Graeme Souness suggests Tottenham target Mac Allister was better than Messi at World Cup

By Shamanth Jayaram

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur have both been linked with a move to sign Alexis Mac Allister, and Graeme Souness has claimed that he was Argentina’s best player at the World Cup, not Lionel Messi.

The Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder was one of the stars of the tournament in Qatar. He was excellent for Argentina and played a massive part in helping them win the competition.

Now, he has received immense praise from Souness.

Graeme Souness suggests Arsenal and Tottenham target Mac Allister was better than Messi at World Cup

Following his impressive performances at the World Cup, rumours began to emerge that Mac Allister is a transfer target for a number of clubs in the Premier League.

The Argentinian version of AS revealed that Arsenal and Atletico Madrid have shown interest in signing the Brighton man, while L’Interista claimed that Spurs are amongst those who want to bring him in.

It really does seem like it’s only a matter of time before Mac Allister leaves Brighton for a bigger club, and Souness’ latest comments could convince many more teams to join the race to sign him.

The pundit wrote in his piece on The Daily Mail that although Messi received all the plaudits, it was Mac Allister who was Argentina’s best player at the World Cup every time he watched them play.

He wrote: “Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister was absolutely exceptional in Argentina’s victory. It is very easy to focus on how fabulous Messi was for Argentina, but in the games I covered, Mac Allister was their best player.

“The ball he played for their second goal in the final, for Angel Di Maria, was sublime. Messi put him away around the corner. He took one look, had a couple more touches and never looked again before squaring the most perfect pass for Di Maria to put it past Hugo Lloris. Wonderful.

“He’s a top-four player and the big guys will be looking at him now and thinking, ‘We’ll have some of that’. He has proven he can play at the highest level and has already done it in the Premier League. 

“There is very little risk attached to this boy. He can create, score and works his socks off – that type of player, they are hard to find.”

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We don’t know if Mac Allister was Argentina’s best player at the World Cup, but he was definitely one of them.

The Brighton man played all but one of the Albiceleste’s seven games in Qatar – the only one he didn’t take part in was Argentina’s opener against Saudi Arabia, where they suffered a humiliating defeat.

He scored a goal against Poland to help his side seal qualification to the knockout stages of the competition and he then provided an assist in the World Cup final. He had a really good tournament and it’s only a matter of time before a big club snaps him up.

Arsenal and Tottenham are both right to target Mac Allister, but whether they will be able to sign him in January remains to be seen.