YOUTUBE COMPILATIONS AND ex-pros’ rheumy-eyed reminiscences will tell you Graeme Souness left little room for equivocation as a player, so it’s no surprise to hear it in his punditry.
“They could have given it to them in January. They’ve won it, no arguments. If they had called a halt to the season, only the most bigoted anti-Liverpool supporters would have said they won it by a fluke.”
After months of little other than YouTube and nostalgia, we can finally turn our heads to the immediate future, as the Premier League returns from Wednesday night.
Souness is on a Zoom call with Irish journalists and is of no doubt that Liverpool deserve their impending coronation. Win two of their final nine games, and Liverpool will be champions for the first time in 30 years.
Souness won three European Cups with Liverpool – one as captain – along with three European Cups, but he says his five league titles bring him most satisfaction.
“Liverpool taught me that winning the league meant so much more than winning the cup after eight or nine games. You’ve won it over 42 games through the mud and the bad weather, through injuries and all the other things that could go wrong in a season. It just said so much more about you as a man, more about you as a player and I think it said more about the character you had within the dressing room.”
Whereas winning this year’s title will end a kind of religious wait for Liverpool, it wasn’t ever thus, and Souness tells a story from pre-seasons of how it was once the minimum standard at the club, back in the days Bob Paisley spoke of finishing second as the mark of a bad year.
“[Coach] Ronnie Moran would be there and you’d go to Melwood, do two sessions a day, and towards the end of the first week, he’d come in with a cardboard box and put it on the massage table in the middle of the home dressing room at Anfield and he’d say, ‘There are medals in that box for those who think they deserve one’.
“He’d walk out the dressing room, count to six or seven, and his head would pop back round and say, ‘By the fucking way, you get nothing this year for what’s in that box.’ That was a reminder that our season starts now.”
League medals will be better prized by Liverpool players this time around, although ironically they won’t quite get the celebration their predecessors did, with public health dictating they’ll likely lift the trophy at an empty Anfield.
I have been on the pitch for the when a team has got the trophy for the last dozen years, and it’s a great day. It’s a festival. With Sky you’re right in the body of it on the pitch. I feel sorry for the lads that they’re not going to get that. But they deserve it, this has been the best team for nine months. It will be a little disappointing for them as individuals, because when you’re part of a team you run away look to the skies and you want to be among your mates with a bottle of champagne in your hand, or two bottles!”
Souness will be back on our screens from this weekend, as part of Sky’s coverage of the Premier League’s sprint finish. Watching his old side finally win the title isn’t the only thing he’s looking forward to.
“I’m looking forward to watching football. I didn’t think I’d miss it that first. In the first couple of weeks there was a novelty – if that’s what you’d call it – and the drama and sadness of the situation grabs your focus. But certainly, after three or four weeks. I was really missing the football.”
Like the rest of us, Souness watched a few reruns during the lockdown, some of which were games in which he played, like the 1984 European Cup final against Roma. That game took place in Rome – Liverpool won on penalties – and, 36 years on, Souness picks out one man’s performance.
“Mark Lawrenson was the outstanding defender of the day. Alan Hansen was silky and he caught the eye because he was so good on the ball, but for an out-and-out defender, Lawrenson was as good as anyone. Put it this way, I would say Mark Lawrenson would get in any Premier League team today.”
There is praise, too, for another ex-Irish international, albeit an opponent rather than a team-mate.
“There are three players I never laid a finger on in my career. You know, in those days that was part of my job because I was big for a midfield player. One was Zico – too cute. Another one was Alan Ball, and I’ve got to throw Johnny Giles in there. I caught [Billy] Bremner a few times, but could never lay a finger on Johnny.”
Graeme Souness is a Sky Sports analyst. Sky Sports will show 64 matches – 39 exclusive to subscribers and an extra 25 available more widely on Sky One. Premier League action returns with a double-header on 17 June.
