Graeme Souness insists he doesn’t regret his comments following Chelsea’s draw with Tottenham on Sunday.
The Liverpool legend has been slammed for saying the Stamford Bridge battle ‘showed it was suddenly a man’s game’.
Souness was referring to the more liberal approach taken by referee Anthony Taylor to allow a number of tackles in the 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Tottenham, but was criticized for making the comments while seated next to Karen Carney, a former England women’s international.
Souness joined White and Jordan on talkSPORT for his now regular Monday morning appearance and explained what he said.
When host Jim White asked if he regretted what he said, the 69-year-old replied: “Not a word. Let me explain. I’ve been advocating for years that referees have a role major to play in Premier League success.
“We have to be careful what we say today and I wasn’t very good at it, but we were becoming like other leagues.
“They were whistling all the time and it wasn’t a good watch. Our game has always been unique, meatier, more in your face and more intense and we’ve moved away from that.
“My comments yesterday said we got our game back. This is the kind of football I remember playing in.
“We have to be better at it. The directive to the referees is long overdue, we got our game back.
“I enjoyed two football games yesterday where men were playing against men and they were scrambling and arguing.
“Okay, I don’t think we should tolerate the sideline thing, but I’ve been there. If you’re on the sideline and things aren’t going your way and you feel that there has been an injustice You have worked all week during these 90 minutes.
Carney’s former England teammate Eniola Aluko tweeted her criticism of Souness following her comments.
‘Awkward turtles, Graeme Souness talking about ‘it’s still man’s play’ sitting next to England centurion Karen Carney, two weeks after the Lionesses ended a 56-year wait and won the championships ‘Europe,” she tweeted. “Come on. It’s not okay.”
talkSPORT host Simon Jordan hit back at Aluko, calling the outrage “ridiculous”.
He said, “That’s nonsense. I saw some of the backfire. What an absolute load of nonsense. How someone, a man describing a game featuring men apparently can’t use the words man or men in conjunction with a game featuring only men.
“Are we losing context here, have we come to a point where we have to say ‘hang in there, the Women’s Super League is biased’.
“Are we entering this territory? It’s ridiculous. Graeme made an observation about a game and made it in conjunction with what he was watching.
“If someone wants to do something more with it, he makes a special cause of equality and injustice. It’s light activism. I see players from the England women’s football team making a song out of it, I’m so disappointed in it I think it’s not necessary.
“If you want to take someone’s conversation out of context, twist it, and turn it into something it wasn’t, then that’s up to you.
“It doesn’t mean people need to be lambasted, it doesn’t mean we need the presenters of the show to say ‘it’s a women’s game too’.
“You don’t need it. I don’t think Graeme is a dinosaur, I don’t think he’s misogynistic, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with anything he said.
“I have a 14 year old daughter and I want her to compete in the world and have the best opportunities, what a bunch of old cobblers.”
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