EXCLUSIVE
heated
‘You turn on yourselves, it’s madness!’ – Graeme Souness and Simon Jordan in fiery debate over England, Gareth Southgate and UEFA Nations League performances
Simon Jordan and Graeme Souness got in a heated debate over Gareth Southgate and recent criticism of the England boss.
Scotland legend Souness found himself in an unusual situation where he was actually the one defending Southgate amid a fan and media backlash.
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England are winless in their last five matches and have been relegated from their Nations League group.
Monday’s clash with Germany, which is live on talkSPORT, is their last before the World Cup starts in November. So a morale boosting performance is a must.
Former Crystal Palace owner Jordan argued that the general public had every right to be unhappy with England.
Read the full exchange between the pair below:
Souness: “You speak to any ex-England manager and they say it is the most difficult job out there. For some reason, you turn on yourselves. It’s madness.”
Jordan: “But it’s not true, Graeme. People observe on what they see. Do you want high expectations or no expectations?
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“The challenge is you have a country who expects.”
Souness: “He’s got credit in the bank. He’s been to a final of the Euros, semi-final of the World Cup in Russia.
“Then I come back to it, the players are not at it. I’ve been a player, I’ve been there.”
Jordan: “That’s great. ‘Pull on a shirt for England, you’re not at it’.
“Hang on, try and get the average man on the street to understand it.”
Souness: “It needs to be explained to them.”
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Jordan: “Why should it have to? People get picked for their country and have the luxury of not being at it.
“You mean they [the public] need to swallow crap. Get on with what we are prepared to give you.”
Souness: “They made the noises that this was replacing friendlies. They’ve replaced friendlies with friendlies.
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Jordan: “But they also made the noises that after the June friendlies and that debacle that ‘we will be better’.”
Souness: “You know after this I can’t go back to Scotland.”
Jordan: “You can criticise or you can praise, you don’t qualify for tournaments. That irrelevance is incidental.”
Souness: “We are now top of the table…”
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