{"id":259034,"date":"2025-11-12T19:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259034\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T19:22:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T19:22:10","slug":"graeme-souness-reveals-he-turns-the-sound-down-on-some-pundits-in-withering-assessment-after-leaving-sky-sports-and-hails-wayne-rooney-for-shaking-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/259034\/","title":{"rendered":"Graeme Souness reveals he turns the sound DOWN on some pundits in withering assessment after leaving Sky Sports &#8211; and hails Wayne Rooney for shaking it up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/graeme-souness\/index.html\" id=\"mol-df5111d0-bfea-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Graeme Souness<\/a> has admitted turning the sound down when listening to some pundits involved in football, but has offered praise for Wayne Rooney&#8217;s transition into broadcasting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Souness had worked as a pundit on Sky Sports over 15 years, before opting to step down at the end of the 2022-23 <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/premierleague\/index.html\" id=\"mol-df550970-bfea-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Premier League<\/a> season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The 72-year-old, who starred for <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/liverpool\/index.html\" id=\"mol-df4d8f60-bfea-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Liverpool<\/a> during his playing career, offered praise for ex-Man United and England star Rooney&#8217;s move into punditry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney has become a regular on the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/bbc\/index.html\" id=\"mol-df437d40-bfea-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">BBC<\/a>&#8216;s flagship Match of the Day highlights show this season, after reportedly landing a \u00a3800,000-a-year deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Man United&#8217;s record goalscorer has also offered his views on the Wayne Rooney Show, while he has worked on Amazon Prime&#8217;s coverage of the <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/champions_league\/index.html\" id=\"mol-df555790-bfea-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Champions League<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney\u2019s move into punditry has followed underwhelming recent spells as manager, having had short stints in charge of <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/birmingham-city\/index.html\" id=\"mol-8b631940-bfec-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Birmingham City<\/a> and Plymouth Argyle in the past two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-7f49bc28a9499244\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103825491-15284915-image-a-19_1762968442099.jpg\" height=\"381\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Graeme Souness has praised Wayne Rooney's transition into becoming a football pundit\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Graeme Souness has praised Wayne Rooney&#8217;s transition into becoming a football pundit\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-98ab239eac55a0fe\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103824695-15284915-image-a-28_1762968506701.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\" alt=\"The former Man United star has offered bold opinions since moving into a punditry role\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">The former Man United star has offered bold opinions since moving into a punditry role<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Souness has praised Rooney&#8217;s work as a pundit to date, with the Scotsman noting Rooney&#8217;s &#8216;common sense&#8217; and authority when analysing games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">By contrast, Souness revealed he has to turn sound down when listening to some other pundits contributions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018I like listening to <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/wayne_rooney\/index.html\" id=\"mol-69b93a30-bfe8-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Wayne Rooney<\/a> as a pundit because he talks common sense,&#8217; Souness said, courtesy of <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/skybet.com\/\">Sky Bet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018If you\u2019re putting together an all-time <a style=\"font-weight: bold;\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/manchester-united\/index.html\" id=\"mol-69b23550-bfe8-11f0-86bb-ffa9892aaa83\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Manchester United<\/a> team, Wayne Rooney is one of the first names on the sheet \u2013 he was a real warrior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018I love Wayne Rooney as a player, and I like to listen to him \u2013 he has got authority so I can listen to him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">\u2018Some of the other pundits, I turn the sound down.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney had last week gone head-to-head with Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk in a pitchside exchange after their 1-0 victory over Real Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">The former Man United forward had taken aim at Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah&#8217;s approach to leading Liverpool during their recent slump in form, while labelling their mannerisms as a \u2018big concern\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-2197cf50dde2d55a\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103824715-15284915-image-a-29_1762968519150.jpg\" height=\"375\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Rooney was last week involved in a tense live interview with Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Rooney was last week involved in a tense live interview with Liverpool&#8217;s Virgil van Dijk<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-53e1d551f5f77864\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103824709-15284915-image-a-30_1762968525532.jpg\" height=\"455\" width=\"634\" alt=\"It followed Rooney's criticism of the Liverpool captain's leadership of his side amid a slump in form\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">It followed Rooney&#8217;s criticism of the Liverpool captain&#8217;s leadership of his side amid a slump in form<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Days after Van Dijk&#8217;s had labelled Rooney&#8217;s criticism as &#8216;lazy&#8217; he joined the pundit post-match on Amazon Prime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Van Dijk referenced the criticism his team have been putting up with, saying: &#8216;In a world of chaos you have to try to stay calm and take the perspective of things. There&#8217;s so much football to be played, so many twists and turns can happen. At the time the noise was a lot\u2026&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I think it\u2019s very important to put things in perspective, keep your head down to work and get out of the situation, because we have quality that\u2019s not the issue.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Van Dijk continued: &#8216;I think all of you know you\u2019re dealing with a squad of 25 player a lot of young players and a couple of older players like myself, everyone lives a different life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Me personally, it doesn\u2019t affect me but I\u2019m dealing with some players who might be.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;If you lose games as a Liverpool player, four or five in a row, it\u2019s a fair criticism, but I think its over the top at times as well. But that\u2019s because we live in a world where there\u2019s so many platforms, so many people can say stuff and will be picked up and made bigger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;I think it\u2019s good that when ex-players who\u2019ve played at the highest level, who dealt with difficult moments, put a lot of things in perspective\u2026&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney made light of the awkward situation and addressed the elephant in the room.<\/p>\n<p>   <img decoding=\"async\" id=\"i-1492fe8a8281b485\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/103824721-15284915-image-a-31_1762968578477.jpg\" height=\"401\" width=\"634\" alt=\"Souness, who worked as a pundit for Sky Sports for 15 years, admits he turns the sound down when some offer their opinions on matches\" class=\"blkBorder img-share\" style=\"max-width:100%\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>   <\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCaption\">Souness, who worked as a pundit for Sky Sports for 15 years, admits he turns the sound down when some offer their opinions on matches<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">He joked: &#8216;I\u2019m not saying anything any more, I think I\u2019ve spurred them on and put them on a winning streak!&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney then defended his previous criticism, saying: &#8216;What I&#8217;ve said was fair, when you win the Premier League and go on a run where you lose games in a row that you don&#8217;t expect of the Liverpool of the last few years&#8230;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">&#8216;Virgil as captain that\u2019s your opportunity to go and lead the players, and that\u2019s what I was saying. I think that happens in football, I think the response has been great from Virgil and from the team.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Van Dijk responded: &#8216;I think if you watch games, I definitely take responsibility! I think the comment that I signed the new deal and then it\u2019s like \u201cthat\u2019s it\u201d and &#8220;I\u2019ll let it slide&#8221;, I think that\u2019s a bit&#8230; but that\u2019s my personal opinion.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Rooney had also given his views recently on Enzo Maresca&#8217;s rotation of his Chelsea side, suggesting star names should &#8216;privately question&#8217; the Blues boss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mol-para-with-font\">Maresca defended his rotation policy by saying criticism of his changes only emerges when his side do not win, while stressing it will benefit his side in the long-term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graeme Souness has admitted turning the sound down when listening to some pundits involved in football, but has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[97,218,59,107324,708,217,101,56,54,55,28552],"class_list":["post-259034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dailymail","tag-football","tag-gb","tag-graeme-souness","tag-liverpool","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wayne-rooney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}