Souness Blamed For Rovers' Slump

By Matthew Jones
October 29 2004

Blackburn Rovers goalkeeper Brad Friedel blames Graeme Souness for his sides slump to the bottom of the Premiership.

Newcastle are unbeaten under Souness, but Friedel said:

"If you look at the [Blackburn] squad and compare it to two years ago, it is completely different.

"There have been a lot of changes and it is annoying because we had a squad a couple of years ago full of internationals.

"Then one summer we got rid of Hakan Sukur, Henning Berg, Martin Taylor, David Dunn, Damien Duff, John Curtis, Craig Hignett, Keith Gillespie and Alan Mahon. One fell swoop in a close season and all these players were gone.

"You'll have to ask the board or the previous management team why it happened. We just have to get on with it."