Graeme Sourness | Retires from “punditry”

Wibble

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Souness has always been a twat especially when United or former United players are concerned. Why would anything change? At least Keane just hates everyone ;)
 

Tyrion

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At least he's picked a suitable outlet to express his bigotry.
Souness is weird. He often seems dismissive of anything foreign and outside of "our league". When De Zerbi first went to Brighton, Souness moaned that he probably just googled Brighton which was a problem for Souness for some reason. He's a funny pundit because he's a cranky old guy who was an outdated dinosaur before some current players were born. He rarely says anything actually interesting or informative.

I was hoping that "retires from punditry" meant that I wouldn't have to endure his bitter, ABU opinions ever again. Kindly feck off.
I don't think he actually retired. I think Sky just pushed him out.
 

Withnail

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Still can't leave poor Pogba alone.

To be fair he's being asked about it directly and he's not wrong about a lot of that apart from the Ronaldo stuff.

He's not at all taking into account that Ronaldo couldn't give two shits about instilling professionalism. If he isn't playing and scoring goals he doesn't want to know. There was no way Graeme's conversation would have made things turn out differently.
 

Oranges038

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To be fair he's being asked about it directly and he's not wrong about a lot of that apart from the Ronaldo stuff.

He's not at all taking into account that Ronaldo couldn't give two shits about instilling professionalism. If he isn't playing and scoring goals he doesn't want to know. There was no way Graeme's conversation would have made things turn out differently.
Yeah, I don't think he's wrong about Pogba. Best said himself that winning the European cup was the turning point for him, football was never going to get any better. I'd say Pogba and the WC is a similar scenario.
 

Jeppers7

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You’re winning in life if winning the World Cup is the worst thing that happened to you.
 

JogaBonitoRooney

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Yeah, I don't think he's wrong about Pogba. Best said himself that winning the European cup was the turning point for him, football was never going to get any better. I'd say Pogba and the WC is a similar scenario.
Not really. I don't think that excuse works on Pogba. Pinnacle is winning World Cup, CL, Euro, a league title, Ballon D'or. If you're playing for teams where you can win all that then there's always something to aim for. Ballon D'or is too much of a ask for him since he's a midfielder and it's Messi Ronaldo era but the others should have been achievable. Pogba's club career and overall career won't go down so well.

Even though Pogba was good in the world cup, reflecting back on it he just looks like a guy who was lucky to be a part of a strong NT team.

The excuse is more understandable for Best who won everything except NT trophies but that was never realistic for him.
 
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Samid

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Please forgive us Graeme, we were not familiar with your game.
 

The Mitcher

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He's got a great rearview mirror
He criticised pogba at the time. None of this is due to hindsight, go through this thread and see all the fanboys libelling Souness as a racist for criticising Pogba during his tenure. Note they are now way more silent now that criticism turned out to be true.
 

Fridge chutney

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He criticised pogba at the time. None of this is due to hindsight, go through this thread and see all the fanboys libelling Souness as a racist for criticising Pogba during his tenure. Note they are now way more silent now that criticism turned out to be true.
I don't remember his past criticisms but i do remember disagreeing with many of them. He is frequently wrong so i am not surprised that he is jumping on this particularly hateful bandwagon waving his pathetic little flag of triumph.
 

FrankDrebin

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He criticised Pogba's off the ball work ethic, which I tended to agree with, and the fact he took too many touches/ would dither on the ball but outside of that his criticism did become gradually more aggressive.
 

Fridge chutney

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There is nothing hateful about saying Pogba lacked the work ethic to maximise his talent.
There is so much vitriol towards Pogba in general. I find it quite sad. And Souness definitely straddled a hateful line during this many years of observations about Pogba.
 

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Souness was spot on. Totally agreed with him back then. Totally agree with him now.
 

The Mitcher

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There is so much vitriol towards Pogba in general. I find it quite sad. And Souness definitely straddled a hateful line during this many years of observations about Pogba.
He deserved it for being a lazy player who never cared. Notice how things only got worse after he left United and he's ended his career by getting caught taking PEDs.
 

Gabriel Djemba-Bebe

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He criticised pogba at the time. None of this is due to hindsight, go through this thread and see all the fanboys libelling Souness as a racist for criticising Pogba during his tenure. Note they are now way more silent now that criticism turned out to be true.
If I remember correctly, the racism suspicions started after that 3-2 comeback vs City where the only praise Souness could bring himself to give Pogba was "athleticism" rather than acknowledging that he was one of the most skilful players in the league. He was also quick to say Moise Kean had an attitude problem a few weeks after he signed for Everton, which seemed a bit strange to jump on the kid like that.

For the record - I was never a 'Pogba fanboy'. However I do think Souness was a dickhead of a pundit.
 

The Mitcher

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If I remember correctly, the racism suspicions started after that 3-2 comeback vs City where the only praise Souness could bring himself to give Pogba was "athleticism" rather than acknowledging that he was one of the most skilful players in the league. He was also quick to say Moise Kean had an attitude problem a few weeks after he signed for Everton, which seemed a bit strange to jump on the kid like that.

For the record - I was never a 'Pogba fanboy'. However I do think Souness was a dickhead of a pundit.
So just based on nothing other than words they associate with black players, not what Souness does. Also, where is Moise Keane now? He was also in his early 20s, not some 18 year old.
 

Jeppers7

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He criticised pogba at the time. None of this is due to hindsight, go through this thread and see all the fanboys libelling Souness as a racist for criticising Pogba during his tenure. Note they are now way more silent now that criticism turned out to be true.
How did his criticism, now turn out to be true? Did he say Pogba was taking drugs?

Pogba was way better back then than most gave him credit for, he was over criticised for ridiculous things like getting blocked off at a corner and considered to be a player he actually wasn’t due to his frame.

We’ve many players play much much worse than Pogba consistently, with lesser outputs, without getting a % of the criticism from the media in general, never mind Sourness.

Probably those who defended Pogba’s performances don’t see the correlation between performances years ago and his current situation?
 

The Mitcher

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How did his criticism, now turn out to be true? Did he say Pogba was taking drugs?

Pogba was way better back then than most gave him credit for, he was over criticised for ridiculous things like getting blocked off at a corner and considered to be a player he actually wasn’t due to his frame.

We’ve many players play much much worse than Pogba consistently, with lesser outputs, without getting a % of the criticism from the media in general, never mind Sourness.

Probably those who defended Pogba’s performances don’t see the correlation between performances years ago and his current situation?
Nonsense paragraph about the drugs as I never said he predicted that.

And well look at his time here and later on back woth Juventus. Really hard working and gave his all on holuday whilst supposedly injured...
 

Jeppers7

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Nonsense paragraph about the drugs as I never said he predicted that.

And well look at his time here and later on back woth Juventus. Really hard working and gave his all on holuday whilst supposedly injured...
So how does the current situation prove that he was right back then? The two are separate issues, probably why people aren’t ‘defending’ Pogba now. Only saddos who have always been far too emotive with Pogba are connecting things that don’t connect.
 

Fridge chutney

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He deserved it for being a lazy player who never cared. Notice how things only got worse after he left United and he's ended his career by getting caught taking PEDs.
I don't think he deserved it, and i also don't think Souness' criticisms were in good faith.
 

Fridge chutney

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How did his criticism, now turn out to be true? Did he say Pogba was taking drugs?

Pogba was way better back then than most gave him credit for, he was over criticised for ridiculous things like getting blocked off at a corner and considered to be a player he actually wasn’t due to his frame.

We’ve many players play much much worse than Pogba consistently, with lesser outputs, without getting a % of the criticism from the media in general, never mind Sourness.

Probably those who defended Pogba’s performances don’t see the correlation between performances years ago and his current situation?
Fully agree.
 

AndrewMac

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I've been watchng a few games from the early 80s on youtube at the moment. No matter what you think of him as a pundit he was a bloody brilliant player.

Think many of us have never seen him play. Personally i rank him as probably Liverpool's best ever player. The strength, engine, passing, will to win was extraordinary.