“I think arrogance can be a good thing.”
New Spurs star Richarlison is already under the spotlight following an incident during his team’s win over Nottingham Forest.
With the London side winning 2-0, the Brazilian decided to take the ball, flick it up, and start juggling it for a few seconds, something which has been deemed as disrespectful.
This act of showboating didn’t go unpunished, as Forest player Brennan Johnson soon crashed into the £60m signing, venting clear frustration at the players actions.
Jamie Carragher who was working as a commentator for Sky Sports during the game, claimed that the Spurs man was “Winding people up.”
However, speaking on talkSPORT, an unlikely source came to the defence of the forward in the form of Graeme Souness.
The former Liverpool midfielder would have a reputation for taking no no nonsense and many would have assumed that these ‘keepie uppies’ during the game would fall under that category.
— Out Of Context Football (@nocontextfooty) August 28, 2022
“As a manager you don’t want to see it, it’s not nice, but I’ve done it,” he candidly admitted.
“I’ve done it as a player but that’s only because there was something going on between me and a couple of their players or something.
“I think it happened more than once. But as a manager you don’t want to see it, it’s showing disrespect, but when you’re young and full of yourself, sometimes you forget what you’re instructed to do, I am guilty of that, hands up.
“It’s not brilliance, I go back to 1967, England, world champions, playing Scotland at Wembley, the great Jim Baxter did that so it’s not a new thing, and I think we won that day.
“100 per cent of the Spurs supporters yesterday would have liked it, a bit of arrogance, but you know it’s coming if you go down that road, if you can do it and take the consequences.
“But to a man every Spurs supporter in that stadium yesterday would have been thinking ‘look at us we’re back’ showing a bit of arrogance, if you aspire to be a big player you cannot aspire to be a big player without a bit of arrogance.
“A lot of those people, especially the Spurs supporters, would have thought ‘great, good on you’ and all the Forest supporters would have hated that.
“It’s football, it’s young men who generally have egos that would choke horses and that’s the way it should be, they’re gifted.
“Muhammed Ali not arrogant? I don’t mind arrogance, I think arrogance can be a good thing, as long as you back it up.
“I was arrogant, I didn’t set out to be arrogant but I know that being arrogant can make people look at you and diminish their confidence.
“I went down the road many times knowing there will be two or three in the opposition that will come looking for me but that’s part of the deal if you’re a professional footballer.
Asked about when he played Diego Maradona in Serie A, Souness said: “I think he was arrogant, yeah, he would flick the ball over the head and make you look absolutely stupid, he enjoyed that feeling.”
