Monday, September 06, 2004

if you wanna fight we can go to the car park

Graeme Souness has just resigned as manager of Blackburn Rovers and will take over at Newcastle after a week's gardening leave (because the two clubs play each-other on Saturday). I don't think it's a bad appointment at all, although if I were a Utd fan I'd probably just about prefer Steve Bruce. But on the other hand, if my club had players like Dyer, Bellamy, Kluivert etc I'd probably want the firmest possible hand in charge, and one can accuse Souness of many things but being a light touch is not one of them.

His buying record is patchy, with a habit of paying over the odds (Ferguson, Emerton, Reid etc) but occasionally he spots a real bargain (700k for Dickov is a steal, and Jon Stead was a shrewd and brilliant transfer). At Newcastle he won't be buying too many players I don't expect - a centre back aside - so he can concentrate on making the side a bit more rugged. I hope he does well.

In the meantime, for those pleased to see a rare foray into football blogging, I should direct you over to Black and White and Read all Over, where Ben from Silent Words Speaks Loudest will doubtless shortly have something to say, it being his Newcastle United blog.

1 comment:

Ben said...

Cheers for the linkage! I'm feeling slightly better and more optimistic about Souness's appointment now, three days after the announcement. I think much of the initial negativity was down to the shock factor, but what is pretty clear is that it could have been worse.

As for his record on signings, I think Ferguson was far too expensive, and anyone who buys Amoruso thinking he's going to shore up a slack defence needs their head examining. BUT you're right that Stead looks a snip, and I really rate Emerton - he just underperformed in a struggling team last season. At Newcastle, Souness's priority has to be getting in one or preferably two decent central defenders in the January transfer window, otherwise we can kiss goodbye to European football for next season.