EXCLUSIVE: Graeme Souness has one major regret about sealing his return to Liverpool in 1991 after turning around Rangers' fortunes in his first managerial job

Graeme Souness has opened up on his biggest regret from his time as Liverpool manager, admitting he should have taken a year out instead of returning to Anfield during a deeply difficult period for the club and city.

Souness established himself as one of the finest midfielders of his generation during a glittering six-year spell at Liverpool, winning five league titles, three European Cups, and four League Cups after arriving from Middlesbrough in 1978.

Renowned for his combative style, leadership, and technical quality, he captained the Reds before departing for Italian side Sampdoria in 1984. Two years later, he returned to British football in a new role, taking charge of Rangers as the club's first player-manager in April 1986.

Aged just 33, Souness helped transform the Ibrox outfit, leading them to three Scottish league titles and four League Cup triumphs before Liverpool came calling again in 1991, following Kenny Dalglish's resignation.

“I got offered a Liverpool job because Kenny had resigned. Twice I said no to it. And that really would have been the only job I'd take and leave Rangers,” Souness told Liverpool.com ahead of the release of his new book, ‘My Rangers: How I Changed Scottish Football For Ever.’

But it was a string of incidents in Scotland that eventually persuaded Souness to move on to pastures new. A lengthy touchline ban and the infamous incident with St. Johnstone’s “Tea Lady” saw Souness strike a deal to seal his return to Liverpool at the third time of asking.

“I had been banned from the touchline for two years for nothing in Scotland. Second ban,” Souness continued. I just felt I'd become the story up there. It was all about me. And they were getting headlines out of me, which wasn't doing the club any favors.

“And then the last thing that sort of broke the camel's back was me getting involved for the second time with a tea lady up in Perth with St. Johnstone. And I just said, ‘I don't need this.’ And then I phoned Liverpool and said, ‘OK, I'll come and talk to you.’”

However, Souness’ return to Anfield proved a far more difficult chapter in his career, with the former midfielder now admitting he should have taken a year out rather than step into the Liverpool hot seat.

“That was a mistake. Liverpool was in a difficult situation at that time. It was post-Hillsborough, not the city, not the football club. The whole city was in mourning. And that lasted years. So it was a difficult time.”

Souness did pick up silverware in his time in charge at Liverpool. He guided the Reds to the 1991/92 FA Cup with a 2-0 win over Sunderland in the final. But in the end, Souness regretted not taking a year out to watch his partner, Walter Smith, take charge.

“What I should have done is what David Murray suggested I do, which was to take a year out. Let Walter get on with it. And I just sit in the director's box and enjoy the fruits of my labor.”

Souness watched as Smith led Rangers to seven consecutive league titles, among other accolades. For Smith’s first few seasons post-Souness, it was a squad still molded alongside the Scottish Great.

“Delighted, because for the first three years, it was still my team,” Souness said when asked how he felt watching Rangers continue their success after his exit. “It was still the players. I never saw it as Walter and I.

“It was us. We were a team. We did everything. We shared our secrets. We were a formidable team. That's how I saw us. Rangers doing well after me delighted me. And Rangers, if they were to do well this year, would delight me.”

Souness helped change the trajectory of Rangers from Day 1. From the facilities, routine, mentality, and the quality of players signed. Before his 1991 exit, Souness had managed to attract top names to Ibrox, headlined by then-Three Lions captain Terry Butcher.

At that period of time, Souness says Rangers were an equal to England’s elite clubs. Rangers were able to compete financially, particularly following the five-year ban on English clubs from European competition after the Heysel Stadium disaster in Brussels in 1985.

“We were signing big players. We had four or five of the English national team,” Souness recalled. “We had a proper team at that time. History had been kind to us because of our circumstances. Post-Heysel, where the English teams were banned from Europe.

“We had the budgets. We outbid Man Utd and Tottenham for Terry Butcher. We were an equal. Rangers were an equal to the big clubs in England. But how that pitch has changed is because of television money. It's now a very different game in England from the one in Scotland.”

Souness also wasn’t shy to poke his head above the trench line when acquiring Mo Johnston despite Rangers’ staunch unwritten policy on signing Catholics. Johnston had also played for fierce rivals Celtic before his stint in France with Nantes, then landed at Ibrox in 1989.

Souness’ bold move paid off, as Johnston would go on to score 46 goals in 100 games for Rangers on their way to two league titles. “I think it was the third question at the very first press conference in the Blue Room at Ibrox. I was asked, ‘Would you sign a Catholic player?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I would,’” Souness said. “Quite simply, I'm married to a Catholic. I have children christened Catholic. So yes, I would.”

“Maurice Johnson was playing at Nantes at the time. I hadn't given him a thought. He had come back on a break in French football,” Souness continued.

“He'd been photographed with Billy McNeil in a Celtic shirt held up in front of him. And the headline in the evening paper in Glasgow was ‘A boy who was coming back.’ And we managed to hijack that.

“I saw his agent. I bumped into him a week later. And I said to him, ‘If you'd let me know, it would have been interesting taking Maurice.’ And one thing led to another. And I flew out to a suburb of Paris, because we had to be careful getting on planes out in Glasgow. I went from Edinburgh to London, to London to Paris, to try to put anyone off the scent.

“And I met him, and he said yes. And then we managed somehow, because Glasgow is a footballing city. West of Scotland is a footballing area.

“We managed to keep it quiet. And he was just fabulous for us. In terms of what he gave me on the pitch, I couldn't have asked for more. What he gave me off the pitch, I couldn't have asked for more.

“He was just an absolute warrior. He had the courage to make that move. And anyway, he came to us because he saw the direction of travel.”

'My fire had gone out'

Souness' managerial career extended all the way to 2006 - 12 years after leaving Liverpool in 1994. He managed Galatasaray, Southampton, Torino, Benfica, and Blackburn before his final job with Newcastle.

Souness admitted that by the time he left Newcastle, the fire in his belly to carry on in management had flickered its last flame. "You know, I get disappointed when people don't show the same attitude to not winning football matches," Souness said.

"And that's why ultimately, you know, I chucked it at 52, I think I was. I started young, at 33. Managed for 880 games, I think. But by the age, my fire had gone out by 53, 52.

"I was frustrated because I couldn't understand why people weren't feeling the pain I was feeling. And we lost the game."