Graeme Souness speaks about what he regrets most from his time as Liverpool manager

"My biggest crime was trying to make the changes too quickly."

Graeme Souness has been speaking about his time as Liverpool manager. Souness was a guest on Monday Night Football and he revealed that he still has regrets about his time as manager at Anfield. Long before he was a fierce critic of Paul Pogba, Souness was one of the best midfielders in the world with Liverpool in late 1970s and early 80s. He helped them win five league titles, three League Cups and three European Cups. After a move to Italy, Souness started his managerial career with Rangers. He achieved great success with the Glasgow club and was tempted back to Liverpool in 1991. However, Souness' appointment as manager coincided with the club slipping from their spot as English football's dominant force. He resigned in January 1994 after a tumultuous and controversial spell. Souness sold several established players and bought underwhelming replacements. He had a heart attack and conducted an interview with The Sun that was published on the third anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. By the time Souness left Anfield, he had fallen out with some of his players and alienated many Liverpool fans. Manchester United had also taken Liverpool's place on the perch of English football. Liverpool only won the FA Cup during his time as manager. Almost 25 years later, Souness still harbours regrets about his spell as Liverpool manager, and he spoke about some of the things that he got wrong. "I was offered the Liverpool job twice and said no twice, and then ultimately said yes," Souness said on Sky Sports.

"I thought I would go in there and change it. The one thing I learnt going to Italy was there's no real change in how the game should be played, but how players look after themselves. I was one of the chaps when it came to enjoying myself, and I tried to change that, and it was very easy when I went to Rangers to change that because that was a team that hadn't won the league in nine years. "I was saying 'this is what we are going to do and this is what we will do after the game'. At Rangers, they bought into it because they were young boys. So, then when I go to Liverpool and say, 'I don't want to see fish and chips after the game and I don't want to see lager under the seats on the bus for the way back'. "The response you would get would be, 'we have always done that'. It was very hard for me to argue that because I had been part of that culture. I made many mistakes and my biggest crime was trying to make the changes too quickly."

Souness also spoke about how he managed to alienate some senior players. The former Newcastle United and Blackburn Rovers manager was given the responsibility to handle players' contracts and it completely backfired. "I remember one incident where we signed Dean Saunders and Mark Wright and they had gone on to earn slightly more than Rushy [Ian Rush] and Ronnie Whelan," he said.

"I remember Rushy knocking on the door and saying 'you're going to have to give me more money' and I said, 'I understand why you are saying that but the money is sneaking up and sneaking up. They have come on big transfer fees and that's why they are getting paid more than you'. But he said, 'everything I done for this club…' "That might have been a Wednesday or Thursday and I was saying to Rushy 'sorry I can't, that's the way it is' and then on Saturday at 2.45pm I have to put my arm around him and say 'make sure you give me everything now'. That was an obvious mistake I made in agreeing to do that."

While he went on to manage another six clubs, in four different countries, Souness said that he is still "hurt" by his experience as Liverpool manager.

"There are things that happened there when I was manager which I deeply regret but I can't turn back the clock, how I wish I could, but I can't, and that hurts me badly, that I am perceived by some people to be something I'm not."

You can watch him here: https://twitter.com/SkySportsMNF/status/1054664926533468161 https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1054642842629558272