by One thing that we all know about Graeme Souness is that he does not like to suffer fools.
In almost six decades as a player, manager and expert, he expressed little time for nonsense. He finds fluff and flim flam unbearable. So, carefully with his reputation, it seemed wise when Telegraph sport is granted in his company for some time to aware of the annoyance he expressed when he was asked if he would fit into today’s game.
So when we meet, our first request turns the old saw on our head. Who does he expect from today’s Premier League-Pacesetting Liverpool team to get a place in the Red Team of his era? Would Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander Arnold have been able to fit together with Sir Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and himself?
“Stupid question,” he says, his fearsome Edinburgh Brogue has unabated his many years in Dorset. “All players who would have been top players today in the 1980s. And if they have not dramatically changed the rules, they would be top players in thirty years. What makes up the best players is touch and ability to see the pictures.
And he adds how he enjoys running with the current team in Angeld and playing on the untouched surfaces of the modern Premier League.
“I would like to put myself in a kind of time machine and be a player again. Oh, full stop. I love it. I would like to play in every team, but Liverpool is just a fabulous team. Wow, I imagine being with these boys. The challenge of walking around in the fresh air every day.”
Nervous to contradict what he said about generations, it is not entirely clear how many of today’s footballers would enjoy if they are in the tunnel alongside Souness when he carries out a quick analysis of her shin legs.
“Listen, there are hard guys and hard guys, and I’m not one of them,” he says. “I think I’m like most people in whom I have a work head and a head for everything else.”
So he denies that he could express himself?
“No, sure, on the soccer field, of course, I was guilty of occasionally exceeding the brand. All I can say is that there would always be someone in the opposition that is ready to do the same. This is my only defense.”
And how he liked to bring it first. It is wildly uncompromising because it may have been on the field and is the most appealing company. He is full of interesting observations, he is smart, sharp and never shortly before the opinion. You would think that would make him a much sought -after expert. Apart from the fact that Sky decided two years ago to do without his services after almost 20 years of penetrating analysis. Not that he carries any resentment about his unarmed defense.
“I’m too old for all of these experts,” he says. And he smiles a knowing grin. In view of the fact that he looks ready, sporty with almost 72 slim; Since he swims in the sea near his house for five times a week; In view of the fact that he begins on a charity walk to raise awareness of the need to learn CPR, sharpness, it is a bit absurd to say that it is over. This is a Septuagen who still exudes limitless lust for life.
“My mother once told me: Son wherever you are, there is never a boring moment. And I didn’t let her down,” he says. “But I moved on [from punditry work]. I am bustle than ever before. Every day is a school day for me. You try to grasp what you hear, something you experience. I’m curious. I love my life. “
He makes a moment.
“Hopefully I do not give providence here. Yes, like all the footballers my age, I am worried about the possibility of dementia. But at the moment there is no day. I don’t appreciate how worthwhile life was for me. I didn’t have a good life, I had a big life. I am with blessed.”
He is also a broadcaster that approached him to make a punditrie, he is not sure whether he is in the right mind seminor. Not least because it would be necessary to observe a lot of football.
“It is the game that I love, right now I think that we are at a time when the way it developed does not make anything of it a great watch. There is too much football at half -time that goes for me.”
And he’s gone. “I think ownership statistics, completed Pass statistics and everything that has become far too important for coaches today. I think statistics are not good for the game. This status Sky is currently showing: Who have won most fouls. You do not win fouls. When did I look at the table with the table for a table.
So what about Arne Slots Liverpool? Do you also descend in these status -obsessed abyss?
“I still like to watch Liverpool and Newcastle and my local page Bournemouth. This is because they don’t play all their football at half -time.”
“I am blurred by coaches who play out from behind.”
And don’t let it start with the current obsession to play the ball out of the defense.
“This Liverpool mixture. They play football from their game today.
In the meantime he is getting more and more annoying.
“I look at what Vincent Kompany did last year [at Burnley]He insisted that he would not move from his principles that he would always play from behind. It was an invitation to the opposition: hunt us down. There was only one result that he would descend. Southampton was the same with Russell Martin. Do you take over teams who can really press who love it when they play against them and still do that? Tell me that is not naive. “
After getting this from his chest before he goes, he strives to fill the readers in his plans, to join a sponsored walk on the 72 English Football League site. It is intended to raise awareness of courses for CPR, which was particularly close to him in view of his own heart problems when he was a manager of Liverpool in 1992.
“There is an anniversary,” he says of the operation he went through. “I think more about it now than then. The fact that I am still here 33 years later and had the best life is proof of the people who have helped me.”
Was he obliged to change since his brush with death? Was it advised to choose the temperament, to calm the aggression? Be less, well, well, Graeme Souness.
“I heard the advice. Not that I always listened to it. Maybe they swim the channel [he was involved in a fundraiser last year] Wasn’t the clog on what to do. Actually no, it didn’t stop me from doing something. I was never a big drinker. And I had a good diet. I was vegan until recently when I had to change. My red blood counted below, so I ate steak once a week. Not very vegan, that. But yes, I keep myself fit. “
It means that he was more than happy when the call came through the invitation on the walk.
“I just do the last leg, a little more than 10 kilometers from Queens Park Rangers to Wembley, like the Badge kisser, who takes all the fame,” he says. “I’m doing it with a few other ex-players. I think Glenn [Hoddle] Makes it. Do you know what happens while old footballers come together? We will have a great time and speak absolute B —– s. “
And he giggles.
“Ten kilometers speaks B —— S: You have your heading there.”
