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Sour Souness well OTT in Zouma attack

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For the first time yesterday I felt a twinge of sympathy for Kurt Zouma – but then I’m not a lover of Graeme Souness anyway!

On a day when the Hammers central defender was on his way back to London with some sort of gastric problem. the sour Scotsman was busy giving him the biggest hammering he will have received since the cat kicking horror.

The bloke just went on and on and on, as he tends to, discussing his “zero sympathy” for the central defender plus much worse before attacking the Hammers over how they dealt with the situation.

He’s entitled to a view and we all agree with him that Zouma was bang out of order but on a match day when the game is the thing he’s there for this was way over the top.

Talk about liking the sound of your own voice and indulging in some hysterical nonsense a week after everyone else has had their say.

All the geezer needed to say was that he agreed with all those who had been outraged by what the bloke had done and felt West Ham could have dealt with it better. That would have been more than enough but that’s not how he operates of course.

Gary Neville was much closer to realist with his comments saying: Zouma made a ‘terrible’ and ‘stupid’ mistake but disagreed with calls for the professional footballer to lose his job.

‘It’s really difficult because I think, historically, [former Manchester United manager] Sir Alex [Ferguson] would have closed ranks,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.

‘He would have dealt with it internally. The problem you have in 2022 is that it isn’t sometimes enough to say, “I have dealt with it internally”.

West Ham defender Zouma was filmed attacking his pet cat

‘Sometimes, with social media, you aren’t sure how some things are going to fly as well or how something is going to grow.

‘It’s that balancing act of doing the right thing, but trying to stand by your team members and players who have made mistakes.

‘Kurt Zouma made a terrible mistake. The reality of it is that [West Ham boss] David Moyes was left in a difficult predicament.

‘I think he has just about got it right. Some people will say he got it wrong. Some will say he got it right.

‘I think it’s very difficult for a manager. The club have to set the tone. If that’s my club, I’m taking that away from the manager. I am protecting the manager.’

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

7 comments

  • mooro66uk says:

    Why do they have him on? His approach to every subject is confrontational and perverse. Whatever anyone else says he will play devils advocate. He didn’t mind kicking opponents in the air, that was fine.

  • brixhammer says:

    It’s what he does, his trade mark, not to be taken too seriously.

  • The Cat says:

    There seems to be a race to BEST everyone and reach the moral high ground, long gone are the days when people in a position of influence respectfully kept their opinions to themselves.

    Would Graeme Souness have been pleased to listen to people in position of influence dissect some of his attempts to maim another human being???

    Of all people, Souness should be keeping his mouth shut on this because he should understand that he is Not Holier than Thou and is in no position to throw stones.

    I’ve done wrong and been wrong many times in my life, and at times NOBODY could have been sorrier than I have been with myself for my actions. But I would refuse to be asked repeatedly to apologise or to bow my head forever. I

    t’s Done, it’s Over, End Of!

  • Legin says:

    Souness has been a resident of the Southbound Service Station at DY9 9XU for too long. Time he was put out to pasture.

  • westhamsteve says:

    I can’t recall his opinions on the premiership teams that sold players to Saudi United when they all voted not to. What his opinion on the players taking Saudi money with the human rights issues that are being played out there.

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