Graeme Souness criticised for speculating on Moise Kean’s ‘off-the-field activities’ after move to Everton

Kean moved to Goodison Park this summer in a £25m transfer from Juventus

Graeme Souness has been criticised for comments claiming the new Everton striker Moise Kean caused off-field problems at Juventus which provoked his departure from Turin.

Kean moved to Goodison Park this summer in a £25m transfer from Juve. Discussing the 19-year-old striker on Sky Sports on Sunday, Souness speculated that Kean’s “off-the-field activities are not the best” before making a tenuous comparison to the former Arsenal and Tottenham forward Emmanuel Adebayor.

“At 19, why have they sold him,” Souness said. “Personally, slight alarm bells are going off in my head. Juventus are arguably the biggest club in Italy, the wealthiest club in Italy. Given that they’ve got an older strike force, you’re selling a 19-year-old who won’t be hurting you wage-wise, they’ve not got £100+ for him, so I think there must be other issues there.

“Do they have a buy-back clause, Juve? Because if they’ve not got that, that would tell you they’re happy to see him out the door then. At 19, it doesn’t make any common sense if you’re Juventus. It’s as if maybe his off-the-field activities are not the best.”

The former Arsenal striker Kevin Campbell was a number of people on social media to criticise Souness’s comments. Campbell tweeted: “Mr. Souness is giving his opinion which I totally disagree with btw! Young players want to play and Moise Kean chose @Everton so just deal with it!

“I know it’s his opinion yet so many people are influenced by these non factual comments! It’s a joke that nobody said anything or challenged him on it.”

The prominent journalist Gabriele Marcotti responded to Souness’s theory around Kean’s Juventus exit. “Or maybe simply the fact that he had one year left on his contract, didn’t sign an extension and Juve didn’t want to lose him for free in June?” Marcotti tweeted. ”Especially since his agent isn’t shy about running down contracts? (Did the same with Pogba at MU).”

Souness went on to say: “It’s a bit like Adebayor here, 25, just about to enter his best years and [Arsene] Wenger sold him to [Manchester] City. Right away you’re thinking [that] he’s not selling because he’s a not a very good footballer player, but there’s something not quite right with him, and that’s what it turned out to be. That was a boy who had all the talent you could ever wish for but didn’t do it.”

Adebayor scored 46 Premier League goals in 104 games for Arsenal, before going on to add 35 at Spurs. He is Togo’s most capped player and the top goalscorer in their history.