Graeme Souness has finally reacted to Paul Pogba being banned from football for four years due to doping charges.
The former Liverpool man explained via his column for the Daily Mail: "It’s sad to hear that the drugs test found elevated levels of testosterone in his system.
"As if he didn’t have enough athleticism. A drug like that would make him more powerful, with higher energy levels and it would also make him an angrier person to be around.
"He is 30 years old and we won’t see him at an elite level again.
"A desperately sad ending to the career of someone who had the world at his feet and might still have been talked about, 20, 30 or 40 years from now."
Addressing Pogba's shocking decline from being a World Cup winner with France to the latest ban, Souness added: "It was his lack of honesty and poor effort levels which always frustrated me,” he wrote for the newspaper.
"Frankly, he was lazy. Someone with the extreme talent he possessed should perform in a way which means he is remembered as one of the best players in the world, long after has left the stage.
"Instead, he wasted his career. Having won the World Cup with France in Russia, in 2018, he allowed himself to get into his armchair and was never fully committed to the cause of being a team player.
"I criticised him to such a substantial degree – and take no satisfaction from saying I was proved right – because I could see that huge potential. I saw the kind of player he could become."
Souness never hid his criticism of Pogba during his time at Manchester United. The midfielder somehow failed to establish himself at Old Trafford, often struggling with injuries and inconsistent form.
His return to Juventus as a free agent in 2022 also hasn't worked out. Pogba has played just 10 times all season, having spent all his time recovering from an injury.
Unless he's able to get the doping ban overturned, Pogba, 30, may have just ended his career.
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