Graeme Souness

Early career

Graeme James Souness was born on 6 May 1953 in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was brought up in the Saughton Mains area of the city. He supported local side Heart of Midlothian and Glasgow-based Rangers. As a teenager, Souness played for local boys' club North Merchiston. Souness' career began as an apprentice at Tottenham Hotspur under Bill Nicholson. He signed professional forms as a 15-year-old in 1968. Frustrated at a lack of first-team opportunities, the teenage Souness told Nicholson he should be selected for the first team. Souness made one first-team appearance for Spurs, in a UEFA Cup tie as a substitute. During the summer of 1972, Souness played in the North American Soccer League for the Montreal Olympique. He appeared in 10 of his team's 14 matches and was named in the league's All-Star team for that season.

Middlesbrough

Spurs sold Souness to Middlesbrough for £30,000 in 1972. He made his first appearance for Middlesbrough on 6 January 1973 in a 2–1 league defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage. His first goal came on 11 December 1973 in a 3–0 league victory over Preston North End at Ayresome Park. Souness' tenacious style began to garner acclaim during his time at Middlesbrough. His first season saw Middlesbrough finish fourth, two places and 14 points short of promotion. Jack Charlton was appointed Middlesbrough manager, his first managerial post, in May 1973. One of Charlton's first signings was experienced former Celtic midfielder Bobby…

While a Middlesbrough player, Souness received his first international cap for Scotland on 30 October 1974 in a 3–0 friendly victory over East Germany at Hampden Park. By the time Souness was selected by manager Ally McLeod for the Scotland squad for the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, he had been awarded only six caps. His move to Liverpool increased his profile. Souness missed Scotland's first two matches, a defeat to Peru and a draw with Iran, due to injury. He was selected for the final group match against the Netherlands. Souness contributed to a 3–2 victory that nevertheless saw Scotland eliminated from the tournament on goal difference. Souness played in two further World Cups. The first, in 1982 in Spain, saw Souness play all three group stage matches. His first international goal arrived in the final game prior to elimination, a 2–2 draw with the Soviet Union in Málaga. A final World Cup appearance came in 1986 in Mexico, at a time when Souness had already been appointed Rangers player-manager. Souness played in defeats to Denmark and West Germany. He later said he had performed poorly in those matches, having struggled with the high altitude and losing a significant amount of weight and power. Souness was omitted by caretaker manager Alex Ferguson for Scotland's final match against Uruguay. Souness claimed in his autobiography, The Management Years, and press interviews that this was the only time in his whole career he had been dropped. Souness also stated…

Media work

Souness has appeared as a television analyst in the UK and Ireland regularly since his managerial career ended. He was one of the main analysts on Sky Sports coverage of the Premier League, regularly appearing on the Super Sunday programme featuring the biggest head-to-head matches, and was one of the main pundits used on their UEFA Champions League coverage until they lost the rights in 2015. He left Sky Sports on 30 April 2023. Souness previously featured on RTÉ's live coverage of the UEFA Champions League and on their highlights show Premier Soccer Saturday, covering the Premier League. He was also regularly seen covering RTÉ's coverage of Republic of Ireland football internationals. Souness contributed to RTÉ Sport's coverage of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, alongside Johnny Giles, Eamon Dunphy, Liam Brady, Ronnie Whelan, Denis Irwin, Ossie Ardiles and Dietmar Hamann for the duration of the group stage. During analysis of the World Cup match between Ghana and Serbia on 13 June 2010, Souness made a controversial comment involving Nemanja Vidić and Fernando Torres live on air, commenting, "Vidic got raped... sorry, taken apart by Torres at Liverpool", which forced RTÉ to censure Souness and publicly apologise after a commercial break. As a pundit, Souness is also known for his frequent criticism of Paul Pogba. Pogba himself is unaware what he has done to warrant such criticism. Instead, he affirms he has no idea of Souness' existence.

Possible returns…

Rangers

Souness was appointed Rangers' first player-manager in April 1986, signing from Sampdoria for a fee of £300,000 and succeeding Jock Wallace. Financed initially by the club's then owner, Lawrence Marlborough, Souness and club chairman David Holmes embarked upon a bold strategy of reclaiming the footballing ascendancy Rangers had lacked in recent years, having not won the league title since 1978, with all of the Scottish league titles since then being claimed by their arch-rivals Celtic, and the emerging "New Firm" of Aberdeen and Dundee United. A 33-year-old Souness arrived at Ibrox with a reputation as one of Europe's leading midfielders. His signing was unusual in that Scottish clubs had rarely been able to sign top-quality internationals, including Scots, from other leagues. Scottish clubs had often found themselves being in the position of selling their top players to English clubs, notable examples being Kenny Dalglish (sold from Celtic to Liverpool in 1977), Gordon Strachan (sold from Aberdeen to Manchester United in 1984) and Frank McAvennie (sold from St Mirren to West Ham United in 1985). A string of major signings for Rangers from English clubs began to be termed the "Souness Revolution". Significantly, this reversed the historic pattern of Scotland's most able footballers playing in England. His first signings included Terry Butcher, captain of Ipswich Town and an established England international, and Chris Woods of Norwich City, England's…