Graeme Souness once spoke about how much he loved working on Irish TV. He felt he could speak his mind with the Sky Sports PR machine handbrake not pulled tightly.
That was RTÉ. Unfiltered Graeme Souness returned to our screens last night on TV3, letting the criticism flow following Leicester's triumph against Sevilla in the Champions League last-16.
Love what Souness is saying on @TV3Ireland Absolutley spot on.
— Shane Lowry (@ShaneLowryGolf) March 14, 2017
Souness gave his theory about what happened between Leicester winning the Premier League and Claudio Ranieri being sacked.
Basically, he believes players took their foot off the gas and stopped doing what made them successful last season. He also added that this group of players will 'fall off their perch again'.
When you're manager and you've won the league, are you going to turn up the next season and change things? If it ain't broken, why try and fix it? They would have been doing the same training, talking to them the same way, preparing for the games the same way, travelling to the games the same way - everything the same.
Some of those players, at the start of the season believed, all of a sudden, 'We're big players. We're champions.' They took their foot off the accelerator and got into their big comfy armchairs, got their Bentley in the car park, maybe changed their house. They took their foot off the accelerator. What does the manager do then? The manager has a go at some of them, maybe points that out to them. Then he falls out with one or two of the 'influential' players in the dressing room. Then you've got the followers in the dressing room. All of a sudden he's [Claudio Ranieri] fallen out with most of the dressing room.
That's what I believed happened. Those players are rejoicing out there and thinking, 'We're back. We're big players again.' They'll fall off their perch again, guaranteed. They've done it once, they'll do it again, they'll let you down again.
Graeme Souness TV3 criticism of Leicester players
ICYMI: They'll let you down again: Souness blast Leicester players after @ChampionsLeague win over Sevilla#TV3UCL pic.twitter.com/yY25RLPR3i
— TV3 Sport (@TV3SportIreland) March 15, 2017
