The football stadiums are empty and footballers are self-isolating in their mansions but there has been an ongoing match between two different generations – former Liverpool player Graeme Souness and Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba.
Graeme Souness, 66, was a football star who played for Premier League side Liverpool and Scotland club Rangers in the 1980s. After his retirement from active football, he went into coaching. He had coached Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle before he went into punditry.
The 66-year-old retired footballer is known to be one of the biggest critics of French international Paul Pogba. He uses every opportunity he has to hit the Manchester United midfielder really hard.
Souness once described Pogba as a “selfish” player adding that the French International always step on the football pitch to show the world “how cool he looks” and “how clever he is”.
Despite the fact that there are no live matches and almost nothing to analyse about football due to the coronavirus lockdown, Souness still had the opportunity to drag Pogba.
When he was having a Q&A section with Sunday Times, the former Liverpool coach said: “Pogba has absolutely everything to be a top player – great athleticism, super technique – but his attitude to the game is the polar opposite of mine… He’d be an absolute doddle to play against.”
Pogba who has been so quiet about the blows he has been getting from Souness was actually pushed to talk about it on Manchester United podcast.
The 27-year-old Frenchman said: “I didn’t even know who he (Souness) was, really.
“I heard he was a great player and stuff like that. I know the face, but [not] the name.
“I’m not someone who watches a lot of [punditry]. I watch a lot of football but I don’t stay after the game to listen to what they say about why they did this, or why they did that. I like to focus on football.”
The battle didn’t end there as Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher made Souness talk about Pogba’s hard response on ‘The Football Show’ on Tuesday.
Souness said: “You know the oldest saying in football comes to mind: Put your medals on the table. I’ve got a big table.”
The medals’ table of Paul Pogba and Souness
Now talking about medals and tables, let us see who have a bigger table for medals between Pogba and Souness.
Souness
Souness as a player decline from top-flight football at the age of 35 or 36 before he switched to coaching.
In his playing days, he won six top-flight league titles, five in England with Liverpool and one with Rangers in Scotland, his home country.
Souness didn’t win the FA Cup as a player. He has however won the Coppa Italia once with Sampdoria. Besides that, he has won four League Cups, three with Liverpool, one with Rangers.
The pundit has also won the European Cup three times with Liverpool. He, however, did not win any tangible title with the Scotland national team despite representing the country three times at the World Cup.
Though he was nominated for the Fifa World Best, he failed to win it until he retired from active football.
Paul Pogba
Paul Pogba has won four league titles and he is still 27-year-old. He won two of those while he was playing for Juventus and the other two with Manchester United. He only has one League Cup to his name. He also has only one Europa League title with Manchester United
His International career is more prominent than that of Souness as he has won the Fifa under 20 World Cup and Fifa World Cup for France.
Like Souness, Pogba has been nominated for the Fifa World footballer of the year but he is yet to win it.
Unlike Souness who is already 66-year-old, this is not the limit of what Pogba can achieve. The Frenchman has all it takes to win more titles for both club and country.
