01 March 2024 , 14:17
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Graeme Souness says he takes no satisfaction from feeling that he has been proven right over Paul Pogba, and instead only feels sadness for the former Manchester United midfielder.
Pogba, who is contracted to Juventus, was handed a four-year ban from football on Thursday after being found guilty of a doping offence. He was found to have tested positive for testosterone in September, but insists he has "never knowingly or deliberately" broken any rules and is planning to launch an appeal.
The France World Cup winner issued a statement declaring that he was heartbroken with the verdict, stating that he feels the four-year ban to be incorrect.
Former Liverpool midfielder Souness was often a regular critic of Pogba's during his time working as a pundit for Sky Sports, and while some often took umbrage with his regular barbs aimed in the now 30-year-old's direction, Souness insists he was only so harsh on Pogba because he could see that he did have qualities as a player that he wasn't getting the most out of.
"For me, there really was never any doubt about Pogba’s ability," Souness told the Mail Online. "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.
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Paul Pogba has been banned from football for four years (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)"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."
Graeme Souness has been a regular critic of Pogba's (Getty Images)Pogba was known to have taken umbrage with some of Souness' comments in the past, but the Scot says the pair have never met to discuss his punditry.
"We didn’t meet during the years that I was covering some of the big games he played in for Juventus and Manchester United," he said. "He did make noises that he wanted to meet me at one stage and I said I was more than happy to do that, though it never happened.
"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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