- Joey Barton has made Gary Neville his latest target in a social media attack
- Neville called out Barton for comparing two female pundits to serial killers
- It’s about survival! FA Cup replays must remain for the good of English football – It’s All Kicking Off
Joey Barton has threatened Gary Neville and ordered him to ‘keep your head down or you will get emptied’ after the broadcaster criticised him for comparing female pundits to serial killers.
The 41-year-old sparked fury on Friday morning when he compared Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward to Fred and Rose West after they covered Crystal Palace’s FA Cup draw with Everton.
Fred and Rose West murdered 12 women and young girls over the course of 20 years.
ITV condemned his attack as ‘shameful’ and Neville tweeted his support for their post, adding that Barton had gone ‘too far’.
Barton subsequently hit back at Neville, writing on X: ‘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.’
Addressing Aluko on Friday morning, Barton’s latest misogynistic remarks on X read: ‘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. Eni Aluko and Lucy Ward, the Fred and Rose West of football commentary.’
In response, ITV wrote: ‘For Joey Barton, an ex-professional player with a significant social media presence, to target two 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.’
After ITV decried Barton’s comments, Neville wrote a heartfelt tweet in support of women working in sport.
He wrote: ‘Well done ITV. It’s gone too far this and mentioning serial killers is quite simply incredible.
‘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 mysogyny, 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 has launched repeated tirades against female football broadcasters in recent weeks, including Laura Woods, Alex Scott, and Bianca Westwood.
Barton also called it ‘dangerous’ for women to work at men’s clubs due to them ‘having full-blown affairs and costing people marriages’.
On Boxing Day, the 41-year-old convicted criminal took aim at Amazon Prime Video Sport for including former Liverpool goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis as a pundit for the Reds’ 2-0 win over Burnley, saying her inclusion was ‘nonsense’ and ‘tokenism’.
After Mary Earps won Sports Personality of the Year, he gloated that he would score ‘100 out of 100 penalties’ against the Women’s World Cup Golden Glove holder.
On Boxing Day Barton took aim at Amazon Prime Video Sport for including former Liverpool goalkeeper Rachel Brown-Finnis as a pundit for their 2-0 win over Burnley, saying her inclusion was ‘nonsense’ and ‘tokenism’.
He previously boasted that he would score ‘100 out of 100 penalties’ against Mary Earps after she won the Sports Personality of the Year Award in December.
Aluko, who made 102 appearances for England in a 12-year international career, rose above Barton’s broadside.
She resisted addressing Barton’s vitriol and instead posted a video in which she spoke about her favourite FA Cup memories.
‘The best FA Cup game I have ever watched has got to be the 1999 semi-final Manchester United against Arsenal,’ she said as the third round of the competition continues this weekend.
‘Extra-time, Ryan Giggs goal. Takes off his shirt, swings it about, hairy chest. That is a memory that is in my mind.’
She later revealed that her favourite moment in the competition was lifting the first of her two FA Cups in 2015, a game in which she was awarded player of the match.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
