Walker threatened to ‘knock Maupay out’ after City star was ‘taunted about his children’ – lip reader
According to a lip reader, Manchester City defender Kyle Walker said he would ‘knock out’ Brentford’s Neal Maupay on Monday night.
Maupay fired Brentford ahead before Phil Foden netted an equaliser just before half-time. The England international later completed his hat-trick as City – who still have a game in hand – moved to within two points of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Towards the end of the game on Monday night, Walker visibly lost his cool following an exchange with Maupay and Pep Guardiola refused to speak about the incident during his post-match press conference. When asked for a comment, the Spaniard said: “Next question!”
Walker has had a lot to deal with off the pitch in recent months. It emerged in January that he had split with his wife – Annie Kilner – after being revealed to be the father of Lauryn Goodwin’s five-month old daughter.
The Man City defender had already fathered a boy – three-year-old Kairo – with Goodwin (a model and influencer) during his brief split from Kilner in 2020.
Being the sh*thouse he is, Maupay – according to ‘expert witness and forensic lip reader’ Jeremy Freeman – was accused of referring to Walker’s personal life during their mid-match spat on Monday.
Via an exclusive for The Daily Mail, Freedman claimed Walker started by saying ‘I’m gonna knock him [Maupay] out’ to fourth official Stuart Atwell.
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To which, the official replied: ‘Shush’. Walker refused to back down, though. He went on to say: ‘Wait there’ – pointing to the tunnel – before heading back over towards referee Jarrad Gillet.
The England defender then added: ‘Ref he spoke about my kids, he spoke about my kids, not once, but twice.’
Maupay then butted in to say: ‘I didn’t, it’s okay’.
Attempting to defuse the situation, Gillet said: ‘Let’s deal with it at the end’ before turning to Maupay to add: ‘Now, now, just calm down, listen to me… think about it, think about it.’
The exchange is said to finish with Maupay responding to Attwell by stating: ‘That’s a lie, that’s not fair, I promise you now.’
After the game, Brentford boss Thomas Frank didn’t have much to say about the incident as it was not his “first focus” after his side’s loss.
“I saw them [Walker and Maupay] talk to each other, yeah. No [I’ve not spoken to Neal], that’s not my first focus after a game we lost,” Frank told reporters.
“I know I need to talk to you guys. I’ll focus more on the football side if that’s OK.”
Maupay’s form has picked up in recent weeks as he has benefitted from Ivan Toney’s return. He has scored in three consecutive Premier League games and has been in the headlines a lot as he butted heads with Tottenham Hotspur’s James Maddison last week.
