[Archived] Souness

[rover6]

OH !!!

so all the euro qualifying did doesnt make him better than a championship manager plus all his silverware both as a player and manager....the mind boggles

Steve McClaren won the League Cup with Boro. Not to mention taking them to the UEFA Cup finals, FA Cup semis twice and brought through young English players. Do you think he's a good manager? And as for Souness' playing career - irrelevant.

I think we should distinguish between two claims.

(a) Was Souness good for us - overall - YES.

(B.) Is he a 'good' manager objectively speaking, compared to the whole stock of managers out there? I.e Would a Premier League club seriously consider him as a first or second choice manager if the incumbent departed? - NO.

That's not a contradiction. Think Jon Stead, Shefki Kuqi, Michael Ricketts etc. etc.

Edited April 27, 2008 by rover6

[American]

I would actually say that MacLaren was good at Boro - look at them now. He just wasn't cut out for the pressures of the national team. It's a far different animal than managing a club day to day.

(Quick fingers)

That being said, I think that most times with a smaller club, managers have a shelf life. You're trying to get the most out of the least talent, and I'm sure it wears on the manager and the players. Managers of larger clubs tend to be successful longer because they can bring in more players and have about 3 choices for each position, so don't mind if one of the choices fails.

Edited April 27, 2008 by American

[Jan]

Dear god, why are we bringing this up now? I just thank god he went. About 2 1/2 years too late, but at least he went. And some idiot paid us cash money too.

[ABBEY]

***shakes head in bewilderment and wonders what some people would of made of jim iley or bobby saxton****

[deryck guyler's spoon]

***shakes head in bewilderment and wonders what some people would of made of jim iley or bobby saxton****

Bobby Saxton!?

Shame on you Abbey.

Edited April 30, 2008 by deryck guyler's spoon

[Iceman]

That’s professional coaches for you…imo he was a good coach,however I doubted his managerial skills and overall player relations.He seemed to not be able to communicate in a way which gave the players the confidence to go out there and perform.Take Hughes,and he understands what the modern player goes through.Souness was still old school,where you either liked his methods or you didn’t.

[thenodrog]

Souness did fine until the penultimate season. In fact if he had been tempted away to a bigger job 15 months sooner than when he thankfully departed for the mags we would have afforded him legendary status.

But the issues that rankle with me is the strong suspiscion of him having his sticky fingers in our till.

Sure he brought us Berko, Tugay, Brad etc BUT the deals involving Grabbi, Baggio and the two from Rangers leave a strong stench of corruption in the air imo.

[Alex Rover]

He's one of the panelists on Sky Sports now for the Champs League semi. I've got to say he's a great pundit; intelligent, experienced, succinct and thoughtful. Plus he's been there and done it in one form or another to back anything he says up.....this is in my opinion of course

[Mc Love]

Sky sports, he was on RTE last night!!

[waggy]

souness came out with a great quote last night,BARCA and ARSENAL play lovely football,CHELSKI and MANURE play winning football

[DanLad]

His temper's still evident under the radar IMO.

Do you see the look on his face when Redknapp disagreed with him that Shevchenko was the strangest substitution of the night?

Redknapp said that the Torres substitution was the strangest substitution and then the interview moved on. Souness was clearly displeased and when they next asked him something he went straight back to the substitution issue, even though they'd moved on to a different issue!

[joey_big_nose]

But the issues that rankle with me is the strong suspiscion of him having his sticky fingers in our till.

Sure he brought us Berko, Tugay, Brad etc BUT the deals involving Grabbi, Baggio and the two from Rangers leave a strong stench of corruption in the air imo.

I'd agree with that. De Pedro was a funny one too.

A great motivator, agressive on the football pitch which was good because we were an attacking side. But he was not full of ideas when plan A didn't work (thats here, Liverpool and Newcastle). He tried a variety of tactics and the only one that worked was the diamond formation he used in 2004. He liked to spend his way out of trouble generally speaking which wouldn't be much use to us now!

Overall a good manager but, although Hughes hasn't won any trophies (yet), not on a par with the Welshman in my opinion. But then I guess if we start next year terribly everyone will have a different opinion about Sparky.

[Ronin]

Souness did a good job for Rovers for the majority of his time here. Brought in some good players like Friedel, Tugay, MGP, Cole etc as well as our current boss too (which makes me believe that if he hadn't have brought him in, would he be our current boss?) and got us out of the Championship and back into the Premier, winning the Worthy Cup and into Europe twice. Granted it kind of fell away at the end, with 'disagreements' with certain players which probably led to the series of results that got him close to being sacked, before the ol'Barcodes decided to be generous and take him off our hands. The main gripe I've got with Souey though was his constant negative attitude, Lady Luck, 'weeing with the willie we've got' and all that, a definite stark contrast from Hughes.

Hughes, has done very well with his first club management gig, keeping us up, and qualifying for Europe, plus not forgetting the cup runs, the up til now transfer gems he keeps signing, as well as building a club with stability with ambitions to, dare I say it, continually punch above what is supposed to be our level. Most clubs that play the Rovers know that they'll not come expecting an easy game but to be pushed hard and work for it. All we need is for Hughes (and Rovers) to match the ambitions and to win some silverware.

[Grabbi Graeme]

A bit of humour from Souness last night when Hoddle was going on about why Abramovich was not there last night or on Saturday against Man Utd.

Souness just said "Have you seen his girlfriend"

[philipl]

That's interesting but I am sure I saw him sitting at the back of the stand just after Liverpool scored- bit difficult to tell as the picture was made fuzzy by the falling rain reflecting the stadium lights.

[rover6]

Souness just said "Have you seen his girlfriend"

Playboy.

[92er]

That's interesting but I am sure I saw him sitting at the back of the stand just after Liverpool scored- bit difficult to tell as the picture was made fuzzy by the falling rain reflecting the stadium lights.

I read that he was out of the country on business.

[Jan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/ma...ootballmanagers

Had to be done- although I don't think I've done it right................