Jermaine Jenas accused Graeme Souness of 'lying' about quote he's consistently denied

Jermaine Jenas accused Graeme Souness of 'lying' about a quote that he has always denied.

Former Premier League footballer Jenas hit the headlines on Thursday when he was sacked by the BBC following allegations of 'inappropriate behaviour' in the workplace.

Jenas was the co-host of BBC One talk show The One Show and was a regular pundit on Match of the Day. He was widely believed to become Gary Lineker's successor as host of the iconic programme.

A BBC spokesperson said: "We can confirm Jermaine Jenas is no longer part of our presenting line up."

Jenas spent eight years of his club carer at Tottenham Hotspur, after making a £7 million switch from Newcastle United in 2003.

The young midfielder was named PFA Young Player of the Year during his time with the Magpies, but then-Newcastle boss Graeme Souness claimed that Jenas was not enjoying life in the northeast.

Jenas allegedly described life at St. James' Park as like living "in a goldfish bowl", although he's consistently denied saying that.

Speaking earlier this year, Jenas offered a hefty sum of money to charity if someone was able to find evidence of the alleged statement.

"I always said, if anybody can ever find this quote from me, I'll donate a handsome amount of money to charity on their behalf because it was never said in any way, shape or form," Jenas said.

"Why Graeme lied about it at that particular time, I don't know, I didn't get it. The way I saw it was this. I was at Newcastle. I loved my time in Newcastle. Trust me, you don't leave Newcastle to go to London for a quiet life."

Jenas said that the sacking of Bobby Robson - the manager who brought him to Newcastle from Nottingham Forest - contributed to his decision to leave the club.

"So I was playing really well, Alan Shearer got injured, it made me kind of vice captain," he said.

Jermaine Jenas has been axed by the BBC (Image: Getty)

"So I was captain for a number of games, even over people like [Patrick] Kluivert, [Craig] Bellamy, and [Kieron] Dyer. And there was just a bit of a shift in the energy that I felt from the manager at that particular time.

"And yeah they already sacked Bobby which I wasn't entirely happy with, but Graeme came in and I was like, 'well, superstar midfield player, I can't wait to learn everything there is to learn from you'.

"I probably didn't get what I expected. He probably could easily sit there and say the same thing, probably about me as well.

"I felt like Newcastle were going downhill. And I looked at Tottenham and Arsenal at the time who I was chatting to and I looked and I was like, well, they just brought in Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick, Aaron Lennon, Tom Huddlestone, Michael Dawson, all these young English players.

"So I was desperate to go to the World Cup in 2006. I was just like, where have I got the best chance of doing that.

"Is it in a team that's nosediving or a team challenging for top four. So I still feel like I picked the right choice. And, I was really disappointed by that because I loved my time in Newcastle and I didn't want to leave.

"Coaching was going downhill. Players that they were signing were going downhill, in my opinion, the club was not going in the right direction. So I had decided to leave."