Those two are in CM in my (and I suspect many others') idea of the All-Time XI, The irresistible force and the immovable object - what a combo they'd have been.
As players they were both tremendous all-rounders but had different main strengths. Souey was the man you'd want alongside you when the opposition came at you whereas Stevie G would be better at leading the counter-attack. Souey was a master of the short pass, Stevie G a master of the long one. Souey was the more effective skipper (by a long way IMO) but Stevie G scored many more goals. I do think that if they'd gone up against one another when both were in their prime Souey would have come out on top, though quite possibly by questionable means as he could be very nasty indeed, but he could play more than just a bit as well. How I wish we'd had him in this year's CL final - they'd still be finding bits of Ramos on that pitch today.
Souness' time as manager was a different story but, to his credit, he faced up to the fact that it wasn't working out. His first attempt to leave, a year or so before he actually went, was jiggered by that well-meaning dunce Moores, who persuaded him not to go (and prompted at least one resignation from the board in protest). For all his rep (not undeserved) for personal vanity Souness was willing to put the club first when it came to the crunch, so I'll always cut him some slack for that reason.
Indeed, watching that I almost well up a bit there... getting soppy in my old age eh...
I am not bitter towards him at fucking all for his management stint, sure that Sun article when he was in his sickbed after a heart attack was distinctly ill-placed but you can see from his interview there above that he does love the club. He was never short of vanity Souness, but in truth, he was also one of the very best midfielders in the fucking world so why wouldn't you be vain?
And for you youngsters who did not see him... you really lost out... he was a truly amazing player and a key player in the side which was repeatedly the best in Europe, a position he managed to maintain for us.
I feel sorry that any later nastiness lingering from the managerial crash should affect him in any way... with the Liver bird on him he was second to none and gave 100%, and you can see there in this interview that he still carries a sadness that he didn't drag us back up to the top when asked to as a manager.
How silly is this! First time I saw that interview I felt like writing the fella a note thanking him for giving me an extremely happy childhood!
Two other little side stories which add into the Souness narrative; Platini once popped up in his office ( I think Souness said it was after the Auxerre match in 91(?)) and said that he had a very highly gifted young striker but a bit of nutcase who was having troubles in France... Platini was the International manager of France at the time...
Souness said he had enough troubles at the time and politely passed on it, the player showed up at Wednesday, then Leeds, then United... Cantona... I still to this day cannot work out what the very fuck Wilkinson was doing selling him for 1M to Fergie.
I'm not sure what the full story was for this next one is and maybe my addled memory has deserted me but once when quizzed about Fowler Souness admitted that he didn't sub him in on one game in the first team as a youth player because although he knew damn well that Robbie was God he didn't want to sully him with the shit which we were rolling at the time...
The tainting of his Liverpool narrative shouldn't be allowed to continue IMO, Graeme Souness is very much a legend to me.
