What is Souness like?

Here three sports reporters who have covered his career as a player and manager give an insight into the man and suggest a little of what Wolves fans could expect if the proposed takeover goes through.

* Heart problem 'humbled him'

Andy Neild, Blackburn Rovers correspondent for the Lancashire Evening Telegraph"I found him a dream to deal with and he'd always return calls.

"He's a different character to the one he was at Liverpool - his heart problem made him more humble.

"As for his managerial style, I think it has a shelf life. He comes in and bangs a few heads together and for a while that motivates players.

"After a while, players fall out with him and it can become a problem.

"But for the first three years at Blackburn, he was excellent, taking the club from the lower reaches of the First Division into the Premiership, where they finished 10th in his first season and won the Worthington Cup, and sixth in his second.

"Half the current team are Souness signings and two of them - Brad Friedel, a free transfer from Liverpool, and Tugay - are the club's most popular players.

"I think he could be a chairman because of his desire - he's made millions and eventually wants to live in Australia - but the one thing you can't doubt is his passion and commitment.

"He revolutionised Scottish football in the way he attracted English players there."

Ken Rogers, former sports editor of the Liverpool Echo

"Ask anyone in Liverpool who was the club's greatest player of all time and Graeme Souness's name will be right up there.

"As a manager, he came to Liverpool at a time of transition really but he was a tremendously forceful character and always ready to give his opinion.

"He doesn't hide behind anything and he gave 100 per cent.

"People still have a tremendous amount of respect for him here.

"As a journalist, I always found him very open and always prepared to answer the phone on a daily basis and give an honest and straightforward opinion.

"The one thing he did do - like he did at Rangers - was change the face of the club.

"When he came here, everything was still done the "Shankly way": the players arrived at Anfield, got changed and got on a bus to the training ground before training and coming back on the bus.

"He wasn't afraid to change tried and trusted methods and he tried to take the club to the next level. It was him who decided to change the training ground."

Graham Hiley (former football correspondent of the Southampton Evening Echo)

"I was actually very surprised because I suppose, like a lot of people, I had this image in my head of a real fiery Scotsman.

"He was a real hardman as a player so I approached him with quite a lot of trepidation and I was surprised in the end with how well we got on and how relaxed he was.

"We had one run-in which was actually down to a breakdown in communications more than anything else, and he got a bit upset with me over that.

"But in the end he just said 'it's happened, let's move on' and we did.

"He was always smartly turned out, he always looked the part and he always knew how to present and conduct himself.

"There was always a real presence about him but we always got on pretty well."