Graeme Souness rips into Declan Rice again - insisting he 'plays too deep' and 'might be a centre-half' - as legend claims Arsenal midfielder wouldn't get into any of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Man City's teams

Graeme Souness has delivered another scathing assessment of Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice, suggesting he might be better suited to playing in defence because he operates 'too deep'.

Rice has established himself as a key figure for both Arsenal and England since his £105million move to the Emirates in 2023, but Souness remains unconvinced the 27-year-old has the qualities required of an elite central midfielder.

The Gunners star, who played a pivotal role in steering Arsenal to their first Premier League title in 22 years last campaign and helped guide his country to the World Cup semi-finals in the summer, was singled out for criticism and labelled 'limited' by Souness after England's heartbreaking defeat against Argentina. 

Appearing on Piers Morgan's new Football Uncensored show on Monday after Arsenal's 2-1 victory over title rivals Chelsea at the weekend, Souness doubled down on his view of Rice.

'How many times do you see him as the last man with the ball,' Souness told Morgan. 'In the build-up, he's last man. He's sitting between two centre-halves or between the centre-half and the full-back. He's last man. A lot of the time, he doesn't play in midfield. 

'In my second or third home game (of my career), I went into the back four like all midfield players do today. It's old man's football. It's cheating. An old man's way of playing midfield. You get the ball under no pressure and you play it out to the full-back.'