Simon Jordan Launches Blistering Attack On Eni Aluko While Sat Next To Her

Eni Aluko clashed with Simon Jordan on talkSPORT as the storm surrounding her comments about coverage of women's football continues.

Having previously been involved in a row with Ian Wright after Aluko said he was blocking opportunities for females covering the women's game last year, the 38-year-old again caused a stir with her appearance on the 90s Baby Show.

Expressing frustration about Wright and Nedum Onuoha being chosen as two of the six pundits for ITV and BBC at the Women's Euro final, she claimed "we need to gatekeep the women’s game in a way that the men’s game is gatekept".

Her issue lied with the the aforementioned pair being on punditry duty when she and record appearance maker Fara Williams were in the stands at St Jakob Park for England's historic penalty shoot-out win over Spain.

Aluko's comments were slammed by former colleague Laura Woods, who tweeted that "caps don’t win automatic work and said that her thinking will "drag women’s sport backwards" and "drag women’s punditry in all forms of the game backwards".

She also defended Wright as a role model who should be commended for taking the women's game so seriously.

Aluko has caused an almighty stir with her comments. Image: Getty

Aluko reignited the feud with Wright with an eight minute rant and also fired back with a statement to Woods as she doubled down and claimed "women's football should prioritise women as the faces of the sport".

On Tuesday morning, she appeared on talkSPORT in an attempt to further clarify her comments and answered questions from Jim White about what changes she believes ought to be made.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Aluko said: "I think it's more about clarifying and saying look, I think 270 caps represent experience and the insight you can bring to the game," Aluko said on talkSPORT.

"What I wasn't saying is that 270 caps justifies an instant pick, of course, you need a skillset to be a pundit.

"The point I was trying to make is, that in women's football, my opinion is that where there's a choice, I want to see that level of experience on the main panel for women's football.

"That's not at the exclusion of Nedum Onuoha or Ian Wright, I'm saying, can we have a situation where women are the main faces of women's sport and then the men play more of a supporting role?

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"That might be...Ian Wright could do 10-minute hits before the game, a bit of colour, bit of context, then back to the main studio and bang, you've got the faces of the game, whoever the three female pundits are."

But while things began civil, former Crystal Palace owner proceeded to launch a blistering attack on Aluko as she sat next to him, branding her not "particularly enlightening, illuminating, engaging or charismatic".

Jordan also said he doesn't believe Aluko "comes across as particularly likeable".

"I think we live in a society where people don’t have the experience and substance, don’t know what they’re talking about [and are] masquerading as experts,” Jordan stated.

“With all due respect to women in men’s football, I think they have zero expertise in men’s football. I think they can talk about tactics but the two games are vastly different – the speed, the scale, the pressure, the physicality. They are vastly different games.”

Aluko attempted to clarify her comments in an appearance on talkSPORT. Image: Getty

He added: “I’ve encountered Eni in short form and long form, we had a conversation about the commerciality of football which I thought Eni talked with no commercial sense.

“That is my opinion, she probably disagrees. I’ve seen her talking on podcasts where she’s ideologically aligned with a perspective that overrepresentation is on merit and underrepresentation is based on structural racism. I find that a difficult circle to square.

“As far as expertise is concerned, the times that I’ve listened to her – I don’t think that she’s particularly enlightening, illuminating, engaging or charismatic. I don’t think she comes across particularly likeable but that’s my view, but some people have the same view of me.”

In response to that verbal onslaught, Aluko replied: "It's an opinion, which we're all entitled to. I put value on them, everybody has them.

"I'm not going to listen to a mob on X who have never put themselves in a situation to do anywhere close to what I've done.

"I listen to the professional, the people who have hired me for the last 11 years, the biggest broadcasters in the world.

"By default, if I'm working with the people who are considered brilliant broadcasters, if I'm next to them, then by default I'm considered also a brilliant broadcaster.

"I appreciate what you're saying, but in reality, I've been good enough for 11 years and as I said, I'm the person to go and seek out feedback, for someone to go: 'I think you're struggling'...it's never happened."

Jordan then fired back and commented: "The language that you use is, to me, it's steeped in the sense of entitlement. The sheer weight of the entitlement you seem to believe you have would sink the weight of the Titanic. I think you have been quite fortuitous. I think because of initiatives like DEI, they've allowed people to be put into positions in the men's game that I don't think they've merited."

Aluko said that she felt "gaslit" by what Woods had to say on the matter and concluded, "I've worked too hard for people to conclude that because you're not seeing me on screen, I'm not good enough. That's not true."

Aluko was capped 105 times by England and played for the likes of Chelsea and Juventus. She has worked as a sporting director at Aston Villa and Angel City FC, as well as providing punditry for ITV, BT Sport, Amazon Prime and Fox Sports.