80 Facts About Souness

Graeme James Souness is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current pundit on Sky Sports.

Midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Rangers in the late 1980s and captain of the Scotland national team.

Souness went on to become manager of Galatasaray, Southampton, Torino, Benfica, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United.

Souness was brought up in the Saughton Mains area of Edinburgh, and supported local side Hearts and Rangers.

Souness' career began as an apprentice at Tottenham Hotspur under Bill Nicholson.

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Frustrated at a lack of first-team opportunities, the teenage Souness reputedly informed Nicholson he was the best player at the club.

Souness made one first-team appearance for Spurs, in a UEFA Cup tie as a substitute.

Souness appeared in 10 of his team's 14 matches and was named in the league's All-Star team for that season.

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.

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 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 played a critical 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.

Thompson initially refused to speak to Souness, claiming he had "stolen the captaincy" from behind his back.

Souness scored the winning goal in the 1984 League Cup final replay at Maine Road against Merseyside rivals Everton, the first all-Merseyside cup final.

Souness left Liverpool in 1984, joining Sampdoria for a fee of £650,000.

Souness scored the only goal of the game in the first leg of the final.

Souness made 73 appearances in total for Rangers, scoring three goals before retiring as a player in 1991 at age 38.

Souness missed Scotland's first two matches, a defeat to Peru and a draw with Iran, due to injury.

Souness was selected for the final group match against the Netherlands.

Souness 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 had made 54 appearances in almost 12 years, scoring four goals.

Souness was appointed Rangers' first player-manager in April 1986, signing from Sampdoria for a fee of £300,000 and succeeding Jock Wallace.

Souness's signing was unusual in that Scottish clubs had rarely been able to sign top-quality internationals, including Scots, from other leagues.

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Souness was replaced by his assistant Walter Smith four matches prior to the end of what was to become another championship-winning season.

Souness had previously played for Celtic, and had looked set to rejoin them from Nantes until Souness made an offer to sign him.

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.

Souness's main consideration was that Johnston was a good player, but he believed that the signing would damage Celtic.

Souness found himself under scrutiny from the Scottish Football Association and Scottish League more than once.

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 was later to claim conflict with officialdom was one of the principal factors precipitating his departure from Ibrox.

Souness took over at Anfield just before Liverpool surrendered their defence of the English league title to Arsenal.

Souness made a major reorganisation of the squad in his first six months as manager, bringing in Dean Saunders for an English record of £2.

Souness gave a regular place in the team to 19-year-old midfielder Steve McManaman, whose debut had come under Dalglish in December 1990, and a debut to one of Dalglish's last signings, teenage midfielder Jamie Redknapp.

Souness himself had restricted Liverpool players from talking to The Sun.

Souness finally resigned as Liverpool manager at the end of January 1994 when Liverpool had suffered a shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Bristol City.

Souness later claimed in his autobiography The Management Years that he faced an uphill struggle from day one for a number of reasons.

Souness knew they had eventually to be replaced and he doubted some of their desire.

Souness claimed Ian Rush and Ray Houghton had demanded to know why new signings like Mark Wright were earning more money than them, despite not yet having won any trophies.

Souness claims Liverpool chief executive Peter Robinson at the time had warned him this was a Liverpool team in decline and that they only had one player who was still "great" - John Barnes.

Souness was left disappointed by Barnes as he was at this time frequently suffering from injuries, and in particular suffered a ruptured achilles tendon which was to eventually affect his acceleration therefore affecting his playing style, and not giving Souness what he wanted from a vintage Barnes at his peak, which was what he saw as a "devastating winger with pace and goalscoring touch".

Souness had claimed Barnes was once the "best player in Britain" but unfortunately only saw flashes of his brilliance.

Rumours about squabbles in the dressing room between the players and Souness were rife, with Ian Rush telling a Sky Sports interviewer that "teacups being thrown" were nothing new.

Souness fell out with former Liverpool teammates Tommy Smith and Phil Thompson during his time in charge at Anfield.

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Souness dismissed Thompson as a result and the two have remained bitter towards each other since, with Thompson claiming in his own book he would never speak to Souness again as a result.

Souness banned Smith from the club areas, and said that in his last phone call with Tommy Smith, instructing him not to hang around the official club areas, he was certain he had "made an enemy for life".

Souness went to manage Galatasaray in Turkey in June 1995, and again managed to court controversy with local issues, nearly sparking a riot after placing a large Galatasaray flag into the centre circle of the pitch of arch rivals Fenerbahce after Galatasaray had beaten them in the Turkish Cup final on 24 April 1996.

The iconic image of Souness planting the flag drew comparisons with Turkish hero Ulubatli Hasan, who was killed as he planted the Ottoman flag at the end of the Siege of Constantinople.

Souness then returned to England to manage Southampton, but after one season he resigned, citing differences with chairman Rupert Lowe.

Souness is perhaps best remembered at Southampton for signing Senegalese player Ali Dia, supposedly on the recommendation of former FIFA World Player of the Year and former Liberian striker George Weah.

Souness did not check any of Dia's credentials as a good player, which proved to be a hoax instigated by Dia's friend.

In November 1997, Souness was appointed by Benfica's new chairman Joao Vale e Azevedo, who promised to return the club to its former glory.

Souness returned to the English league in March 2000 to become manager of Blackburn Rovers, earning promotion back to the Premier League in his first full season.

Souness left Blackburn in September 2004 to become manager of Newcastle United following the sacking of 71-year-old Sir Bobby Robson a few games into the season.

The club finished 14th in the league and despite making it to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, Souness found himself under mounting pressure from Toon supporters.

Souness seemed to be tightening up Newcastle in defence, with six clean sheets in Newcastle's first 12 games of the season, as many as the whole of the preceding campaign.

Souness was criticised for an apparent lack of long-term planning at Newcastle, centred on a small squad, and a consequent vulnerability to injury among his players.

On 2 February 2006, Souness was sacked as manager by chairman Freddy Shepherd and replaced by United's Youth Academy Director Glenn Roeder.

Souness did not return to football management after leaving Newcastle.

Four months after succeeding Sir Bobby Robson as manager, Souness was in his first transfer window as Newcastle manager.

Souness has appeared as a television analyst in the UK and Ireland regularly since his managerial career ended.

Souness is currently one of the main analysts on Sky Sports coverage of the Premier League, regularly appearing on the Super Sunday programme featuring the biggest head-to-head matches, and was one of the main pundits used on their UEFA Champions League coverage until they lost the rights in 2015.

Souness appears on Sky Sports coverage of the League Cup and Scotland internationals.

Souness previously featured on RTE's live coverage of the UEFA Champions League and on their highlights show Premier Soccer Saturday, covering the Premier League.

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Souness was regularly seen covering RTE's coverage of Republic of Ireland football internationals.

Souness contributed to RTE Sport's coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, alongside Johnny Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan, Denis Irwin, Ossie Ardiles and Dietmar Hamann for the duration of the group stage.

In 2021, Souness was accused of "lazy punditry" by fellow Sky Sports pundit and fellow ex-Liverpool player Jamie Carragher during coverage of the Anti-Glazers protests by Manchester United fans at Old Trafford on 2 May This came after Souness suggested that the reason for the protests was anger arising from a relative lack of success on the pitch since 2013 and not any anger towards the owners.

Souness looked to be the front-runner for the Bolton Wanderers manager's job following the departure of his former Liverpool teammate Sammy Lee in October 2007, but later pulled out of the running when it became apparent the job was set to be given to Gary Megson.

At around the same time, Souness was linked with taking over the Republic of Ireland national team.

In January 2008, Souness announced he would be willing to return to Newcastle United as manager, following the departure of Sam Allardyce and the arrival of the club's new ownership and board.

However, United only interviewed Harry Redknapp and Kevin Keegan for the position, with Keegan soon after being appointed with the job; Souness's interest has never been publicly acknowledged by the club.

Souness attended a Wolves game as a VIP guest and made a formal offer for the club, asking to see the club's finances.

Souness did not make a repeat offer for the club and it was later sold to another investor.

Souness adopted her young daughter, and they had three more children together.

Souness has been married to Karen Souness, his second wife, since 1994.

Together, the couple have a son and Souness has two stepchildren from Karen's previous relationship.

In 2010, Souness sold the family home in Colinton in Edinburgh to Fred Goodwin, and moved to a newly developed property in Sandbanks, Poole, Dorset.

In 1998, Souness was included in the Football League 100 Legends list.

Souness has been inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame, the Scottish Football Hall of Fame and the Rangers FC Hall of Fame.