Souness: on Shearer, Luque, Owen and getting the sack...
SOUNESS REVEALS ALL ABOUT HIS TORRID TOON TIME
GRAEME Souness’ new autobiography covers his doomed spell at Newcastle United in great detail – and whatever you might think of the former Magpies man it is a fascinating read.
Souness covers United, Rangers, Blackburn, Liverpool, Scotland and his time at Sky in the book, which has made headlines for the last two weeks as the ex-Newcastle manager gives his opinions on his past, the pregame sent and where the is going in the future. We have
already heard about his tempestuous relationship with Craig Bellamy and why failing at Newcastle ended his management career but there are more revelations buried in there if you look hard enough.
Here are six of the best you might have missed from an interesting period in the club’s history.
United nearly signed Nicolas Anelka
Souness recounts the story of trying to sign ex-Arsenal striker Nicolas Anelka when the club ended up sealing a record deal for Michael Owen. He writes: “I made a mistake when Alan Shearer was going to chuck it by persuading him to play on and give m e another year because I felt he was good in the dressing room. “In doing so, we only ended up getting Michael Owen in during the summer when, in reality, we needed two strikers. Alan was on his last legs and if he had not stayed on we would have ended up getting the two we needed. “Initially I had wanted to sign Nicolas Anelka. I had had a meeting with his brother, who also acted as his agent, in my house in Cheshire, and I had also spoken to the sporting director at Fenerbahce and they were willing to sell him. “The player wanted to come too but Freddy Shepherd wanted Michael Owen instead, so we signed Owen for £17million from Real instead - but only after his preferred return to Liverpool had fallen through.
Michael Owen deal did not happen:
It sounds incredible now given the way the club recruit but the United boss used to have far fewer restrictions when it came to spending – and a story about the alternatives considered instead of Owen is a real eye-opener.
When club directors feared Owen was going to leave them hanging, he was offered others.
Souness said: “It had got to about 10.30pm and I was about to leave when they suddenly said, ‘Before you go, have a look at these.’ (Football agent) Paul Stretford came in with a pile of CVs and said ‘What about one of these?.’
“He handed about 50 pages of players who were top scorers in all the leagues in Europe. ‘Pick one of them,’ he said. Unbelievable.
“Less than 48 hours before the transfer deadline I was being asked to pick a player who I had never seen play because he had a track record of scoring goals and because they thought they were not getting Michael.
“I just said ‘I’m going home.’ Dean Saunders lived opposite me and at about 1am he was throwing stones at my window to wake me up – I had turned my mobile off by this point – to tell me Michael had phoned and said he was coming to Newcastle United after all. You could not make it up.”
He was being offered players all the time:
Souness is critical of the way the club recruited players when he was there. “I would watch a game at night, come in and have my breakfast with my staff at the training ground and I would say a throwaway line like ‘Did you see the game last night, such and such played really well.’ That was all I said but on three or four occasions Kenny Shepherd would come back to me and say: ‘We have spoken to his agent, he would love to join us.’
“I had only said he had had a good game, not that I wanted him or thought he would fit in. That was how Newcastle was run so what chance had you got?”
He still believes Jean-Alain Boumsong was a ‘player’:
Souness offers an in-depth justification of his most contentious signing, Jean-Alain Boumsong.
“We paid Rangers £8m for JeanAlain Boumsong in a bid to sort out the defence but it did not work out as I hoped it would. Of course, he could have done better but we needed really had a solid partner for him. Titus Bramble and Boumsong were perhaps too similar.
“I then signed Craig Moore from Rangers to be a steady Eddie along-
side Boumsong because what we had were two centre-halves who were a bit hit and miss.
“I felt with the right partner beside him Boumsong would show what he was capable of. He was athletic and went on to play for Juventus and his country. There was a player in there but he did notshow his true capability at Newcastle.”
He knows the club overspent for Albert Luque:
Another transfer flop during the period was Spanish forward Albert Luque and Souness says the club’s hierarchy was to blame. He writes: “The club also asked about Albert Luque, a Spanish winger, after we had played Deportivo La Coruna in a pre-season friendly. I said he was worth signing if we could get him for between £2m-£3m but we ended up paying £9m for him.”
He repeats a familiar line on expectations:
Souness feels the injury to Owen was the moment his sacking became inevitable - but his reflections on the club’s support will no doubt irk a few. H e writes: “Everyone gets the same treatment at Newcastle. The support can be fantastic when things are going well but the frustration borne out of not winning a trophy since 1969 soon surfaces when the going gets tough. They see clubs like Blackburn or Birmingham winning something, or Leicester winning the Premier League, and they say, ‘Why can’t that be us?.’
“I think they need to let someone have a real run at it, someone they believe in.
“Maybe they have found that manager now in Rafa Benitez.
“There is almost an argument for them staying in the Championship, when they are winning games there and everyone is happy.
“Time and time again the supporters there have had their hopes built up and it has ended in failure and disappointment for them.
“You have to be winning games there. If you are not you are only two away from a full-on crisis.”
Graeme Souness’ new autobiography ‘Graeme Souness – Football: My Life, My Passion’ is out now, £10 RRP.
Alan was on his last legs and if he had not stayed on, we would have ended up getting the two we needed Graeme Souness