Liverpool FC Forum

[spion]

I watched yesterdays game on sky sports & during the preamble the pundits were talking about who was to blame for Liverpool’s lack of championship silverware in the last eighteen years. During this debate Dion Dublin & Jamie Redknapp were very vocal in talk regarding transfers, systems, priorities, etc. The other pundit was unusually quiet, the pundit really didn’t seem interested in Liverpool’s decline or the reasons behind it, or the fact at the beginning of the decline he was in the managers seat. 

Graeme Souness never wanted to ruin Liverpool, but in his time there he managed to destroy a team that the season before had won the league & looked with a couple of savvy buys to do the same the following year. I understand it is easy to blame one person but looking at the facts its hard not to portion a great deal of the reason on his shoulders.  Apart for a easy victory over Sunderland in the FA cup final 1991-92 season he did nothing but damage to Liverpool FC. Between the seasons 1991 to 1994 he managed to sell some of  our best players & replace them with at best, second rate footballers who could have never imagined in there wildest dreams they would ever play for one of the best clubs in the world.

Souness managed to spend a staggering eighteen million over four seasons & recouped only eight during his dealings. Now in today’s market that seems a rather  small sum but with the current inflated prices you could easily times that number by twenty. Take Dean Saunders, bought for £2.9 million from Derby County in 1991 & promptly sold one season on to Villa at a loss of six hundred thousand, not given time to bed in or even given a seasons grace. This wasn’t a one off , during Souness’s stewardship some very dodgy players were bought with nothing in mind but “making do”. Replacing Glen Hysen who had played very well the season previously with Torben Piechnik even now seems amazingly naïve for a manger with such experience. Kozma, Lee Jones, Paul Stewart & Julian Dicks were just a small sample of the dross Souness seemed convinced would take Liverpool into the nineties. These players coupled with the ones he sold, Staunton, Beardsley, McMahon, Ablett, Ray Houghton etc shows this man had no idea what he was doing.

After he finally left with a big wad of money in his pocket the club never really recovered from the damage he had done. Manure’s youth started to come through & Arsenal began there transformation from dour offside trappers to the pure football we see today. Liverpool have been playing catch up ever since. Success has been fleeting after the halcyon days of the eighties but the club & the managers have tried to bridge that gap made so wide during Souness’s stewardship. Every time I see him linked with a club I think back to the hangover he imposed on Liverpool & feel sorry for that club. It seems now that premier league clubs have found him out & he is destined to tell us, the paying public his opinions through the medium of TV.

If Liverpool do win what the fans hold dearest this season, after eighteen years of hurt then at least there will be one manager who contributed nothing to its gain.  YNWA

[babu]

Source?

[Emerald Red]

Source?

Does he need one? I agree with most of it 100%. It's saying nothing new either. Everyone who's been supporting us for long enough knows Souness was a c*nt of a manager that never had a clue. He tore down the foundations that were 20+ years in the making.

[Woollyback]

my thoughts exactly. it was surprising reading fowler's book to hear how well liked souey was amongst the players but there's no doubt he de-railed us as a club

[112-1077774096]

the foundations would have been ripped down at some point anyway, he did simple thinks like making the players go straight to melwood rather than to anfield for training.

i read once that most of his frustrations was the inability of players to do what he could do as a player, and he was a great player. but he was not the best manager however to say he was solely responsible would be wrong

[Bermenstein]

Good old Graeme Souness...Who didn't rate Deco as a player when he had him at Benfica in 97, so he was sent packing to S.C. Salgueiros, where Deco impressed enough to get a move to Porto and some coaching from Jose Mourinho. The rest is history.

[Yooj Bigullz]

the foundations would have been ripped down at some point anyway, he did simple thinks like making the players go straight to melwood rather than to anfield for training.

i read once that most of his frustrations was the inability of players to do what he could do as a player, and he was a great player. but he was not the best manager however to say he was solely responsible would be wrong

I agree. Perhaps that's why a lot of top players don't tend to make good managers, simply because it came so naturally to them it was difficult for them to teach it.

I don't think Souness is is solely to blame either, other managers since haven't contributed a lot positively where it really matters

[RUSHIE#9]

the foundations would have been ripped down at some point anyway, he did simple thinks like making the players go straight to melwood rather than to anfield for training.

i read once that most of his frustrations was the inability of players to do what he could do as a player, and he was a great player. but he was not the best manager however to say he was solely responsible would be wrong

Agreed.

Souness gets the lions share of the blame for the start of our long long wait for no.19 and much of it IS justified. However what a lot of people do tend to overlook is the fact that one or two of the foundations of the club were starting to crack and the club needed taking out of the complacency that it had slipped into. Souness was in his own ham fisted way trying to do that. However ripping the heart out of the club (no pun intended) and replacing it with sub standard replacements wasn't the way to go about it.
I mean can anyone ever be forgiven for signing Paul Stewart?

[babu]

Source?

Does he need one?

no. But i'd like to know where he got that. be nice if he provided a link to the article

[maypaxvobiscum]

maybe Spion wrote the ''article'' himself?

[babu]

maybe Spion wrote the ''article'' himself?

listen you stupid chelsea supporting, singaporean sad-pervert, just feck off, ok?

Ta.

[Bad Bob]

Play nice you two!

Whether Spion lifted this from somewhere or concocted it himself, I was just surprised to see he didn't think Benitez was to blame for 18 years of misery.

[maypaxvobiscum]

maybe Spion wrote the ''article'' himself?

listen you stupid chelsea supporting, singaporean sad-pervert, just feck off, ok?

Ta.

what the is ur problem? i bet u wouldnt have the guts to say that to my face you cause ur too cheap to travel.

[112-1077774096]

oooooh we have a singapore vs malaysia battle going on here, just like in real life 

[maypaxvobiscum]