Sir Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish

[Colt Seavers]

https://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/announcements/392860-a-message-from-sir-kenny-dalglish

 

Absolute Legend

[Tony Moanero]

[Captain]

Great to find out that he's back home again!

[suzy]

Just seen Graeme Souness on sky talking to Kelley Cates. He said he phoned Kenny several times while he was in hospital but he knew he would be fine. He shared a room with Kenny for 10years and reckoned they must have had about two hundred arguments over the years and he (Souness) never won any!

I was doing several things at the time but every time I looked at the TV he seemed to be telling funny stories about the ‘old days’

[lifetime fan]

On ‎15‎/‎04‎/‎2020 at 11:07, suzy said:

Just seen Graeme Souness on sky talking to Kelley Cates. He said he phoned Kenny several times while he was in hospital but he knew he would be fine. He shared a room with Kenny for 10years and reckoned they must have had about two hundred arguments over the years and he (Souness) never won any!

I was doing several things at the time but every time I looked at the TV he seemed to be telling funny stories about the ‘old days’

 

Can't remember which programme it was, might have been the Hugh McIlvanney narrated one, but there were a load of old players talking about how not only the trophies they won but how brilliant it was playing for Liverpool because of the fun they had.

 

At the end Souness said something like 'what I'd do to go back there once more' and the grin on his face was like a kid getting his first ever footy kit.

[lifetime fan]

 

You couldn't pick a greater voice to pay tribute to such a great side.

[Reckoner]

On 15/04/2020 at 11:07, suzy said:

Just seen Graeme Souness on sky talking to Kelley Cates. He said he phoned Kenny several times while he was in hospital but he knew he would be fine. He shared a room with Kenny for 10years and reckoned they must have had about two hundred arguments over the years and he (Souness) never won any!

I was doing several things at the time but every time I looked at the TV he seemed to be telling funny stories about the ‘old days’

Reminded me of this article in the independent 

FRIDAY 17 APRIL 2020

Sport / 

Football

Why there is far more to Souness’s criticism of Pogba than first meets the eye

Former Liverpool captain has repeatedly targeted the Frenchman

 (Getty)

 

Why would Graeme Souness care about Paul Pogba? The 66-year-old has participated in many feuds in his long career as a player, manager and pundit. This feels like the most pointless of them all.

The knee-jerk explanation is that Souness is a bitter, anachronistic ex-pro taking out his aging frustrations on the Manchester United midfielder. Pogba’s lifestyle, workrate and approach to the game appear to irritate the former Liverpool captain. Yet it is simplistic to blame a ‘it-wasn’t-like-this-in-my-day’ mindset for the criticism.

The roots of the antipathy are not just in Souness’s combative nature. They probably go back to his days as a player. He was taught to operate at the highest standards at Anfield and was expected to play a part in maintaining that level of excellence if his team-mates were not up to scratch. High expectations have characterised every step of his career, sometimes to a negative effect.

Souness is no hypocrite. The man whose nickname at Liverpool was ‘Champagne Charlie’ is hardly likely to point the finger at anyone for their off-field behaviour. “I was a wee bit flash,” he said, discussing the situation last summer. “The way I dressed and the cars I drove. I learnt at Liverpool there was a time to enjoy yourself, a time to work.

“I don’t think Pogba’s lifestyle is a problem.”

Pogba has been repeatedly criticised by Souness (Getty)

The Frenchman’s social-media antics are tame in comparison with the way players acted four decades ago. Drink-fuelled binges were regarded as team building exercises. Bob Paisley and his assistants at Liverpool encouraged a boozing culture. The backroom staff took a vicarious pleasure in the players’ sometimes riotous activities but would erupt in a rage if it emerged that any of the squad had dared to participate in a round of golf. Alcohol was acceptable but an afternoon on the links was believed by Bill Shankly to cause injuries and tiredness. The Scot’s successors continued the anti-golf policy while encouraging roistering. Pogba’s downtime is tame when contrasted with Champagne Charlie’s regular excursions into Merseyside’s nightlife.

Only one thing mattered for Liverpool. “Everyone turned up for work,” Souness said. Hangovers were never a problem at Melwood as long as players put in the effort. “It was self-governing,” he continued. “We were treated like men and expected to act like men. The staff knew everything we were up to but didn’t care as long as we did the business on the pitch.”

Souness joined Liverpool in 1978 and three years later was appointed captain. By then he was, along with Kenny Dalglish and Alan Hansen, part of an influential trio that controlled the team. The environment was brutal. Any perceived shirkers were told in savage terms to up their game. Much of the time Paisley and his lieutenants let peer pressure do their work for them. Underperformers got a tongue-lashing from team-mates. “The dressing-room was harsh,” Souness admits.

Craig Johnston, the Australian midfielder, described what it was like to be part of the team. “The Scots set the tone,” he said. “They decided who and what was funny, who played well, who played badly. They were like strict schoolmasters even though they were playing. They understood how you had to behave if you were a group of men who wanted to win things.

“If you were tired, not contributing or slacking, they didn’t want to know you. They kept the rest of the team professional. They were savage about getting the job done in the most direct way.”

It was one thing not being good enough but those who had the talent to excel and failed to live up to their ability soon found themselves outcasts. Souness took this attitude into management and then punditry. Pogba’s prodigious abilities and largely underwhelming performances at Old Trafford have turned him into a regular target.

Liverpool's strict Scots: Hansen (left), Dalglish (centre) and Souness (right) (Getty)

“He has got exceptional physical attributes,” Souness said. When the three-time European Cup winner talks about the 27-year-old there is exasperation in his voice. There is a sense that he wants Pogba to be better. He suspects that no one at Carrington can exert the sort of influence that the Scots at Anfield had on their team-mates.

“United made a mistake getting rid of [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic when they did,” he said. “Players listen to him. He was a big influence on everyone around him.” No one else at Old Trafford has the status to hold Pogba to account.

The growing distance between players and the public does not help either. “I actually lived in Liverpool,” Souness said. “People weren’t slow to give an opinion if things weren’t going well. It was fine if you were successful. Modern players don’t get a chance to mix with the people of the city. They are protected by agents and press officers.”

The spat with Pogba has gone on too long and taken on a life of its own. The quickest way for the United midfielder to silence his biggest critic would be to produce more dominant performances. Souness would probably enjoy that. This sort of feud is not very satisfying. It’s just words. Action, after all, is what really matters.

Want your views to be included in The Independent Daily Edition letters page? Email us by tapping here letters@independent.co.uk. Please include your address

[Bjornebye]

He is racist according to GOT 

[easytoslip]

4 hours ago, lifetime fan said:

 

You couldn't pick a greater voice to pay tribute to such a great side.

Enjoyed that. 

[suzy]

4 hours ago, lifetime fan said:

 

Can't remember which programme it was, might have been the Hugh McIlvanney narrated one, but there were a load of old players talking about how not only the trophies they won but how brilliant it was playing for Liverpool because of the fun they had.

 

At the end Souness said something like 'what I'd do to go back there once more' and the grin on his face was like a kid getting his first ever footy kit.

Yes despite all the criticism he often gets he clearly shows his love for Liverpool.

[Chip Butty]

These will always be my favourite Kenny pictures, not in a Liverpool kit, not even in a Scotland kit, but in an Argentinian kit circa 1977 after a friendly for Scotland v's Argentina in Buenos Aires. He looks like the coolest man alive. And he is.

 

 

 

The wider image

 

[deiseach]

 

[SlugTrail]

19 minutes ago, deiseach said:

 

Imagine the wank fest if Messi or Ronaldo had done that.

[easytoslip]

1 hour ago, deiseach said:

 

Great that. 

[Beno]

When We Were Kings programme where Kenny and Souness are just sitting in the new Main Stand lounge talking about the old days is a great watch. 

[Tony Moanero]

Dalglish > Suarez

[Tony Moanero]

[KMD7]

1 hour ago, Tony Moanero said:

Dalglish > Everyone

 

[DalyanPete]

Never ever ever, left the ground without a smile on my face whenever I saw him play.

Had a signed original painting of him up behind the bar when we had a boozer near Anfield, used to piss the shite off.

To be fair and neutral, never had a shite one up!

[deiseach]

The more I look at that clip...how do you defend against that? 

[suzy]

Anyone who’s got Sky- Kenny is on now talking about when Blackburn won the league.

 

Highlights of the show repeated 4-5pm today.

[YorkshireRed]

I remember the day he scored the winner at Chelsea to secure the first leg of the double.

 

Celebrated by taking my Liverpool scarf for a walk around the area close to my childhood home. 
 

My victory tea was sausages, marrowfat peas and bread and butter.

 

Every title since has been marked in the same way. Scarf is hanging in the hall and there’s two tins of marrowfats in the cupboard just waiting for no.19 to be confirmed.
 

 

[Tony Moanero]

 

[Tony Moanero]

 

[Bjornebye]

1 hour ago, YorkshireRed said:

I remember the day he scored the winner at Chelsea to secure the first leg of the double.

 

Celebrated by taking my Liverpool scarf for a walk around the area close to my childhood home. 
 

My victory tea was sausages, marrowfat peas and bread and butter.

 

Every title since has been marked in the same way. Scarf is hanging in the hall and there’s two tins of marrowfats in the cupboard just waiting for no.19 to be confirmed.
 

 

You'll open them and Milli Vanilli will jump out and start running round the kitchen