When Graeme Souness is generally mentioned in conversation now, it’s arguably because of his punditry, for which he has become an acquired taste thanks to a polarising opinion.
So to be compared to three of the best managers in the game today isn’t necessarily a regular occurrence, however, that’s exactly what happened thanks to his former Liverpool team-mate, Ian Rush.
Rush was the goalscorer supreme in the Liverpool sides of the early 1980s, a team which was driven on by midfield general, Souness.
The Scot also became the striker’s manager in the early 1990s during Rush’s third spell at the club.
“He won the league easily at Rangers and came down thinking maybe he can do the same (at Liverpool). But he changed things too quickly, simple as that,” Rush said on talkSPORT’s ‘Up Front With’ series, cited by talkSPORT.
”He lost the young players and the old ones by changing things too quickly. What he did have was the right ideas.
”If Graeme Souness was manager of a team now, he’d be up there with the likes of Klopp, Guardiola and Mourinho because I think he knows he’d made mistakes.
“He’d be an absolutely incredible manager if he was managing now.”
Whilst there’s little doubt that Souness has made an imprint on English football, both on and off the pitch, it’s a bit of a stretch to put him in the same bracket as a trio of managers who are redefining the way the game is played.
The Premier League has been much the richer for the wave of continental coaches that have been brought in, and for all of his plus points, Souness is old school.
A misguided, albeit a glowing reference, does neither Rush, nor Souness, any favours.