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[Archived] Graeme Souness

Stuart

By Stuart
in Football Messageboard Archive

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Anti Euro Smiths Fan Premier League

Anti Euro Smiths Fan

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Bearded Souness rules himself out of the Scotland job

With increasing speculation today that George Burley is set to lose his job as Scotland manager following a dreadful performance from the Scots in a 3-0 defeat against Wales on Saturday, Graeme Souness has ruled himself out of the running to take over from Burley.

Souness was interviewed for the Scotland post when Burley was the successful candidate in January 2008, but Souness now insists he is not interested in taking over Burley's role as Scotland manager, which he was previously keen on last year.

"My life has gone in a different direction. I've had four years out of football management and I have no desire to go back in to it. It's not for me," said Souness, who was sacked in his last managerial job with Newcastle and who is still reviled by many Liverpool fans following his controversial exclusive interview with The Sun newspaper on the 3rd anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Souness, now sporting a grey grizzly beard, has attacked the current Scotland team as a "limited bunch" saying: "Even if Alex Ferguson was managing the Scottish team now I don't think the results would be much different. The Scottish players right now are not good enough."

George Burley has been on a run of just three wins in 14 games and the Scottish fans inside the ground at Cardiff on Saturday were quick to vent their anger during and after the game.

"I'm not surprised by the reaction," said Burley. "The manner that the team played at times was very poor."

Link below:

Souness attacks "limited" Scotland and insists he's not interested in the Scotland job.

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DE. World Cup

DE.

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To be fair, Souey's right. The reason Scotland don't perform very well is because they're, quite simply, not very good. The squad is average, and no manager is going to increase the players' potential to the point where they'll start challenging for any serious honours.

Though admittedly, they're not so bad they should be getting drubbed 3-0 by Wales.

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47er

47er

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Souey was devastated when he was overlooked last time. He wanted that one badly. How those clowns picked Burnley - apart from cash reasons - is beyond me.

I guess you meant Burley! Nice association though--when I think of clowns Burnley comes to my mind too!

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nicko World Cup

nicko

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Is Walter a genuine runner?

I am sure he will be in the frame.

Got to laugh at Levein being favourite...and Jefferies getting a mention.

Have you got to be a miserable failure in England to stand a chance of this job?

At times like this I despair.

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Anti Euro Smiths Fan Premier League

Anti Euro Smiths Fan

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Have you got to be a miserable failure in England to stand a chance of this job?

Two fairly unique things have happened to George Burley in his managerial career. He's the only manager in the history of top flight English football who was given the 'Manager Of The Year' award one season and then the following season was relegated - starting a downward spiral in terms of his managerial career.

Off the top of my head I also cannot think of any manager in the history of top flight British football who was sacked while sitting in 1st place at the top of the table. (This happened to George at Hearts in 2005.)

In the 2000/01 season Burley was named 'Manager Of The Year' when he was at Ipswich (much to the annoyance of Gerard Houllier, who felt that having won a cup treble with Liverpool of the League Cup, the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup that the 'Manager Of The Year' award should have gone to him.)

The bookies and virtually all the media pundits at the start of the 2000/01 season predicted that Ipswich would be relegated, having just been promoted to the Premier League by beating Barnsley 4–2 in the play-off final.

Yet Ipswich managed to finish in 5th place and qualified for the UEFA Cup after being promoted (Ipswich finished only three points below 3rd placed Liverpool and were only four points below 2nd placed Arsenal.) It was a fine achievement from Burley and I felt he deserved the 'Manager Of The Year' award that season.

Had it not been for Ipswich having a poor couple of results at the end of that season - losing to Charlton and drawing with Derby - remarkably Ipswich would have finished in 2nd place in the Premier League had they won those two games.

Unfortunately for George it all rather went pear-shaped after that. Ipswich suffered 'second season syndrome' and were relegated the following year in 2001/02.

George went to Derby County and after two years there he resigned before he was pushed. He joined Hearts and was harshly sacked after just a couple of months by the ruthless Lithuanian megalomaniac Vladimir Romanov despite being top of the table with Hearts after 10 games and having won all of Hearts' opening 8 games.

Burley's sacking by Hearts was seemingly bizarre. The link in the Daily Telegraph below claims that Romanov sacked George because he refused to go to an alcohol clinic. Burley himself denied the allegations that he had a drink problem.

"Burley sacked for not going to alchohol clinic"

Nicko, are you able to shed any further light on the circumstances surrounding Burley's sacking by Hearts and whether there was any actual substance to the allegations against him or whether Romanov was using imaginary claims of drinking as an excuse to sack him?

I gather that the ruthless Mr Romanov was keen to have a direct influence on picking the team, the tactics and which players to buy. Effectively it seems that Romanov likes to have a puppet as a manager while he pulls all the strings.

Going back to the original theme of the thread - Graeme Souness - he revealed today that he has applied for the Scotland job twice before and won't be applying for a third time.

"The Scotland job is not something I see for myself right now. I applied twice and got turned down twice. I am happy at the moment. Of course, I'd have liked to have won the Premiership a couple of times as manager and a few European Cups as well. However, I did win that three times as a player so I have been blessed," said Souness.

Link to those quotes here

The former Rangers striker Mo Johnston however has said that he believes Souness can still be persuaded to think again about taking the Scotland job. It was Souness who managed to convince Mo Johnston to do the unthinkable and swap Celtic for Rangers in one of the most controversial transfers in the history of British football.

Johnston said: "Graeme is a very persuasive man and I think he can be persuaded to take the Scotland job. I saw his passion at the weekend and he was hurting about what happened in Cardiff. Sometimes, you say things in the heat of the moment, but I think he could easily come in and shake the trees."

Link below:

Johnston urges Souness to "think again"

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