Everton: Graeme Souness rages against Harry Kane for Abdoulaye Doucoure incident in ‘despicable’
Graeme Souness has come out swinging after Harry Kane got Abdoulaye Doucouré sent off in the draw between Everton and Tottenham this week.
The England captain stayed down clutching his face at Goodison Park on Monday night (3 April), reacting to a hand to the face from the Toffees midfielder who received a straight red card in the 1-1 draw.
Sean Dyche mocked the reaction, and Kane has had heavy criticism from a number of pundits, but former Liverpool hero Souness has characteristically gone in the strongest as he decried “cheating” in the British game.
In his Daily Mail column the pundit recalled a meeting with a pair of Dutch people asking what had happened to football in this country, saying: “I was reminded of our conversation this week when I saw Harry Kane going down like he’d been hit by a train, rather than a push in his face, from Abdoulaye Doucoure, at Goodison Park.
“Let’s get it right. When you lift your hands in football now, you’ve a got a real chance of getting sent off. But Harry exaggerated the incident enormously and however much he might claim he wasn’t trying to deceive the referee into getting a fellow professional sent off, his conduct was more embarrassing for himself than anything else.
“We are talking about the captain of England. That role carries enormous responsibility to lead by example and set a standard.”
He went on to say: “I hear excuses for them all the time. ‘Everyone else does it.’ Or: ‘It’s part of the game.’ Or: ‘Winners find any competitive advantage.’ What unadulterated rubbish. Trying to cheat a foul from the referee is bad enough — but actually trying to get a fellow pro booked or sent off the field? How despicable is that?”
Think twice
Alan Shearer came out decrying Spurs’ failure to be more cynical as they threw away a man and a goal advantage to the resurgent Toffees in the second half, in exactly the sort of view that Souness is upset about.
The Scot’s claim that British football is somehow more honest than others doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny, and certainly won’t if the England captain is feigning injury in prime time games.
Kane is hardly the first as Three Lions skippers including Steven Gerrard have done a good line in going down too easily as well, and there will no doubt be examples of Everton players doing it too.
Dyche has made clear that he won’t accept it under his watch, which is a crowd-pleasing stance but might pick up some opponents if it ends up being the difference in a crucial result.
But that is the problem, it works. Officials have a tough job but far too often they seem to wait to see how players, dug outs, or the crowd, react to things before making a decision.
As long as that situation remains it will incentivise players to behave dishonestly, and Souness’ request to “put referees on notice” is probably what it will take to actually push them out of the habit.