Whilst some in the media were writing flowery tributes to Graeme Souness after he and Sky decided to have a “mutual” parting of the ways, others were more circumspect.
They didn’t contradict that version; they just didn’t bother to comment on it at all. I am guessing that there were some in the media business who were well aware that it was not “mutual.”
That word gets thrown about a lot these days.
Whenever someone like Souness leaves a high-profile post we read that word used.
It’s like Kilmarnock and Lafferty coming to a “mutual” decision to tear his contract up. They ought to have done it sooner, but eventually the realisation that they were better off without him in the building became too obvious to ignore.
Last week, The Mooch was using the same word to describe the impending departures of Kent and Morelos. There’s very little “mutual” in that, as was evidenced by his spitting fury at the weekend when he slammed the striker whilst confirming his departure.
Mutual. Yes. Except that it so very rarely is mutual, and in the case of Souness departing Sky it now appears that it was anything but.
Not a single one of us is going to shed any tears for him either.
The last couple of times this blog was writing about Souness he was calling our fans “the unacceptable face of Scottish football.” What bigoted tripe that was. The next time we wrote about him was when he bizarrely suggested that early VAR decisions had benefited our club.
Souness is a bitter, bigoted throwback to a bygone era in the game, and like others from that era he should have been in retirement yonks ago.
What does he offer now except sound and fury?
He has very little understanding of the modern game … and no wish to adapt himself to it.
One of the biggest changes is the prominent role women play in it now, and he certainly had no interest in accommodating himself to that particular change. And it’s this, ironically enough, instead of his stone-cold and obvious, undisguised bias and hatred for our club which has done for him. You can hate Celtic and still have a media career; plenty do.
Unlike some, I don’t believe that it was a manufactured controversy when he was widely and roundly criticised for his “it’s a man’s game” remarks.
He knew exactly what he was doing, he knew exactly what the words coming out of his mouth meant sitting next to a top women’s player.
He was sly about it, but the reactions of those in the studio and the football community as a whole are pretty clear; everybody recognized what he was up to and what his words actually meant.
Souness has always been a brave man when he’s blustering.
But the mark of a bully like that is a deep rooted cowardice and he made sure there was enough in his remarks to allow him to row back and hide behind the vagueness when the heat got too much … that he repeated the comments the following day on TalkSport and expressed no regrets before offering a half-clarification a day or two later tells you everything you need to know.
It is those comments – the ones he made on Sky and then repeated the following day – which the media in England is claiming cost him his job. Sky told him that at the end of this season he’ll no longer be required.
He of course tried to cover up his shame – his disgrace – by playing the old “mutual” card but someone at Sky leaked it because they probably found his attempt at deflection nauseating and they wanted it known that the deed was done on their end and that they think it was a fully justified act. Which it certainly was.
If only his diabolical, partisan attack on the Celtic fans and on our club had been considered unpleasant enough to justify his dismissal.
Maybe the women would never have had to endure his malign presence.
I am glad that they, and the rest of us, will soon no longer need to.
What would Peeness know about football being a man’s game. He was a coward in his playing days tackling from behind and sleekit kicks at opponents when he thought no one was looking.
He never got over being owned by Celtic at Blackburn when his team was pumped out of Europe by Henrik and co.
A bitter over rated no mark who found his level among the cheats and tax dodgers at Ibrox.
Won’t be missed by any real football people.
Souness was a great player – not such a nice person.
And while we’re at it:
footy pundits should have a shelf life – like say 10 years after hanging up their boots.
For that interminable period when we had Souness, Hansen and Lawrenson as pundits
was just the pits.
The game moves on – and so should footy pundits on a more regular basis!
He was NOT a great player in my opinion.
He was a dirty player who did not play to the rules. He seemed not to be cultured in any way, either as a person or as a footballer. It always seemed to be about trying to injure or maim.
He also was a cheat and cowardly as described by Tony B. Bullies ARE usually cowards.
Mainly, he always was and still is, a disgusting and bigoted person, who was and still is not worth any respect in my opinion.
It does not say much for SKY that they took a long time to figure this out.
In the 70s he head butted a Celtic player a youth at a league cup semi final at Hampden. Sourness is a has been, an EBT exile hanging in with his Klan mates and oozing the stench of sh1t. He is SCUM, he is dirt on your shoes and hard as you may you can’t scrape it off. Thankfully the world knows what a BIGOT he is no one should ever employ such a foul mouthed little runt Sourness is!
I’ve disliked many Rangers players in my lifetime, but only actually hated 4 of them, Souness was one of them, is one of them, the other three, Willie Johnston, Andy Goram and Ian hatchet-face Ferguson. I’m very glad to see the demise of Souness and a malignant dinosaur is an apt description of him.
Sounness is a knob
That piece is very lenient on Souness. A very good player on his day I will admit, but also one of the most vicious, cynical & dirtiest players who didn’t give a thought about seriously injuring an opponent. The challenge on George Mccluskey who was playing for Hibs when Souness was player manager for Rangers being a prime example of his cynical fouling.
An ardent Thatcherite Tory to boot, who wrote in the Sun newspaper after Hillsborough shows were his loyalties lie.
Good riddance.
Billy Stark, with one boot on, blindsided tackle. Scumbag coward.
2 minutes in.
https://youtu.be/6KSThnjiLm0
Well done in highlighting this bigot again and again. The same way that you out everyone of them. Keep up the excellent work.
There is scum there is vermin there is filth there are zombies there are single cell ameabas Inthe deepest trench in the Pacific ocean and then there is sourness
I recall he virtually maimed a Steu Bucharest player early in his Ayebrokes days.
The huns then referred to his subsequent tackles as “doing a Steau”…
I agree on the bully and coward posts.
Anyone with half a brain cell would have stated the obvious, when considering now football is a sport we encourage for all, and a simple that it is a; physical contact sport would suffice; a mans game is not what it is anymore we have moved on.
Unlike the huns we have moved on this century and have grown to accept, encourage, support, and embrace all in sport in the true sense of the meaning.
1) He’s fae Ediburgh
2) He’s a Tory
3) He’s a currant bun
What else does anyone else need to know FFS?