Why Graeme Souness Has To Go
|
 Monday
02 January 2006
By Mick (Newcastle-Online.com Reader)
Cast your minds back 16 months, to May 2004. Newcastle had just finished
5th in the League and had qualified for the UEFA Cup, just missing
out on that final Champions League spot by 5 points to a side who
went on to win the trophy 12 months later.
Since then we have sacked a very good, well respected manager in Sir
Bobby Robson. You would think that after Sir Bobby we would have went
looking for a world-class manager to take us up an extra level to
the one that just evaded the Geordie man. But no! Freddy Shepherd
goes and employs one of the very few managers who were below us in
the League table at the time of his sacking - Graeme Souness.
We employ the very manager who was appointed to take over at Liverpool
in 1992 to maintain the conveyor belt of Titles the Anfield side had
a monopoly on. Something Reds' fans had become accustomed to ever
since Bill Shankley started the ball rolling in the 70s. So it was
just a case of carrying on the way things had been done for years,
then... Well unfortunately for Liverpool they got it wrong, the legacy
that was the Liverpool dynasty was over and wouldn’t be revived for
many a year.
Come on, the manager they appointed thought Peter Beardsley was finished
and sold him to his nearest rivals, the same manager who thought he’d
got a gem a few years later while at Southampton.
I kid you not; Graeme Souness was taken in by somebody who claimed
to be the cousin of George Weah. Ali Dia will go down in footballing
folklore as the biggest bluff ever. Souness had plenty of opportunities
to see that he’d been conned, after all he’d watched him train. The
Scot actually put Ali Dia on the bench and brought him on before realising
his mistake, substituting the substitute. He’d been had.
Anyway, back to Newcastle. Souness took over the 5th best team in
the Premier League, one of his first press conferences was graced
by these famous words: "This is arguably the best squad I have ever
worked with but I know that I have to win something. The players know
that and, although I'm coming in with my own ideas, there won't be
any dramatic changes. I think if you look at the group of players
here, there are some top-class performers and the next step is to
win something. I've inherited a fabulous situation."
Excellent, a better than 5th top League position was now on the cards
for Newcastle, well not exactly. After a season of manager going in
front of Sky cameras to tell the world that one of his star players
was shirking out of training and had refused to play in a certain
position, that was followed within minutes by the same player going
in front of the same cameras to tell the world that his manager was
a “liar.”
This is the same manager who had hold of the same player by the throat
during training, if I get hold of somebody by the throat in the street
then I would be charged with assault, if I do it at work I’ll be sacked
and quite rightly so.
During that same season we were in the Quarter-Final of the UEFA Cup,
at last we have the chance of a trophy we all hoped, we’ll we hoped
wrong. Laurent Robert had one of his famous chats with the press.
In an article that was published in The Chronicle, Robert had the
cheek to say we were a worse team than we were 12 months earlier,
most fans had been saying that for months.
Souness found out about this article and reacted in a typical manner;
he took the huff and dropped Robert for what was possibly our best
and easiest chance of a trophy since 1969.
Robert was accused of rocking the boat and banished to the stands
for having the bottle to tell the world what others already knew,
we’d gone backwards under Souness.
Souness put himself before the team while saying nobody was bigger
than the club; nobody except Souness seems to be closer to the truth.
Given said the same thing a few months later and nothing was said.
What was our final League position under Souness you may ask? 14th,
yes our lowest League position since the Premiership's inception and
our involvement. So how come this low League position was achieved
when the squad was so good? Look no further than the manager if you
want to find a reason, the man is a bluffer, a branded “liar” and
tactically inept.
He’s now had close to £50 million to spend on the squad that 16 months
ago was branded as “arguably the best squad I have ever worked with”
and we now lie 11th in the Premiership as I write.
Last season Souness said the squad was “paper thin,” what did he do
to get around this? Look at the figures; he improved the “paper thin”
squad by reducing the numbers even further. Do they not learn mathematics
in Scottish schools?
Souness must either resign at Newcastle or be sacked, after 16 months
under Souness we are still waiting for our first League game where
we’ve actually gone behind and came back to win. We are still waiting
for a game where we actually dominate the opposition for 90 minutes,
we’ve probably only dominated 2 or 3 times that amount over this season
so far and we’ve now played 19 games. We’ve also lost in the League
Cup to Wigan reserves and have become sick of the excuses for defeats,
“lady luck” or “officials” or more often than not “injuries.”
Sorry Graeme, your excuses have become over used and your time has
ran out. Leave this club and allow us to pick up the pieces, the fans
have been at war with each other and it’s down to you, some have wanted
to give you time others have seen through you from day one.
Notice the use of past tense? Well we’re united now and we’re after
you, take it from me your time is up and I would doubt you’ll ever
get another job in top flight football.
We’re after you and we’re coming.
Once you’ve gone we rely on Freddy Shepherd to put his insular attitude
behind him and appoint the right man for this club, one who knows
what he’s doing and how to be a success.
Freddy I long to hear these words “ladies and gentleman, I take the
great pleasure to introduce you to the new manager of Newcastle United,
could I please introduce you to Ottmar Hitzfeld. 2 times winner of
the European Champions League, the man who built two teams at two
different clubs and took the elite European club prize."
© Mick
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