the professional respect of the players.

[roversmum]

And remember who is the Boss.

On the flip-side - Souness is being paid handsomely himself to manage the team.

And managing a team entails garnering a team spirit and creating unity in the camp by being a good leader. Doesn't mean you have to be Mr Nice to everyone - but holding the professional respect of the players.

But it isn't Souey who's at fault. If anything it's him who is being too soft, and letting them get away with it.

It's not Soury who wasn't working hard.

It's not Souey who thought he could override the Boss's instructions.

It's not Souey who threw a wobbler because he didn't agree with the Boss's selections.

It's not Souey who thought he could hide during matches.

In my opinion he was being too nice to them.

Discipline brings respect, and that's what some of them need, and hopefully will get now.

[John]

The thing with Souness is that he has very high standards.

He cant understand why the any modern footballer is not fully committed to his job. As player he made sure he gave everything in training, was careful with his diet and gave everything on the pitch.

Thats why he falls out so often with people who dont toe the line.

The way you have to judge it is by looking at the people he has got rid off at Blackburn- wouldnt have any of them back.

[Exiled in Toronto]

At last the pro-Souness camp are getting back to reasoned argument rather than the personal insults that have debased this thread of late.

I still have severe doubts about his suitability for taking us forwards, not least because he is showing no signs whatsoever of changing from last season.

Even the most pro-Souness posters seemed to be in agreement that his faults were getting to be an issue and hoped that changes would ensue, basically in three areas:

i) tactical nouse - there was clamour for a good coaching brain to be alongside him

ii) falling out with players - getting to be a bit too frequent

iii) arguing with refs - embarrassing to the club

Progress to date has been less than encouraging.

On tactical nouse, our new Assistant Manager has been beholden to Souness for his last three jobs - hardly conducive to standing up to the Great Man. Our first team coaches have similarly ridden on his coat-tails.The only member of the backroom staff not dependant on Souness for his job - Parkes - has been relegated to further obscurity.

So far all the press reports point to no change with his management style. While the Cole and Flitcroft stories are not clear, and can be interpreted in different ways; they are clearly not along the lines of:

Cole: "The boss and I haven't always seen eye to eye, but in the last season of my contratc we have found some common ground and I'm raring to go"

Flitcroft: "The boss came to me before the rest of the lads returned and outlined why it would be in the interests of the team for Bazza to be captain. He appreciated my years of leading the team and hoped that I would still be in there challenging for my place"

As to the refs - time will tell.

A few bad results next season and there'll be quite a few people jumping on the Souness out bandwagon

[FourLaneBlue]

The things you mention are all irrelevant though EIT, as are the things the 'pro-Souness' posters think. All the matters is the results and as you mentioned in your last sentence if there are bad results then people will be calling for him to go. It's not that people on here are pro-Souness, just that they are pro-Rovers. Everyone on here must agree that Souness is the best manager we have had since Kenny stepped up in 1995 to his Director of Football/pie orderer or whatever he did for a year (he certainly didn't direct no football!). As Souness has brought the club back from the brink we feel he may still be the man. If not, we'll want him out if it is best for the club.

If he does mess up next season though, at least those calling for Souness out will have got wrong. You see...most wanted him out last season as they thought we were going down. We didn't. This 'bandwagon' can't go rolling on forever waiting for any old opportunistic moment to say 'told you so!', that's intellectually dishonest. That moment has gone, you can't keep it going forever. The vast majority of managers get the sack at sometime, so don't think you are some kind of sage for predicting another one.

So...waggy, rover6, philipl, Jim, Scotty, Capt Kayos, Revidge Blue , myself (yes I would myself have been happy enough if he'd resigned after the Leeds game and even before then for that matter) and all the others - we got it wrong!!! Souness stayed and he kept us up.

We're all hoping Souness can turn it around. If he can't then we'll all want him out and...well, anyone who says 'I told you so' then is full of it.

How about we all stop trying to be a Nostradamus of the North and give Souness a chance. It is, after all, his last chance.

[waggy]

EXCELLENT piece eit,and fourlaneblue i did get it wrong,mr souness did not get us relagated,but and its a massive but -he has run the club his way far too long,how many decent players are going to be shown the door,because they do not like the souness way,how many more times is our leader going to make the back,and tonight the front pages off the paper for the wrong reason,s.

as you say souness is the best manager we have had since kd,but it's been a very bad bunch off managers,too top.the problem is that souness to me is the only footballing man in the upper reaches off ewood.since jw passed away,we have john williams who to me is not a footballing man,we have a chairman who used to buy his season ticket at the dingledome,it's all too easy for mr souness to rule the roost,we need changes at ewood and fast.

cue tris

[Tris]

EXCELLENT piece eit,and fourlaneblue i did get it wrong,mr souness did not get us relagated,but and its a massive but -he has run the club his way far too long,how many decent players are going to be shown the door,because they do not like the souness way,how many more times is our leader going to make the back,and tonight the front pages off the paper for the wrong reason,s.

as you say souness is the best manager we have had since kd,but it's been a very bad bunch off managers,too top.the problem is that souness to me is the only footballing man in the upper reaches off ewood.since jw passed away,we have john williams who to me is not a footballing man,we have a chairman who used to buy his season ticket at the dingledome,it's all too easy for mr souness to rule the roost,we need changes at ewood and fast.

cue tris

cue Tris is the only common sense in that post Waggy

"he's run the club his way far too long" - promotion, cup, Europe, Europe, survival - long may it continue

"how many decent players are going to be shown the door" - please list them (the decent ones who've been "shown the door")

"... tonight the front pages of the paper for the wrong reasons"

what's wrong with this exactly ?

Cheshire police spokeswoman Jackie Hanson said: "The file from the Crown Prosecution Service has been considered, the investigation has been concluded and no further action will be taken. "Mr Souness came into the station but there was no case to answer."

Apologies, I don't follow the rest of your post.

[waggy]

the bits you do not understand

john williams does not come across as a football man,he does very little in my eyes for his massive salary.

robert coar is a burnley fan.

does that help.

[Billy Castell]

Re Waggy:

Williams may not be a 'football man', but he seems pretty competant at keeping this club afloat from what little I know. And that's better than some insanely keen Rovers fan who has no knowledge of business management and is likely to push it as much as Ridsdale. His loyalty to Souness may seem a bit strong, but surely that's better than having a two-faced snake like Peter Kenyon stabbing managers in the back.

I agree about Robert Coar though. He is a blinking Burnley fan for goodness sake.

Maybe you need to take a deep breath, put your hatred of Souness aside, and realise that the club are being run fairly well.

[Tris]

the bits you do not understand

john williams does not come across as a football man,he does very little in my eyes for his massive salary.

robert coar is a burnley fan.

does that help.

Then if you haven't already I suggest you try and meet John Williams and ask him to run through "what he does for the club"

I've never spoken to Robert Coar, so I can't comment on him.

[bob fleming]

r.e. Robert Coar - or burnley Bob as he is sometimes referred to. Hasn't he been on the Board at Rovers for twenty odd years now? Does he actually go and watch burnley? If he's that big a burnley fan then why is he our Chairman? How does it all work?