Liverpool FC | Supporters Club | Vancouver, BC, Canada

When we make up a list of Liverpool’s greatest ever players, Graeme Souness would be a certainty to feature highly. He was described as; “a bear of a player with the delicacy of a violinist” and I think that the two words that describe him best are born winner. The words fear and failure simply never entered into his vocabulary. He is a complex character who combined his burning desire to win on the pitch with a love of the high life. Bob Paisley once said of him; “If he could, he’d toss for ends using his American Express card”. Regardless of what took place during his later years as manager, his achievements as a player mean that his status as a bona-fide Liverpool legend can never be in doubt.

Souey was born in May, 1953, in Edinburgh, Scotland. He started his football career south of the border as a fifteen year old apprentice at Tottenham Hotspur in 1968. While at Spurs the teenage Souness allegedly showed his confidence by informing manager Bill Nicholson that he was the best player at the club. Despite this claim, he only ever made one appearance for the first team, as a substitute in the UEFA Cup.

In 1972, he spent the summer playing in the North American Soccer League for the Montreal Olympique. He played in ten of the team’s fourteen games during the season and was named in the NASL All Star team.

Upon his return to England he joined Second Division side Middlesbrough for £30,000. Souness made his debut in January 1973 in an away defeat to Fulham. In May 1973, Jack Charlton was appointed as Middlesbrough manager and led the team to promotion in his first season. They were crowned Second division champions with eight games remaining. Souness played a big part in the promotion and began to gain notice for his tenacious and skilful performances. A great season for him was capped off with a hat-trick in the final game, an 8-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday. His performances for Middlebrough gained him his first cap for Scotland in October 1974. He was to earn a further six caps during his time in the North East before becoming a regular part, and future captain, of the Scotland side in later years.

Throughout his time at Middlesbrough he began to realise his potential and looked every inch a star of the future just waiting for a bigger stage to grace with his immense talents. That stage was Anfield and in January 1978 Bob Paisley paid £352,000 to make him a Liverpool player. This was at the time a record fee for a transfer between two English clubs. Graeme made his debut in central midfield at West Bromwich Albion and barely put a foot wrong. He settled instantly into the side, replacing Ian Callaghan, and his first goal came in February 1978 against Manchester United at Anfield. It was a thunderous volley just inside the area that was later voted as the fans goal of the season, it was to prove a typical Souness goal.

Graeme’s first taste of silverware with Liverpool came just four months after his arrival at Anfield. This was in the 1978 European Cup Final against FC Bruges at Wembley. He played a vital part in the victory, providing the decisive through ball to Kenny Dalglish for the winning goal in a 1-0 victory. With Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish now regulars in the side they helped Souness to form a formidable Scottish spine through the Liverpool side that was to dominate over the forthcoming years.

During the following season, 1978/79, Graeme dominated the midfield in virtually every game he played. He orchestrated some of the most incredible performances ever seen at Anfield. His short and long range passing was as immaculate as his ferocious tackling was immense. His luxurious skill combined by his hardness complimented perfectly the wonderful talents he had playing alongside and in front of him. His bite in the tackle along with his vision allowed other great players like Terry McDermott, Jimmy Case and Kenny Dalglish to play with superb flair. Graeme’s strong will to succeed was a major factor in Liverpool winning the First Division title in his first two full seasons, 1978/79 and 1979/80.

Liverpool conceded the league championship to Aston Villa in 1980/81 but found their habit of winning silverware had not deserted them. West Ham United where defeated in the 1981 League Cup Final after a replay. This was the first time Liverpool had won the trophy and the first of four successive years of winning it. Liverpool also won the European Cup, for the third time, in 1981, defeating Real Madrid in the final held in Paris. Graeme’s fabulous contributions to the European Cup campaign included scoring a superb hat-trick in the quarter final against CSKA Sofia at Anfield.

In just three full seasons that Graeme had been a Liverpool player, they had won two European Cups, two league titles and one League Cup. This was a dream start to his Anfield career and things were about to get even better. After a poor performance in a home defeat to Manchester City on Boxing Day 1981, Graeme was made captain. The man he succeeded, Phil Thompson, was obviously upset with this decision. However the success Liverpool achieved during Souness’s twenty nine months as captain was proof that it was the correct decision. A natural leader on the pitch, his desire to win rubbed off on his team-mates as he constantly cajoled them into better performances. A perfect example of this is described by Ian Rush in his autobiography. Rush says that every time he scored a hat-trick, Souness would be in his ear shouting at him to get a fourth goal, rather than congratulating him.

In Graeme’s first season as Liverpool captain, 1981/82, they won the First Division Championship and the League Cup. This was to be repeated for the next two seasons in a row under his powerful leadership as the most successful skipper in Liverpool’s history. The mark of how dominant he was as a player was in the 1982 League Cup Final against Tottenham Hotspur. He came on as a substitute, having overcome a back injury, with the Reds two nil down and being out-muscled in midfield by Spurs hard-man Graeme Roberts. From the moment Graeme arrived onto the Wembley pitch, Liverpool became the dominant side and came back to win the trophy. After the 1983 League Cup Final victory over Manchester United, Graeme insisted that Bob Paisley, in his final season as manager, lead the side up the stairs to receive the trophy. This was a marvellous gesture and one of the best moments ever in football.

Graeme’s final season at Liverpool, 1983/84, is arguably the clubs finest and most successful. Under new manager Joe Fagan, Liverpool won an incredible treble of the League Championship, League Cup and the European Cup. The League Cup was secured after a replay against local rivals Everton. The first game at Wembley was the first ‘all Merseyside’ cup final and finished in a scoreless draw. Souness was the match-winner in the replay with one of his trademark long range strikes in a 1-0 victory.

In his final performance in a Liverpool shirt, Souness led the Reds into the lions den for the 1984 European Cup Final against Roma in their home ground The Olympic Stadium. Despite this being their fourth European Cup Final in seven seasons Liverpool were considered the underdogs as they played in a hostile environment against a tough side with home advantage. Graeme was as fierce as ever as he led the side like a warrior through the game. After finishing 1-1 after extra time the game went to a penalty shoot-out. With his final kick as a Liverpool player, Graeme calmly blasted his penalty into the net during the shoot-out. Once Bruce Grobbelaar had done his spaghetti legs routine and Alan Kennedy had scored the winning penalty, Liverpool were European champions for an amazing fourth time. As his final act as a Liverpool player, Graeme proudly lifted the trophy above his head in a fitting tribute to a man who had become an Anfield legend.

In June 1984, he moved to Italy to join Sampdoria for £650,000. Although Liverpool struggled without him the following season, nobody at the club begrudged Graeme for wanting to move abroad and earn enough money to secure the future for his family. Graeme had been a superb servant to Liverpool as a player and the haul of trophies they won while he was captain meant that he left the club with nothing but well wishes and incredible memories.

He was a great success in Italy where his non nonsense style on the pitch made him a firm favourite with the crowds. While in Italy he gained the nickname Charlie Champaigne which has stuck ever since in the English derivative Champagne Charlie. In his first season at Sampdoria they won the Copa Italia trophy for the first time in the clubs history. After a second season in Italy, he moved back to Scotland to become player manager of Rangers in 1986.

Graeme’s playing career at Rangers started with controversy when he was sent off in the opening game of the 1986/87 season against Hibernian. The remainder of his time as a player was a mix of disciplinary trouble, great goals and long stints with injury. He finally retired as a player in 1990. It was as manager that Souness made his real mark at Rangers and his four seasons in charge became known as ‘The Souness Revolution’ as the Glasgow club began to dominate Scottish football. Due to the European ban on English clubs at the time, he was able to sign a number of top quality players from England. Players such as Terry Butcher, Chris Woods, Trevor Steven, Ray Wilkins and Trevor Francis all joined Rangers lured by the opportunity to play in Europe and the financial strength the club had. This reversed the old trend of the past of Scottish players being lured by the top English sides.

Over his four seasons in charge, Rangers won three league titles and three Scottish League Cups. They also won another league title four games after Graeme left the club in April 1991. Despite all of the success on the pitch, it was the signing of former Celtic hero Mo Johnston in 1989 that Graeme is most remembered for at Ibrox. It wasn’t the fact that he was a former Celtic player that caused the controversy it was the fact that Johnston is Catholic. Rangers had previously had a policy of only signing protestant players. Though they had signed a few Catholic players previously, the club had kept their religious views private. This was the clubs first public and high profile Catholic signing and caused major controversy in Scottish football when it occurred. Souness even received a number of death threats, which he calmly laughed off.

In April 1991, Graeme was back at Anfield to replace Kenny Dalglish as manager. Dalglish had enjoyed much success as Liverpool manager and Graeme was seen as the perfect man to continue where Kenny had left off. Unfortunately it just didn’t happen as the club slumped into their worst period for over thirty years. A series of bad signings, high profile and expensive flops, combined with the sale of good players combined to undermine Souness as manager.

Liverpool won the F.A Cup in 1992 with a victory over Sunderland in his first season in charge. Unfortunately rather than acting as a platform for further success this victory merely seemed to paper over the cracks. The rot had already begun to set in for Graeme at Liverpool just a month before the F.A Cup Final after the semi-final victory over Portsmouth in a penalty shoot-out. The controversy was caused when he gave an ill-advised interview to The Sun newspaper about his heart operation. Under the headline ‘LOVERPOOL’ Graeme was pictured kissing his then girlfriend in a private clinic after his heart bypass operation. The Sun has been blacklisted on Merseyside since they printed sickening lies after the Hillsborough disaster. In an incredible moment of insensitivity, due to the semi-final finishing late, the interview with Souness appeared on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy. Graeme has since admitted that he hadn’t been fully aware of the feeling towards The Sun as he had been in Scotland at the time of the incident. He has also since said that he probably should have resigned after the controversy of his interview.

After a poor season 1992/93 the talk around Merseyside was that Souness was about to be sacked. The fans had turned on him with a poll in the Liverpool Echo revealing that 70% of fans wanted him out. Even on the last game of the season when Liverpool thrashed Spurs 6-2 the crowd booed every mention of Graeme’s name. It has since been reported that the Liverpool board had decided to sack him after that season but then made a drastic turn and decided he should see out the remainder of his contract. Why this decision was made has long been speculated.

After another poor season in 1993/94, Graeme was to depart Anfield after a home defeat in the F.A Cup by lower league side Bristol City. Souness knew it was all over when the night before the Bristol City game he coincidentally happened to be in a hotel room next door to where the Bristol team were being given a team talk. He overheard the team talk and heard Bristol manager Russell Osman tear apart the Liverpool side pointing out individual weaknesses. His main point was that if Liverpool were put under heavy pressure they would quickly throw in the towel and surrender, which is almost exactly what took place. Souness was terribly shocked and upset with this and under extreme pressure he had to resign before he was publicly sacked.

He then moved into a career as a journeyman manager. Over the next twelve years he managed a number of clubs in various different countries. He started with Turkish side Galatasaray in 1996. He then managed Southampton, Italian side Torino Calcio, Benfica in Portugal, Blackburn Rovers and finally Newcastle United in 2004. Graeme was sacked by Newcastle in February 2006 and has been out of management ever since.

Graeme now works in the media as a television analyst for RTE in Ireland and Sky Television in the UK. I had the honour of meeting him recently whilst purchasing coffee at Manchester Airport. I can report that he remains an extremely impressive presence in person and is a really nice person to talk to.

Regardless of what happened during his time as Liverpool manager nobody can deny that not many people tried harder to make Liverpool successful than Graeme Souness. He made a series of poor signings but a lot of them had looked good on paper. There is a strong argument that he was let down by players who were either not willing or unable to perform to Graeme’s very high standards. Unfortunately he was paid well to get the best out of his players and at the end of the day he was sadly unable to do so.

It would be a great injustice if his time as manager is allowed to overshadow his achievements as a Liverpool player. He remains one of Liverpool’s all time greatest ever players and his position at number nine in the series ‘100 Players Who Shook the Kop’ is a testament to how highly as a player he is still thought of by Liverpool fans all around the world.