Graeme Sourness | Retires from “punditry”

He's a bit morose but I always find him interesting. You could post it in every single pundit thread but my days of being outraged when a pundit dared criticise United stopped when I was about 15.

I just find the immediate cries of "ABU", "WUM" or whatever, after every 'less than 100% positive' comment tedious. You can debate what Souness said was wrong but I don't think it's out of being bitter or anything - it's just that he has a different opinion.
 
I like him. Seen him have a go at Liverpool many times. He's just miserable.
 
If I was a Utd fan I would embrace what you perceive as bitterness, hatred, bias etc from ex Liverpool or city pundits. It means you're doing something right.
 
When I was watching the analysis at half time and full time I knew there was going to be a thread/reaction to this. The way he was carrying on you would've thought he'd played or managed Chelsea, how many times did he mention that bloody handball?! Even when they moved on to the Herrera goal all he wanted to do was bleat on about the handball still, such a bitter man.
 
I don't mind him, rather listen to him over Redknapp and Carragher
 
Djemba-Djemba said:
Basically if Liverpool had put in the exact same performance as us today and beaten Chelsea 2-0 no chance would he be criticising Klopp and Liverpool for not playing on the front foot and not being attacking enough and all the other bollocks he came out with .
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That would be a compliment for us as it would me we are expected to be better than Liverpool. It's like when teams are regularly praised for defending for their lives and coming away with a draw away from home to the top teams, the opposite scenario would never generate that sort of praise. We're the richest and biggest club country, it's good that we are expected to play like it. By the way I am not saying today we did not play well as I thought apart from the last 20 minutes or so, we were playing quite decently considering the injuries and schedule we have compared to Chelsea's, just commenting on the principle of criticizing one team for doing something and not the other.
 
Bubz27 said:
That's fair. I understand.

Ideally I'd love it if we didn't have to either. Even when we were the best team in the land, we'd still have games where we'd go to 'do a job'. It's a psychological thing.

The truly great teams make the other teams change their game plan for them, not the other way round.
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Exactly. Yes it can be exciting and super satisfactory to get those tight hard fought wins when you defend for your life and come away with the victory. But there is no getting away from the fact that it ultimately means you are not good enough if you have to do it every time you come up against someone decent. You might have the odd bad day here and there where you have to dig in, having to do that every time however suggests something else. It is difficult to tell whether we are like that however as we somehow avoided most of the big games until late this season where it's difficult to judge due to our hectic schedule and injuries. Next season should be a better indicator I suppose.
 
Kag said:
Souness praised the team for exactly that. He said as much, no matter how much it clearly pains him.

He was then asked if this was what United should be doing more often. And of course the answer is no. It isn't how we're going to beat Bournemouth and Hull at home. It isn't how we need to approach playing City or Arsenal every time either. It was exactly the right kind of performance specific to this current Chelsea side, and he praised us for it. So what's the issue?
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The issue is that he is a bitter old goat.

Him bringing up the game at Anfield this season is just ridiculous, talk about holding on to a grudge.
 
Bubz27 said:
That's fair. I understand.

Ideally I'd love it if we didn't have to either. Even when we were the best team in the land, we'd still have games where we'd go to 'do a job'. It's a psychological thing.

The truly great teams make the other teams change their game plan for them, not the other way round.
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Really? So Man Utd 2007/08 wasn't a great team, despite winning the Premier League and Champions League? Cos the last time I checked we changed to suit our opponents several times that season. In Europe that season, especially in the semi final ties against Barcelona, we radically changed our approach. In the away leg we had less than 30 per cent possession. Even in the final Sir Alex started Hargreaves wide right, which allowed us to switch between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 depending on the phase of play. Does that mean, actually, United 2007/08 weren't what they're cracked up to be?
 
#07 said:
Really? So Man Utd 2007/08 wasn't a great team, despite winning the Premier League and Champions League? Cos the last time I checked we changed to suit our opponents several times that season. In Europe that season, especially in the semi final ties against Barcelona, we radically changed our approach. In the away leg we had less than 30 per cent possession. Even in the final Sir Alex started Hargreaves wide right, which allowed us to switch between 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 depending on the phase of play. Does that mean, actually, United 2007/08 weren't what they're cracked up to be?
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Depends on your definition of great.

When people look back in history they think of those famous Milan and Ajax sides, the Barca side that heat us twice. The Brazil sides.

That United team was fantastic. Tactically excellent and flexible with the personnel to shut out any team and break down any defence.
 
OnlyTwoDaSilvas said:
I'm perhaps being a little bit picky, but he kept calling us "Man Utd". He doesn't normally do that. There was one moment at half time where he called us "Man United" and he seemed to immediately correct himself and say "Man Utd" again. I'm sure he knows it's normally used in a derogatory manner.

I disagreed with him when he said the referee had been lenient to us. I don't think the handball was a stonewaller, or any way deliberate, but he spoke about it like it was robbery. It could go either way, and those kinds do every game. He didn't mention anything about Costa launching Bailly towards the goalpost head first, or his blatant diving that won him free kicks they shouldn't have had, or anything about Kante's accumulation of fouls for which he was never booked. Both him and Lampard were in agreement that losing Alonso in the warm-up was an enormous loss, but no mention of the amount of absentees we had today in what was far from a full strength United side.

His narrative was fairly clear today IMO.
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I've heard Bryan Robson and Steve Bruce use "Man Utd" on occasions in the past. Berbatov(admittedly he probably wouldn't be as aware of the negativity of using it) was using it yesterday on Goals on Sunday, as have the likes of Lee Sharpe. Souness was very praiseworthy of United under Fergie, with the obvious emphasis on the teams generally being really good, but he also seemed to really respect and like Fergie. I remember him saying before the United-Arsenal game in November that he thought Arsenal had a comfortably better side, which was disingenuous and proved to be the case in that game and since that game. One thing I'd like to see Souness (and others) comment on more is what he thinks of Liverpool have won only one League Cup trophy in 11 years, and how shameful that lack of silverware is.
 
Souness is a bitter old fool, he is past it, his view on football tactics makes him a dinosaur. He has no idea how football has evolved as a game. I would hate to be Souness. Waking up each morning knowing that I was once a top player who won multiple trophies, having to face the stark truth that I am irrelevant, obsolete, and forgotten.

These days he is known for being a thoroughly incompetent pundit, having utterly failed in his coaching career (or should I say, attempt at a coaching career).

He had his shot, he blew it, and now he does nothing apart from take snipes at others from the sidelines.

Sad, sad man. Pathetic. Interestingly he is the very personification of his former club Liverpool, who have similarly faded into obscurity and are now a nothing club, never in the headlines, never challenging for anything, never signing any big players, and basically being excluded from the important conversations.
 
Talking about Spurs. "I hope they win and score lots of goals today."

Love a bit of pundit neutrality.
 
Doesn't do anything to hide his hatred for us..

He is also a very shit pundit full stop, offers absolutely nothing in terms of giving us fans a inside view of a former player/manager.
 
He's an ex dipper and a shithouse of a pundit when it comes to us. Why are some people on here getting so wound up by someone who doesn't matter?
 
I bet he was gutted he couldn't mention that Pogba cost £89 million.
 
I think he's a decent pundit generally. Laughable how he tried to absolve Rooney of fault for the Wanyama goal.
 
johnamiri said:
He might be all you say he is but what a player. I wish Liverpool had him at his peak now.
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He'd get sent off every time he played nowadays. Great player from a different era, not sure he'd translate well to modern football.
 
11101 said:
He'd get sent off every time he played nowadays. Great player from a different era, not sure he'd translate well to modern football.
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He'd probably be one of if not the best CM in Europe and definitely the best in the EPL. Would shit on Kante.
 
Quite like ex players and managers in the media that dislike us. Would be boring as hell if they were all rallying support for our plight post-Ferguson.

Stretford's phone will blow up at the end of the season though. His reach must extend some distance. Rooney is never criticized no matter the circumstances.
 
11101 said:
He'd get sent off every time he played nowadays. Great player from a different era, not sure he'd translate well to modern football.
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He was vile but I don't think that he was stupid - I'm pretty sure that he would've adjusted himself to today's rules. A shame that we don't see a player with the ball tackling the defender on the way anymore though :lol:
 
harms said:
He was vile but I don't think that he was stupid - I'm pretty sure that he would've adjusted himself to today's rules. A shame that we don't see a player with the ball tackling the defender on the way anymore though :lol:
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"Certainly a booking" :lol:

How the feck did people get sent off back in the day? Other than two leg breakers?!

He'd get about 12 games for that in today's game.
 
Many of the best and most ruthless central midfielders knew how to play close to the limits of what the referee deemed acceptable.

sewey89 said:
"Certainly a booking" :lol:

How the feck did people get sent off back in the day? Other than two leg breakers?!

He'd get about 12 games for that in today's game.
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I know. It always amuses me when you hear a eulogy of some player from back in the day with the praise "and he never got a booking in his entire career". It means feck all when you basically had to either break somebody's leg or throw a punch to even get a yellow.
 
I think he is an excellent pundit personally, generally pretty fair in his comments and at least he is being honest with what he believes - a lot of pundits these days I feel are told what to say before they start.
 
Very much in the mold of Roy Keane . Says what he thinks and damn what anyone thinks . I like that . People here saying hes bitter? , stellar career , won trophies in 3 countries as a manager

English football hall of fame
Scottish football hall of fame
Rangers hall of fame

Nothing for him to be bitter about . Too few pundits give their full opinion. I would rather listen to what he has to say than Ray Wilkins who seems to sit on the fence most of the time
 
I think he's decent enough as a pundit. Not going to give world class insight but refrains from too many platitudes, and speaks his mind without going to extremes.

He's sort of the baseline of what any pundit should be, but a shocking amount of pundits fail to meet even those basic criteria.
 
I like Souness, he tears into everyone like they've pissed on his breakfast cereal but he does it equally. He always finds the negatives but usually he's pretty spot on with his tactics like Carragher and Neville. The all notice little things defensively that the attacker on the panel don't, I think he's just a negative person in general and that shows in his punditry but he's also honest in pointing out those faults. Praise from Graeme is hard earned.
 
isn't he the first schoolboy international footballer to be refused a medal due to the severity of a foul made by him.

I'm pretty sure it's true.
 
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