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| Bukayo Saka |
Graeme Souness has never been one for soft edges. The former Liverpool captain, midfield enforcer and manager built a career on confrontational honesty—both on the pitch in the 1970s and 1980s and in the studio ever since.
So when the 73-year-old turned his fire on Arsenal and England forward Bukayo Saka, calling him “a cheat” who “dives all over the place,” it was classic Souness: blunt, polarising and guaranteed to dominate the post-match conversation.
The comments came on Piers Morgan’s Football Uncensored after Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Sunday. Neco Williams was booked for a challenge on Saka that involved limited contact. Souness seized on the moment not just to criticise the individual incident but to paint a broader picture of theatrical exaggeration, collective pressure on referees, and what he sees as a cultural shift he finds distasteful.
“Your player Saka engages in diving throughout matches,” Souness said. “I prefer not to discuss him. The moment he appears to lose possession, he falls to the ground. He simulates a foul.
Anyone who simulates a foul in my book would be a cheat. He dives when he should be staying on his feet. He’s not alone. So Saka gets tackled, he screams as he’s going down. The referee perceives nothing wrong with that, but consider this: he remains on the ground. Furthermore, what is worse, every Arsenal player in the vicinity—all of them—raise their hands and shout foul. At that moment, the referee becomes anxious and sounds his whistle despite there being no foul—his initial judgment was accurate. Simulation is a form of cheating, yes. But it’s all over football today.”
Context Beyond the Soundbite
Saka has for several seasons ranked among the Premier League’s most-fouled players. That statistic is double-edged. On one hand it reflects his status as a primary creator and dribbler who constantly receives the ball in dangerous wide areas and attracts physical attention. On the other, it fuels the recurring accusation—voiced by Souness and others—that he amplifies contact.
This is not a new debate in English football. The same critiques have been levelled at players ranging from Cristiano Ronaldo in his Manchester United days to more recent examples such as Jack Grealish or certain South American forwards. The difference today is the combination of hyper-scrutiny from multiple camera angles, social media amplification, and a generation of players coached to maximise every decision in their favour. Souness, product of a far more physical era when “staying on your feet” was both a point of pride and often a necessity, views the modern approach as a betrayal of those values.
Arsenal’s collective reaction—multiple players immediately appealing—also fits a wider pattern. Managers and clubs increasingly brief players on how to influence officials. Whether this is smart gamesmanship or unacceptable pressure depends on one’s perspective. Referees themselves have spoken about the difficulty of remaining clear-headed amid sustained appeals, especially in high-stakes matches where every decision is dissected in real time.
The Broader Landscape
Diving and simulation remain grey areas. The laws of the game allow referees to caution for “simulation,” yet yellow cards for it remain relatively rare compared with the volume of accusations. VAR has complicated rather than solved the issue: clear and obvious errors can be corrected, but subjective judgements about the degree of contact or the player’s intent often stay with the on-field official. Souness’ frustration is that the benefit of the doubt frequently appears to go to the attacker who goes down.
Saka himself has rarely engaged publicly with the diving narrative. His focus has stayed on performance. Since breaking into the Arsenal first team he has developed into one of the Premier League’s most consistent wide attackers—capable of beating full-backs, delivering dangerous crosses and finishing chances.
England managers have trusted him in major tournaments. That body of work makes the “cheat” label land harder for Arsenal supporters, who see it as a reductive dismissal of a player who absorbs heavy physical punishment week after week.
Souness’ comments also sit within his longer media persona. He has never shied away from criticising modern players for lacking the toughness of previous generations. Whether that viewpoint is nostalgic romanticism or legitimate cultural critique is itself part of the ongoing conversation about how the game has evolved—technically sharper, athletically superior in many ways, but, in the eyes of some traditionalists, softer and more theatrical.
Multiple Angles and Unresolved Questions
The episode raises several questions that extend beyond one pundit’s opinion:
• How should statistical “most-fouled” rankings be interpreted? Are they primarily evidence of targeting or of successful provocation?
• Has the professionalisation of player behaviour around officials gone too far, turning genuine contact into performance?
• Do high-profile accusations from former players of Souness’ stature influence refereeing culture, or do they simply reflect a permanent generational divide?
• And for young players like Saka, how much does the constant noise around “diving” affect decision-making on the pitch?
There is no neat resolution. Simulation exists. So does legitimate heavy contact that can look minimal in freeze-frame. Arsenal’s players do appeal vigorously. So do most top teams when a key attacker is challenged. Souness’ language was characteristically absolute—“cheat”—while the reality is usually more nuanced.
What the intervention does achieve is to keep the debate alive. In an era of carefully managed media appearances and anodyne post-match interviews, a veteran of Souness’ stature still willing to call a player a cheat guarantees attention. Whether that attention produces clearer standards around simulation, greater empathy for the physical toll on creative players, or simply another cycle of tribal outrage remains to be seen. For now, Saka continues to draw fouls, Arsenal continue to appeal, and Souness continues to call it as he sees it—unvarnished, unapologetic, and firmly rooted in a different footballing world.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers Global, News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Politics and Technology.
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