It's all Robbie Williams; as well as announcing his European stadium tour, with his pop lacky Ollie Murs picking up the support slack, he's further endorsed teen-icons One Direction, saying they could be as big as British giants, The Spice Girls, The Metro reports. 

"You know, they're quite a power together, very much in the same way the Spice Girls were. The Spice Girls went and took on the world and won and I think the 1D boys have got a similar sort of chemistry," said Williams at The Soho Hotel, London while announcing his tour. "They're all good- looking lads, they're all great singers, and as a five they're a great power." Perhaps Robbie's indulging in youth, viewing 1D as a kind of modern Take That, as he was a young lad when he made it. So how is old(er) age treating the Angels singer as he hits 40? "I'm buzzing (for this tour)," he explains, "it's time to put my foot down and go 'This is what I do'. Pop stars cease to be pop stars at 40 and start being old people singing, don't they? I want to go and seal my place in pop history."

And talking about his recent night out with ladies' man Harry Styles, Robbie said:  'I don't think Harry needs any tips from me about women. He's a magnet like I've never seen before. I wasn't him when I was 18, that didn't happen to me. He's been tarred with the lucky stick hasn't he? He seems to be having a whale of a time.'