It was the ultimate display in Double Standards.
Graeme Souness calling out Jordan Pickford for an assault that left Virgil van Dijk with cruciate ligament damage and little prospect of playing again this season.
It was a brutal and cowardly attack, two words that would often be used to describe Souness at his peak.
Real hard men go into 50-50 challenges. Souness and Pickford wait till the odds are stacked in their favour, go over the ball, play the man then feign concern for their opponent/victim.
From Siggi Jonsson, Billy Stark, George McCluskey and Iosif Rotariu were among the more high profile victims of Souness choosing the moment to inflct maximum damage with minimal risk.
At Notts County, Martin O’Neill’s career was virtually ended by a Souness tackle.
.@Carra23 just destroyed Souness ? pic.twitter.com/rYlcZPCz5x
— Ped ?? (@PED7) October 18, 2020
Souness on Pickford v Van Dijk:
‘That was an assault, that wasn’t a tackle’. ? pic.twitter.com/o7gLeTFgW7— JoeBloggsCity (@joebloggscity) October 18, 2020
Describing the YouTube shocker from 1988 Rotariu of Steau told The Sun:
My lymph nodes burst following this tackle. At half time, the doctor used a syringe to draw out the lymph fluid.
My leg started to swell heavily. He put a bandage around my thigh. I didn’t feel my leg anymore but kept playing. I was not in pain because I didn’t feel my leg.
After the game, the leg continued to swell. The doctor had to draw out the lymph fluid again. I was operated on the very next morning. It was a surgery…a difficult one. Quite difficult
Because of it, I missed the European Cup semi-finals against Benfica. I was out for two months. The boots didn’t have these small plastic studs of today to prevent players having calluses.
The studs were big and made of iron. His tackle left deep wounds The surgeon told me it could’ve been fatal for me if his boot caught me just a few centimetres higher.
Souness going right in, oh dear oh dear