Off The Ball Souness Episode

Another classic cover

If ever a front cover of my fanzine Off The Ball could be considered ‘iconic’ then this is it - Graeme Souness superimposed on Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ LP cover.

All credit for this - if memory serves me correctly - should go to one of my collaborators on the mag Steve Beauchampe, who had the initial idea, then followed through by persuading someone in what passed for the art department at our printers to mock it up.

This must be a rare misprint (oooh, valuable!) because I think most copies had the work ‘Bad’ splashed across the cover as per the record sleeve.

Was Steve saying that Souness was ‘bad’? Surely not. The guy was a notoriously tough (ie occasionally dirty) competitor but a genius with a football.

For me there was always a surreal quality to the image (Souness in leathers???) and it certainly got us noticed. There was even a write up in the NME cementing the then burgeoning indie music/football crossover.

Adrian Goldberg is currently working on his book ‘Where’s The Money Gone? One Fan’s Football Finance Odyssey