Eni Aluko insists controversial Declan Rice to Arsenal theory vindicated as she hits out at ‘sexist, racist mysogynists’

Will Ford
Pundit Eni Aluko claims her controversial Declan Rice to Arsenal theory has been vindicated.
Pundit Eni Aluko claims her controversial Declan Rice to Arsenal theory has been vindicated.

Eni Aluko insists her controversial Declan Rice theory has been vindicated after Arsenal agreed a £105m deal for the England international with West Ham.

The Hammers accepted the Gunners’ mammoth bid for Rice on Wednesday after Manchester City pulled out of the race to sign him.

Aluko said earlier this week that she believed City never held genuine interest in Rice, claiming Mikel Arteta had asked friend and managerial mentor Pep Guardiola to put a bid in for the midfielder to push his owners to offer more money and get the deal done.

She claimed it was a tactic she used while working as director of women’s football for Aston Villa and sporting director of Angel City FC.

Aluko reckons City cooling their interest proves her assertion was right, before she hit out at the ‘sexist, racist and misogynistic’ abuse she received as a result of her comments on talkSPORT.

She said: “Safe to say I suspected Rice wasn’t going up the M6 to Manchester! I’ve had a lot of laughs on this today, it was very quiet from the pile-on brigade – somehow a lot of haters went missing. Apologies are much quieter than disrespect.

“Disagreement is part of the job. But disagreement should never be used by people to be sexist, racist, misogynistic to women in football. It’s an absolute disgrace and I won’t ignore it for the benefit of a lot of men who project their own jealousy & insecurity spouting abuse. Women in football are not going away. Get used to it.

“We know our stuff, we speak from a place of professional insight and experience. Take it or leave it, agree, disagree but if you choose sexism, racism, misogyny to disagree, you ARE the problem and you’re exposing yourself.

“If you spend your time attacking women in football, you are exposing the fact you can NEVER be at the same level. You’re entitled to opinion, don’t abuse it to be racist, sexist and misogynistic.’

She posted a video on Twitter alongside several crystal ball emojis with the caption: ‘My DMs (direct messages) are a bit quiet’, followed by five laughing emojis.

She added: ‘Looks like the clowns have run away #DeclanRice #TransferTea’ followed by a clown emoji, as she smiled and shook her head.

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