Wrong. I subscribed to the "consider Souness's future after the end of this (03-04) season". I do and did believe Souness made mistakes. I think the biggest being falling into the trap of excessive transfer activity. But I thought it would be suicide to sack him at the stage it was muted last season. Thankfully, he wasn't and Rovers didn't... drop into the championship.
But surely it doesn't cause you personal turmoil to agree with me that Souness was tight-fisted over many transfers, at least as many (really more) than the costly ones?
Let's get it right.
Yes, I agree he was tight-fisted and signed us some bargains (Stead, Thompson, Friedel). He also cocked up big-time on at least a couple of transfers (Grabbi, Ferguson, Amoruso), in that he paid over the odds. Unfortunately, even though the number of disasters was far fewer, the amount of overpayment was sufficient to negate the good work he did on the (greater) number of bargains he signed.
In retrospect he gave us three great years, then completely lost the plot. I was slow to see this as I was weighing it against his three good years of work.
But I am very glad he's gone now and Hughes for Souness looks a pretty good swap right now.