Graeme Souness has launched a scathing attack on Paul Pogba and insists he was right about the ‘lazy and dishonest’ former Manchester United star.
Pogba, who now plays for Italian side Juventus, was slapped with a four-year ban from football over a failed drugs test this week.
The 30-year-old, who won the World Cup with France in 2018, is appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and says he is ‘shocked and heartbroken’.
No-one has been less surprised at Pogba’s downfall than Liverpool legend Souness, who has been a long-term vocal critic of the ex-United midfielder.
‘I criticised Paul Pogba often during his career and some people seemed to take amusement from it,’ Souness told the Daily Mail.
‘But it was only sadness that I felt this week, when I learned that he has been banned from football for four years, for a doping offence.
‘For me, there really was never any doubt about Pogba’s ability. What I saw in him was a player with great technical ability and physique who had the potential to be one of the best midfield players our sport had ever known.
‘It was his lack of honesty and poor effort levels which always frustrated me. Frankly, he was lazy.
‘Someone with the extreme talent he possessed should perform in a way which means he is remembered as one of the best players in the world, long after has left the stage.
‘Instead, he wasted his career. Having won the World Cup with France in Russia, in 2018, he allowed himself to get into his armchair and was never fully committed to the cause of being a team player.
‘I criticised him to such a substantial degree – and take no satisfaction from saying I was proved right – because I could see that huge potential. I saw the kind of player he could become.
‘It’s sad to hear that the drugs test found elevated levels of testosterone in his system. As if he didn’t have enough athleticism. A drug like that would make him more powerful, with higher energy levels and it would also make him an angrier person to be around.
‘He is 30-years-old and we won’t see him at an elite level again. A desperately sad ending to the career of someone who had the world at his feet and might still have been talked about, 20, 30 or 40 years from now.’
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