Graeme Souness


Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player, manager and television pundit.
A midfielder, Souness achieved his greatest period of success as an integral part of the Liverpool team of the late 1970s and early 1980s, during which he won five First Division titles and three European Cup trophies. He was captain for three seasons at Liverpool until his departure to Sampdoria in 1984. Souness later became player-manager for Rangers, leading the club to three Scottish titles and four league cups. His final game as a player came in the closing minutes of Rangers' final match of the 1989–90 season, which was his only appearance of the season.
Souness continued as Rangers coach for a further year before joining Liverpool as manager for the 1991–92 English First Division season. He went on to have spells at Galatasaray, Southampton, Torino, Benfica, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.
At international level, Souness gained 54 caps for Scotland, captaining the team on 27 occasions.

Club career

Early career

Souness was brought up in the Saughton Mains area of Edinburgh, and supported local side Hearts and Rangers. As a teenager, Souness played for local boys' club North Merchiston.
Souness' career began as an apprentice at Tottenham Hotspur under Bill Nicholson. He signed professional forms as a 15-year-old in 1968. Frustrated at a lack of first-team opportunities, the teenage Souness told Nicholson he should be selected for the first team. Souness made one first-team appearance for Spurs, in a UEFA Cup tie as a substitute.
During the summer of 1972, Souness played in the North American Soccer League for the Montreal Olympique. He appeared in 10 of his team's 14 matches and was named in the league's All-Star team for that season.

Middlesbrough

Spurs sold Souness to Middlesbrough for £30,000 in 1972. He made his first appearance for Middlesbrough on 6 January 1973 in a 2–1 league defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage. His first goal came on 11 December 1973 in a 3–0 league victory over Preston North End at Ayresome Park.
Souness' tenacious style began to garner acclaim during his time at Middlesbrough. His first season saw Middlesbrough finish fourth, two places and 14 points short of promotion. Jack Charlton was appointed Middlesbrough manager, his first managerial post, in May 1973. One of Charlton's first signings was experienced former Celtic midfielder Bobby Murdoch, a fellow Scot whom Souness later cited as an important influence in the development of his playing style. Promotion as champions of the Second Division followed in 1973–74. Souness' influence was demonstrated when he scored a hat-trick in the season's final fixture, an 8–0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday.

Liverpool

Souness' playing career is best remembered for his seven seasons at Liverpool, where he won five League Championships, three European Cups and four League Cups.
Souness' time at Anfield began in January 1978 as a replacement for veteran Ian Callaghan. After winning his first European Cup in 1977, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley sought reinforcements by signing three Scottish players, all of whom were to contribute substantially to further success. Central defender Alan Hansen arrived from Partick Thistle for £110,000. Kenny Dalglish – an established Scottish international – signed from Celtic for a then British record fee of £440,000. Souness formed the final part of the Scottish triumvirate, leaving Middlesbrough in acrimonious circumstances for a club-record fee of £350,000 on 10 January 1978.
Souness' Liverpool debut came in a 1–0 league victory over West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns on 14 January 1978. His first goal – a volley from just inside the penalty box, eventually awarded fans' goal of the season – came in a 3–1 win over rivals Manchester United at Anfield on 25 February 1978.
Souness played a pivotal role in Liverpool's retention of the European Cup against FC Bruges in 1978 at Wembley Stadium, providing the pass for Kenny Dalglish to score the match's only goal.
Sustained success followed. Souness's first League title medals were won in seasons 1978–79 and 1979–80. A second European Cup medal for Souness arrived in 1981 with a 1–0 victory over Real Madrid – the culmination of a campaign in which Souness scored a hat-trick in the quarter-final against CSKA Sofia.
This burst of success prompted Paisley to award Souness the club captaincy for season 1981–82, to the chagrin of the incumbent Phil Thompson who had made some errors that season and with whom Paisley had a vicious row during one match at Aston Villa. Thompson initially refused to speak to Souness, claiming he had "stolen the captaincy" from behind his back. This was the start of several long-running feuds between the two robust characters, and over the coming years, they would confront each other in various circumstances.
Under Souness' captaincy, two trophies followed as Liverpool regained the League championship and retained the League Cup, trophies that were successfully defended in season 1982–83. For the trophy award presentation after the 2–1 win over Manchester United in 1983, Souness stepped back and insisted that Paisley collect the trophy in the manager's retirement season.
In 1983–84, Souness lifted three trophies. He scored the winning goal in the 1984 League Cup final replay at Maine Road against Merseyside rivals Everton, the first all-Merseyside cup final. Liverpool won the league title for the third consecutive season and reached the 1984 European Cup final after beating Romanian champions Dinamo București in the semi-final 3–1 on aggregate. In an ill-tempered first leg at Anfield, Souness broke the jaw of Dinamo captain Lică Movilă, which went unpunished by the referee. Liverpool won the 1984 final after a penalty shoot-out win over Roma, with Souness scoring one of the penalties in the shootout.
Souness' Liverpool career ended in 1984 after 358 appearances and 56 goals.

Sampdoria

In 1984, Souness joined Sampdoria for a fee of £650,000. In doing so he became the third Scot to play in the Italian Football Championship since its re-brand to Serie A in 1929. In doing so he succeeded Denis Law and Joe Jordan. Souness and England international Trevor Francis–a player at the Genoa-based club since 1982–added experience to an emerging group of future Italian internationals, including Roberto Mancini, Pietro Vierchowod and Gianluca Vialli.
In his first season, Souness succeeded Jordan to become the second Scot to play in a Coppa Italia final. Souness, in contrast to Jordan, collected a winner's medal. Sampdoria won the 1985 Coppa Italia Final 3–1 on aggregate over Serie A rivals Milan, securing the cup for the first time in club history. Souness scored the only goal of the game in the away first leg of the final.

Rangers

Souness' career in Italy ended in 1986 as he took up the position of player-manager at Rangers. His playing career at Ibrox began inauspiciously. His competitive debut – in the opening match of the 1986–87 season, against Hibernian in his hometown of Edinburgh – saw him sent off after two yellow cards in the first 34 minutes.
Disciplinary problems – something that had recurred periodically throughout Souness's career – resurfaced on a number of occasions during his time as a player at Rangers, and the spell was also blighted by injury. He made 73 appearances in total for Rangers, scoring three goals. His final appearance as a player was at Ibrox in a 2–0 victory over Dunfermline Athletic in Rangers' last home match of the 1989–90 season, when he brought himself on for the final 20 minutes.

International career

While a Middlesbrough player, Souness received his first international cap for Scotland on 30 October 1974 in a 3–0 friendly victory over East Germany at Hampden Park. By the time Souness was selected by manager Ally McLeod for the Scotland squad for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, he had been awarded only six caps. His move to Liverpool increased his profile. Souness missed Scotland's first two matches, a defeat to Peru and a draw with Iran, due to injury. He was selected for the final group match against the Netherlands. Souness contributed to a 3–2 victory that nevertheless saw Scotland eliminated from the tournament on goal difference.
Souness played in two further World Cups. The first, in 1982 in Spain, saw Souness play all three group stage matches. His first international goal arrived in the final game prior to elimination, a 2–2 draw with the Soviet Union in Málaga.
A final World Cup appearance came in 1986 in Mexico, at a time when Souness had already been appointed Rangers player-manager. Souness played in defeats to Denmark and West Germany. He later said he had performed poorly in those matches, having struggled with the high altitude and losing a significant amount of weight and power. Souness was omitted by caretaker manager Alex Ferguson for Scotland's final match against Uruguay. Souness claimed in his autobiography, The Management Years, and press interviews that this was the only time in his whole career he had been dropped. Souness also stated Ferguson was unusually apologetic and was very respectful and diplomatic in his conversation with Souness at night when he broke the news to him, as he held Souness in high regard. His international career ended after the 1986 World Cup. He had made 54 appearances in almost 12 years, scoring four goals.

Coaching and managerial career

Rangers

Souness was appointed Rangers' first player-manager in April 1986, signing from Sampdoria for a fee of £300,000 and succeeding Jock Wallace. Financed initially by the club's then owner, Lawrence Marlborough, Souness and club chairman David Holmes embarked upon a bold strategy of reclaiming the footballing ascendancy Rangers had lacked in recent years, having not won the league title since 1978, with all of the Scottish league titles since then being claimed by their arch-rivals Celtic, and the emerging "New Firm" of Aberdeen and Dundee United. A 33-year-old Souness arrived at Ibrox with a reputation as one of Europe's leading midfielders. His signing was unusual in that Scottish clubs had rarely been able to sign top-quality internationals, including Scots, from other leagues. Scottish clubs had often found themselves being in the position of selling their top players to English clubs, notable examples being Kenny Dalglish, Gordon Strachan and Frank McAvennie.
A string of major signings for Rangers from English clubs began to be termed the "Souness Revolution". Significantly, this reversed the historic pattern of Scotland's most able footballers playing in England. His first signings included Terry Butcher, captain of Ipswich Town and an established England international, and Chris Woods of Norwich City, England's second-choice goalkeeper. Subsequent seasons saw the arrival of other English internationals, such as Trevor Steven, Gary Stevens, Trevor Francis and Ray Wilkins. Souness was able to offer the lure of European club competition, at a time – 1985–1990 – when English clubs were banned from Europe in the wake of the Heysel Stadium disaster. Rangers profited from this by embarking upon a signing policy which drew on their relative wealth to compete, for the first time, directly with England's most powerful clubs.
Souness revitalised Rangers quickly began to dominate Scottish football. In his first season, 1986–87, they won the Championship and the League Cup, defeating Celtic 2–1 in the final. They retained the League Cup in 1987–88, defeating Aberdeen on penalties after extra-time, although they surrendered their league title to Celtic. Two more Championships were to follow, this time in successive seasons, and a further two League Cup victories, over Aberdeen 3–2 in 1988–89 and Celtic 2–1 in 1990–91. In April 1991, Rangers were in the process of winning a fourth league title in five seasons when Souness left Rangers to take over as manager of Liverpool. He was replaced by his assistant Walter Smith four matches prior to the end of what was to become another championship-winning season. Rangers went on to win six further league titles in succession, as well as a string of domestic cups, under Smith's management.
Although Souness had been hugely successful in his time at Ibrox, his time in charge had not been without controversy. A significant act was the signing of Mo Johnston in 1989. Rangers, historically a team supported by Protestants, had for most of the 20th century a policy of refusing to sign Roman Catholics. Although there had been many Rangers players of Catholic faith, particularly before the sectarian divisions hardened after World War I, none of them were as high-profile as Johnston. He had previously played for Celtic, and had looked set to rejoin them from Nantes until Souness made an offer to sign him. Johnston publicly announced he would return to Celtic in a press conference at Celtic Park, but days later he signed for Rangers. Souness stated that religion was not an issue for him; his first wife was a Catholic and the children from that marriage were baptised Catholic. His main consideration was that Johnston was a good player, but he also believed that the signing would damage Celtic. He was also responsible for ordering a picture of Queen Elizabeth II be hung in the Rangers dressing room, a tradition Rangers continued.
Souness also found himself under scrutiny from the Scottish Football Association and Scottish League more than once. A succession of confrontational after-match comments pitched Souness regularly at loggerheads with both organisations, prompting touchline bans which Souness circumvented in characteristically provocative fashion by naming himself as a substitute, allowing access as a player to the dugout. In May 1990, Souness was fined £5,000 by the SFA for breaching a touchline ban after television pictures showed him in the tunnel area yelling at his players on the pitch. Souness later said that conflict with officialdom was one of the principal factors precipitating his departure from Ibrox. Another factor in 1991 was "The Storm in a teacup" when there was conflict with St Johnstone's tea lady, Aggie Moffat.
In 2009, Souness said of his time as Rangers manager, "When I look back on my actions and antics at Ibrox I bordered on being out of order. I was obnoxious and difficult to deal with." He was manager during 261 matches in all competitions for Rangers, winning 125 of 193 league fixtures.