Ian Wright has been backed by one in every of Eni Aluko’s former team-mates as he mirrored on their punditry row.
The Arsenal legend was accused of ‘blocking alternatives’ for feminine pundits by way of his work in girls’s soccer by Aluko.
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Her feedback sparked a backlash earlier than the previous Lionesses ahead issued an apology to Wright on social media.
Nonetheless, the ex-England striker refused to just accept the apology in his preliminary response to the remarks as he insisted it was time to ‘transfer on’.
In the meantime, Aluko this week pulled out of her internet hosting duties on the Girls’s Soccer Awards.
Wright has now addressed the continued scenario on his podcast with Lionesses icon Steph Houghton.
The pair co-host the sequence on YouTube titled Crossways, the place they talk about girls’s soccer.
Within the newest episode, Wright appeared deflated as he defined: “It’s been a little bit of an up-and-down week. However on the finish of the day, it’s all sorted.
“It’s all the time good to see you Steph, since you make me smile. It’s been fairly a tricky week.”
Former Lionesses captain Houghton, who performed alongside Aluko at two Girls’s World Cups, responded by publicly backing Wright.
Thanking him for his help of the ladies’s sport, she stated: “Ian, can I simply say this, and this has not been pre-empted, I feel I posted on Instagram.
“What you have got achieved for our sport is unbelievable and also you’ve received to take all of the credit score that everyone’s thrown at you this week as a result of you’re a superhero. And I really like working with you.”
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A beaming Wright then replied: “I really like you Steph. To see you come out publicly like that for me is simply good.
“However I simply want, it’s not in regards to the particular person within the girls’s sport, it’s simply in regards to the collective.
“I’m not going to enter it however I simply actually admire the general public help that I received.”
Since retiring from skilled soccer, Wright has develop into a fan-favourite pundit after that includes for a variety of broadcasters.
He has additionally been a vocal supporter of girls’s soccer on social media and thru his TV appearances.
The 61-year-old was a part of the BBC’s workforce of pundits for protection of the 2022 Girls’s Euros, which England gained on dwelling soil.
Wright additionally hosted his personal YouTube sequence known as ‘Wrighty’s Diary’ in the course of the 2023 Girls’s World Cup.
As a participant, he scored 9 occasions in 33 caps for the Three Lions in addition to being Arsenal’s second all-time prime scorer with 185 targets to his title.