Graeme Souness Quotes

A lot of these teams really forget that part of success comes with having veteran leadership. You see a lot of teams forget that and start letting go of these old veterans. They don't realize how important it is to have a veteran voice in your locker room or on the bench. It's important to have guys who have been there before.

I think any time you bring those guys in, one with a lot of playoff experience, with rings - those guys won - guys in the locker room gravitate towards those guys. Those guys have been there, so there's a lot that they can teach the guys.

I wish there were people when I was young that I had a respect for and looked up to that I could have been guided by. I didn't have that, and I really do wish I did because I think I would've learned a lot more.

I do think there is a responsibility for myself as being a senior professional footballer to be able to pass on my experiences to the younger generation.

I've always said, other than my dad, coaches had the greatest impact on me.

It's really important to have role models, and a lot of the ancients always talked about this. Seneca talked about this, Aristotle talked about this, and in fact, this was my boxing coach's philosophy in college, was that you have to have role models.

There were some great veterans who I learned so much from and who helped make me the best I could be as a player.

The outstanding coach is a teacher that gets all his squad to accept the role that he considers to be the most important for the welfare of all.

You know over 20 years I played for a number of managers and dozens of coaches. I don't know any of them that I didn't learn something from to help make me a better player.

There's natural mentoring that goes on in my life every day.

I've always been one of the youngest guys on the team. But now I'm one of the older guys, one of the more experienced guys, and I have to be more of a leader. The guys are looking up to me, asking me questions and looking at me to step up.

Every kid needs a mentor. Everybody needs a mentor.

Mike Matheny, Fernando Vina, Edgar Renteria, Mark McGwire and Darryl Kile... before he died. Those guys took me under their wing and taught me the way to play the game the right way.

He knew I enjoyed the relationships of college basketball. All along, he was the wise one.

Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example.

The biggest difference is in the leadership. It was better for us. We had more coaches and mentors to help us. A lot of the younger players today suffer from a lack of direction.

My role models in the business were the older guys on my team when I first got there: Gray Scott, Adrian Smith, Roland Taylor. These were the guys who took me under their wing, and really schooled me in terms of what the business was about.

The three greatest people in my life were white, OK. My high school coach, my high school superintendent and my mentor in Manhasset, Long Island.

People want to see how we get teams to come together so quickly. They want to see how we get young guys to play so hard and so unselfish. I'm fine with that. I have no problem sharing that.

Having the team with leaders - John Terry is one, Gareth Barry is a leader - is very, very important. These players helped me a lot.

It's always great for a young guy to have those examples, even though you may not follow 'em right away, it's great to have those guys in the locker room that you could look up to and see the right way to go about your business.

It is important to watch and learn from the seniors in the team.

Me being a veteran presence, I want to see all my guys be successful.

I think most young players who take off from the start are usually put in a situation where they are surrounded by good, veteran players.

This is something that I think has been going on for before I played football - just kind of guys sitting down with some of the younger guys to prepare them for what they'll be faced with.