Joey Barton has responded to Gary Neville on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the former Manchester United defender praised ITV Sport for issuing a strongly-worded statement against Barton for his "vindictive remarks" about Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward.
The former Manchester City and QPR midfielder, who has been vocal against female pundits' involvement in men's football of late, criticised Aluko and Ward during Thursday's FA Cup third round clash between Crystal Palace and Everton.
Barton labelled Aluko and Ward as the "Fred and Rose West of football commentary” for their punditry work at Selhurst Park and said the following about Aluko: "How is she even talking about men’s football? She can’t even kick a ball properly. Your coverage of the game EFC last night, took it to a new low."
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A day later and ITV released a statement hitting back at Barton for his "contemptible" and "shameful" comments.
It read: "For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target to of our pundits, Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, with such vindictive remarks based on gender and to invoke the names of serial killers in doing so is clearly contemptible and shameful on his part. Football is for everyone."
Barton responded with an explicit reply to the broadcaster. "Shut up you f****** idiots," he wrote. "Keep them off the tele. They’re ruining the game for everyone of us. It’s what happens when you force under qualified, under prepared, tokenistic people onto us.
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"I will be calling them all serial killers from now on. Every clip you f****** put out. Told you, I don’t care anymore. We’ve all had enough of your ‘Woke’, ‘DEI’ bullshit. I hope everyone who agrees with me, gets right after your social media every time you force this nonsense on us."
He added: "I tried to play nice, you didn’t listen."
Soon, former England international Gary Neville made his feelings clear on the matter. The 48-year-old, who works for Sky Sports, praised ITV Sport's statement in a lengthy post.
"Well done ITV. It’s gone too far this and mentioning serial killers is quite simply incredible," he said.
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"My daughters have watched Salford City with me for 10 years and like to comment on football, my mum was kicked out of the football team (boys in the 1960’s) and stopped playing due to misogyny."
Neville added: "My sister struggled for funding for her sport for years and my brother was mocked when he took over the England women’s team. I come from a family that has fought these issues for years and I’ve witnessed it first hand. All this does is just discourage and it’s not the way forward.
"It’s bloody hard work for Women to succeed in sport and media as it is without this stuff."
Barton soon hit back, saying: "Gary, please keep your head down or you will get emptied as well. I know they pay your wages and I don’t want to have to put you away. Worry about one of the other 3758 business things you’ve got going on. I’ll decide when it’s gone too far. Not you."
Featured Image Credit: Getty Images - James English podcastTopics: Gary Neville, Joey Barton, Premier League
