Jenas slammed ‘liar’ Graeme Souness and denied ever making controversial remark
Jermaine Jenas accused Graeme Souness of lying about his reasons for ditching Newcastle United for Tottenham Hotspur.
After a three-year stint at St James’ Park, which saw him bag the PFA Young Player of the Year in 2003, Jenas made a £7million switch to Spurs following claims by then-Newcastle gaffer Souness that he wasn’t impressed with life up North.
Jenas, who was sacked from the BBC over alleged ‘inappropriate behaviour’ on Thursday, was rumoured to have moaned about feeling like he was “in a goldfish bowl” at the club – something he’s always rubbished.
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Earlier this year, he even promised to donate to charity if anyone could dig up the so-called quote. “I always said, if anybody can ever find this quote from me, I’ll donate a handsome amount of money to charity on their behalf because it was never said in any way, shape or form,” Jenas declared.
He was baffled by Souness’s comments, saying: “Why Graeme lied about it at that particular time, I don’t know, I didn’t get it. The way I saw it was this. I was at Newcastle. I loved my time in Newcastle. Trust me, you don’t leave Newcastle to go to London for a quiet life,” reports the Mirror.
What do you think of Graeme Souness’ claims? Let us know in the comments section below
(Image: PA)
Jenas also highlighted that Bobby Robson getting the sack, the boss who signed him from Nottingham Forest, played a big part in his decision to leave, revealing he even debated joining Arsenal before settling with their North London rivals.
“So I was playing really well, Alan Shearer got injured, it made me kind of vice captain,” he said. “So I was captain for a number of games, even over people like [Patrick] Kluivert, [Craig] Bellamy, and [Kieron] Dyer. And there was just a bit of a shift in the energy that I felt from the manager at that particular time.
“And yeah they already sacked Bobby which I wasn’t entirely happy with, but Graeme came in and I was like, ‘well, superstar midfield player, I can’t wait to learn everything there is to learn from you’.
(Image: Getty Images)
“I probably didn’t get what I expected. He probably could easily sit there and say the same thing, probably about me as well.
“I felt like Newcastle were going downhill. And I looked at Tottenham and Arsenal at the time who I was chatting to and I looked and I was like, well, they just brought in Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Michael Dawson, all these young English players.”
In his quest to secure a spot in England’s squad for the 2006 World Cup, Jenas decided to leave Newcastle, despite expressing his sadness over the decision.
(Image: Getty Images)
“So I was desperate to go to the World Cup in 2006. I was just like, where have I got the best chance of doing that. Is it in a team that’s nosediving or a team challenging for top four. So I still feel like I picked the right choice.
“And, I was really disappointed by that because I loved my time in Newcastle and I didn’t want to leave. Coaching was going downhill. Players that they were signing were going downhill, in my opinion, the club was not going in the right direction. So I had decided to leave.”
This week, Jenas was dismissed from the BBC following allegations of unsolicited inappropriate texts sent to a female staff member of The One Show, as revealed by the Mirror.
The news of the MOTD host’s termination emerged on Thursday, after his contract was terminated by the corporation following an investigation into complaints about text messages sent by Jenas last month.
