Friday, March 20, 2009

Graeme Souness, F-Bomb dropper extraordinaire

Graeme Souness, who last managed at Newcastle in 2006, has been taking in a different level of football lately. His son, James, plays Under 10 football for Hale in the Stockport Metro League. Souness apparently attends the matches and, when something does not sit well with him, will offer constructive advice on how to deal with it. Either that, or he swears up a blue streak.

In a recent match against Bramhall North, James was involved in a little incident with an opposing player. According to the report, James was kicked out at by the Bramhall player. The referee saw it but, being a meek bugger, did nothing. Neither did the Bramhall manager, so Souness took it upon himself to instruct the manager on the finer points of running a team.

Souness took off to the bench area--walking across the pitch--and asked, not so politely, who the coach was. Souness then let him have it. According to the article, Souness told him "If you think this is the way to teach kids to play, you’ve no f***ing chance." For those of you worried about the delicate sensibilities of the nine-year-olds involved, Souness did apologize, but only because he saw a woman was present.

Souness did defend his actions, and even repeated some of the colorful language. In his own words:

My son took the ball off a kid and the kid lashed out. I waited 90 seconds for the coach to take the lad off — but nothing happened. I said to him, 'What the f*** are you teaching kids?'
So there.

You know what I think? I think this Respect campaign has gone too far. In the article, the ref says that he should have sent the kid off, but didn't. Well, why not? If not for the Respect campaign, Souness could have rightly blown his top at the ref, instead of feeling the need to assuage the ref's feelings and taking on the opposing coach instead. Stupid FA. Stupid campaign.

2 comments:

Nathaniel said...

Free mustache rides!

EbullientFatalist said...

What the fuck are you teaching kids?

A Southampton supporter should've asked Souness a similar question after the Ali Dia fiasco.