![\"Ian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ian-wright.jpg\")
Ian Wright refused to accept Eni Aluko’s apology after her comments nine months ago | PA<\/p>\nEni Aluko has once again found herself in the spotlight.<\/p>\n
This time, the 38-year-old has angered many figures within the footballing community for comments made about male pundits working in the women’s game.<\/p>\n
Last year, the former England Lionesses star raised eyebrows by suggesting Ian Wright was ‘blocking opportunities’ for females by working as a pundit for some of their matches.<\/p>\n
That’s despite the 62-year-old frequently championing the sport. So remarkable were her comments that ITV even got involved, issuing a statement throwing their support behind the former Arsenal star. He was described as ‘ally’ to the women’s game, an ‘incredible advocate’ and ‘one of the UK’s most respected and much-loved footballers and sporting broadcasters’.<\/p>\n
Fast-forward to now, and Aluko has gone on the offensive once more.<\/p>\n
She has basically suggested that, following their spectacular falling out last year, Wright should have given up some of his punditry gigs for her.<\/p>\n
After her initial comments on the former Arsenal and Crystal Palace striker, Aluko offered an apology. Wright, however, insisted that he couldn’t accept it. Nearly a year on, tensions continue to run high.<\/p>\n
On a recent podcast appearance, Aluko also hit out at the BBC’s decision to have Nedum Onuoha as part of their punditry team for the Lionesses\u2019 win against Spain in the Euro 2025 final last July.<\/p>\n
“Last year, at the Women\u2019s Lionesses final, I\u2019m sat in the stands, I wasn\u2019t on ITV for the final, Fara Williams was sat next to me, Fara Williams has 170 caps [172 caps] for England, something ridiculous, I think she\u2019s the most-capped player, she\u2019s sat in the stands,” she said.<\/p>\n
“The two broadcasters that had the rights for the game \u2013 ITV and BBC \u2013 on BBC you\u2019ve got Ellen White, Steph Houghton and Nedum Onuoha, no offence to Nedum Onuoha, nothing against him, I don\u2019t know whether he played for England or not, but you\u2019re on the main panel for the final for England Women.<\/p>\n
“Let\u2019s go over to ITV, I\u2019m in the stands with 105 caps, so you\u2019ve got two women, between us we\u2019ve got 290 caps, something ridiculous, you turn over to ITV and it\u2019s Ian Wright, Emma Hayes and Kaz Carney.<\/p>\n
“So out of six punditry spots, two have gone to men. Meanwhile you\u2019ve got 290 caps, whatever it is, sitting in the stands.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019ve just told you I\u2019ve never done a final. I\u2019m probably going to struggle to think of any women, a female pundit, who has done a men\u2019s major final as a pundit.<\/p>\n
“I\u2019m not talking about presenters, people like to conflate the two, it\u2019s a different role, it\u2019s like comparing a forward and a defender, it\u2019s different jobs, I\u2019m talking about as a pundit, it doesn\u2019t happen, so something is not right there because I\u2019m saying this is still quite new where you\u2019re watching women\u2019s finals on TV, why are people like me and Fara not there?”<\/p>\n
![\"Karen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/karen-carney.jpg\")
Karen Carney worked as a pundit in last year’s Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
What Aluko is failing to grasp, however, is that she just isn’t a very good pundit.<\/p>\n
It may sound brutal, but the 38-year-old has dropped several clangers over the years – including in that very podcast.<\/p>\n
Firstly, if she’s to go on the offensive, she should have done her research. She openly admitted to not knowing if Onuoha had played for England or not (he didn’t). Imagine if he did, though? She didn’t know either way. That was her first mistake.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Aluko mentions that she struggles to think of a single female pundit who has covered a major men’s final.<\/p>\n
If only she’d tuned into TNT Sports for their Champions League coverage last season. Her old England teammate, Karen Carney, covered the showdown between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan alongside Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves.<\/p>\n
Maths has proven to be a problem, too.<\/p>\n
She mentions that Fara Williams has 170 caps, when it’s actually 172.<\/p>\n
She then proceeds to say that 170 international outings, plus her own 105, equals 290. It’s actually 275, if Wiliams indeed had 170 to her name.<\/p>\n
Numbers have been a recurring problem for her.<\/p>\n
While speaking during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, she touched on Richarlison. She reeled off his stats, including that he’d netted 19 goals in 40 matches. “About one a game,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Eni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1770754328_35_eni-aluko.jpg\")
Eni Aluko’s punditry has long frustrated football fans<\/p>\n
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GETTY<\/p>\n
The football community showed no mercy in letting her know her error.<\/p>\n
Aluko herself later made light of it but the damage, without a doubt, had been done.<\/p>\n
There have been other questionable statements, too.<\/p>\n
Back in the summer of 2023, she went viral for all the wrong reasons after suggesting Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola speaking to each other about transfer bids for Declan Rice.<\/p>\n
It’s not exactly how football works.<\/p>\n
Rival managers don’t regularly correspond with each other about who they’re bidding for. Secrecy is paramount to ensure they have the upper hand when a player’s signature is on the line.<\/p>\n
It’s even more baffling to think of Arteta and Guardiola confiding in each other when they’re competing for the same big trophies. The rivalry between Arsenal and Manchester City has intensified considerably in recent years, with the Gunners emerging as a major threat to their dominance of English football.<\/p>\n
Simon Jordan, perhaps, said it best. Speaking on talkSPORT today, he said: “I don\u2019t think that she\u2019s particularly enlightening, illuminating, engaging or charismatic.”<\/p>\n
Aluko has long frustrated football fans. Sympathy will be in little supply after her latest rant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eni Aluko has once again found herself in the spotlight. This time, the 38-year-old has angered many figures…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,218,217,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-418603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-football","tag-sport","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}