After finishing his Liverpool playing career Souness moved to Italy in 1984, but he soon returned home to his native Scotland when the chance to manage Glasgow Rangers presented itself.  Appointed player / coach he guided Rangers to the Scottish Championship.

After the shock resignation of Kenny Dalglish in February 1991 Graeme Souness seemed the perfect choice to lead Liverpool to further glory, and he duly set about the task of building a new Liverpool team in April 1991.

Sadly for Souness and the club his era as manager has been remembered more for mistakes in the transfer market and ill-judged media representation, rather than any successes on the pitch. 

Upon reflection it should be noted that Souness did deliver some success on the pitch, as the FA Cup success in 1992 confirms.  It should also be remembered that just days before the FA Cup triumph he was in hospital having life saving heart surgery.

Unfortunately for Souness the victory was marred by a piece of poorly time publicity in the Sun newspaper.  The newspaper ran pictures of Souness and his future bride in the Wednesday edition of the paper.  Sadly that Wednesday happened to be the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.  Many Liverpool fans still hated the Sun newspaper for the way they reported the tragedy and their unfounded attacks on Liverpool fans behaviour during and after the event. 

The pictures of Souness in the paper angered many fans who assumed Souness had worked with the paper to create the story.  In actual fact Souness was lying on an operating table at the time.  Also, the story should have aired a day earlier, but because the FA Cup final went to penalties the editing deadline was missed, pushing the story back 24 hours.

In an interview with the BBC in 1999 Souness admitted to making mistakes concerning the story and the choice of newspaper, suggesting he should have resigned in the wake of the incident.  Had he offered his resignation at the time, it is unlikely the club would have stopped him.

Following the FA Cup triumph in 1992 performances on the pitch also deteriorated.  Faced with what he described as an alarming change of mood in the changing room amongst the Liverpool players, many of whom no longer seemed interested in giving their all for the club, Souness opted to sell many of the first team squad, hoping to remove the trouble makers and replace them with players hungry for success.  Unfortunately for Souness many of his new signings were not of the standard expected by Liverpool or the fans.

With many fans still against him and his players failing to live up to expectations, the pressure on Souness mounted, eventually bringing about his resignation in January 1994.

With hindsight it has become clear that in many respects Graeme Souness was a victim of circumstance.  Yes his failings in the transfer market are clear for all to see, but the incident with the Sun newspaper was not all his own making, nor was he wholly responsible for the changing attitude amongst the players.  As a player Souness was an awesome captain who gave his all for the club.  Hopefully in time Liverpool fans will accept his short comings as a manager and thank him for the FA Cup success that he brought.