Premier League

Souness insults Tottenham senior duo

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OPINION

Graeme Souness is one of the best pundits out there.

Honest, articulate, straight-talking, he is the defender of the game’s playing standards and the arbiter of what it means to be a professional, dedicated footballer.

Souness rarely gets is wrong in his assessments of Premier League teams, including Tottenham and their players.

But the Scot was wide of the mark when he savaged Spurs’ entire substitutes bench for their Premier League clash against Fulham on Sunday, which they won through a last-gasp Harry Winks goal.

Delivering his verdict on a squad ravaged by injuries and unavailabilities, with Dele Alli joining the mounting missing list at the weekend, Souness told Sky Sports’ live coverage of the derby: “Worst case scenario for Tottenham has happened – their three main men have gone down at a vital time. All the goals have gone out of their team now. They haven’t got a big enough squad.

“When the Tottenham subs came to warm up by us, they all looked like kids that should still be in school. They are down to the bare bones.”

Sure, Juan Foyth, Oliver Skipp and Kazaiah Sterling are all youngsters looking to make their mark in the game. Even 23-year-old Georges-Kevin Nkoudou could be labelled as raw, given he has barely played during his three seasons at Tottenham.

But Souness’ comment was insulting to proven Premier League performers Ben Davies and Eric Dier, as well as newly-capped Argentina international Paulo Gazzaniga, who is 27.

41-times Wales international Davies and England mainstay Dier are both 25 and have 171 and 148 Premier League appearances under their belts respectively.

They might not be exciting attacking players like unavailable Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min, and newly-injured Dele Alli.

But they are crucial members of Tottenham’s squad and deserving of far more respect from Souness than to be dismissed as wide-eyed, unproven schoolboys.

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