Simon Jordan and Graeme Souness came to verbal blows while discussing the task awaiting Sir Jim Ratcliffe as Manchester United owner.
Chemical mogul and INEOS founder Ratcliffe faces a massive makeover at Old Trafford this summer, where he hopes to end a cycle of mediocrity by United standards. And Jordan believes a completely fresh start under a stricter regime could be the ticket to get the club back to the big time.
The failed Crystal Palace owner - under whom the club entered administration in 2010 - was commenting on the modern running of a club and how teams often get big decisions wrong. Specifically, Jordan suggested transfers are one area of United's business that has gone wrong all too often in recent years.
"I look at this now and say - with Jim Ratcliffe - that I don't think, if you're focused on the basic principles of what you're trying to achieve. . .I mean recruitment isn't that difficult," he said on the Three Up Front podcast. "If you think about it properly. If you think about it with strategy."
It was at that point co-host Troy Deeney said he was "interested in this," while Souness remained quiet as Jordan explained his theory. The talkSPORT pundit went on to use Wilfried Zaha - who failed to match expectations after joining United in his younger days - as an example of a transfer that wasn't researched enough and could have been avoided with more due diligence.
Souness then cut Jordan off and said: "I'm sorry, but you're talking b******s. Let me explain why. You're saying you do due diligence on Wilfried. The one thing you can never make a judgement call on and be accurate when you're at a big football club... What you try to do is eliminate all the risk elements attached to this player.
"[It's] one thing you can say, 'He's the right age. He's not had a lot of injuries. He can play and perform in the Premier League'. The one thing you can't [account for is] can he live with the pressure of being a Man United player? Where every time we go to play, it's the opposition's cup final. And that's something, when you're at a big club, you can't really be accurate about."
The Liverpool legend continued to describe it as "an enormous difference" scouting a player and dealing with the genuine article once they've been signed. Jordan replied by saying he would employ someone to "get under the skin" of a potential signing, perhaps missing Souness' point that it's impossible to find that information out ahead of time.
In any case, Ratcliffe will have his own machinations about what United require to get back to their best, including potential transfers and who to recruit them. However, Jordan appears to believe he's got the solutions ready and raring.
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