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Liverpool Echo

Sport

Ian Doyle

Graeme Souness mask has finally slipped after tears, Sky Sports exit and Liverpool prediction

Graeme Souness Liverpool Sky Sports Sky Jamie Carragher Isla Grist Jurgen Klopp Middlesbrough Echo Everton

Rarely has there been a major figure in the history of Liverpool Football Club who can polarise opinion quite like Graeme Souness.

And how you view the now 70-year-old is largely dependent on which Souness you grew up with.

For those of a more senior vintage, he will forever be a rampaging midfielder who, after spells at Tottenham Hotspur and Middlesbrough, became the beating heart of the Liverpool team in the late 1970s and early 1980s that dominated both at home and in Europe before becoming one of the first British players to make a success of it in Italy's Serie A.

For those not quite so old, he's the barrier-breaking Rangers player-manager who became Liverpool boss and was handed the onerous task of attempting to modernise the club for the 1990s and beyond, but changed too much too soon and whose questionable off-field decisions contributed to his sacking before salvaging his reputation at several other clubs.

And for the younger generation, he was synonymous with his punditry work on Sky Sports in which he didn't always agree with his fellow panelists or the general consensus, but earned respect with his forthright views forged from decades of experience in the game (and, let's be honest, he was right about Paul Pogba).

Regardless of how many Souness eras encountered, the overriding image is of a man who knows how to handle himself, confident in his views and personality. Indeed, stories of just how tough Souness could be are renowned, his contribution to Liverpool's European Cup semi-final win over Dinamo Bucharest in 1984 the stuff of legend.

"I nutmegged Souness once in training," said Kevin Sheedy, who moved from Liverpool to Everton in the early 1980s. "He just laughed, but then a few years later I did the same thing against him in a match and he elbowed me in the face."

The steel was evident in how he recovered from major heart surgery barely a year into his spell as Liverpool manager in 1992 and was back in time to guide them to FA Cup final victory over Sunderland the following month. And it takes a brave man to plant a Galatasaray flag in the centre circle of the pitch of bitter rivals Fenerbahce after helming a Turkish Cup final victory in 1996.

So there was surprise in many quarters at the sight of Souness this week tearing up on national television when he announced plans to swim the English Channel to help people living with the rare skin condition Epidermolysis bullosa, having met 14-year-old Isla Grist from the Scottish Highlands, who has suffered from the condition since birth.

He hopes to raise £1.1million for the DEBRA charity, which supports Isla and about 5,000 people in the UK who currently live with the genetic condition for which there is no cure at present. On Wednesday afternoon, he was already a third of the way towards his target through public donations.

But scratch beneath the surface and this side of Souness has always been apparent.

"Graeme was my hero at Boro," said Craig Johnston, who eventually followed Souness from Middlesbrough to Liverpool. "He used to look after me as one of the boys and I’ll always be grateful to him. When he was transferred to Liverpool he even fixed up for me to have his digs at Middlesbrough."

His recent retirement from Sky Sports prompted more such tales. Former Granada sports reporter Michael Channon recalled how Souness, when in charge of Blackburn Rovers, had an even greater understanding of media requirements than the then-fledgling journalist and helped him accordingly during his early days on the beat.

And, this week, former ECHO journalist Ric George, who covered Liverpool during the 1990s, spoke on social media of his huge respect for Souness, revealing the time the former Reds boss visited his father to talk through and calm any nerves ahead of a heart bypass operation similar to the one he had.

"He is a great fella," says Jamie Carragher, who worked alongside Souness at Sky Sports and was a youth player at Liverpool when the former Scotland international was in charge. "He had a presence that I don't think any of us who have worked in the Sky studio had seen before.

"He's not even that big of a man in terms of stature, but it's just the way he carries himself. Everything about him is class. He was like that as a player - he wasn't known as Champagne Charlie for nothing - and he's always carried himself like that. He is a little bit different, if you like.

"I wasn't old enough to see him play for Liverpool, but my dad always said to me the best player he ever saw play for Liverpool was Graeme. He'd watched derbies as an Everton fan and while everybody spoke about Kenny Dalglish, he always maintains the best was Souness."

Souness raised eyebrows in 2019 when, having taken part in Brighton's Pride parade to draw attention to the fact there were no out gay or bisexual footballers in the Premier League, he then went on Sky Sports and spoke of having his attitude changed following an "extremely educational" time and questioned football for not creating an environment where gay footballers can feel comfortable. He has since been praised as an ally for the LGBTQ+ community.

"Whether you are a footballer or a person in a public position, you get put in a box about what type of person you are," Carragher tells the ECHO. "It's not reflective of real life. Now that he has stopped being a pundit, at least on television, maybe people can start to see a bit more of the real Graeme Souness. They can get to see the full package.

"Graeme is the kind of guy who will do anything for anyone, and it's nice that the public are getting to see a bit of that. Television can sometimes make you a caricature of who you really are, especially if your job is to offer opinions which Graeme has never shied away from doing."

Carragher adds: "I remember training now and again as a youngster at Melwood, when we would train in the morning and the first team came in during the afternoon. I don't think he had any idea who I was, but we knew who he was!

"He was the manager at Blackburn when I broke my leg against them (in 2003) and there was a bit of a dispute over the incident, and at the time he defended his club and his player. That was also a mark of the man - I wouldn't have expected him to do anything else. He was loyal.

"I absolutely love him and have learned so much from him and, from working with him, about him too. He is a classy operator."

The delighted reaction of Souness to the 7-0 win over Manchester United in March - when his pre-match confidence of a Liverpool victory prompted smirks from Roy Keane and Gary Neville - underlines he will forever be a Reds supporter.

But this week has determined once and for all there is much, much more to the man.

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