The impression I always got with Souness is he gives it to players straight. That's a management style that just doesn't work in the modern game with the ego of players often now in their early 20s earning £100,000+ per week (and often several times more than the manager). And because of the financial swing towards players, they also know that they can gang together and force a manager out if he isn't nice enough to them.
Some players, Friedel, Tugay, Flitcroft, Martin Taylor, Dickov you could tell loved Souness and he got the best out of them in their whole careers. Others, Dunn, Yorke, Cole etc didn't. Hate to say it but I do think the latter group were more the prima-donnas.