Eni Aluko says she has been proved right over her Declan Rice transfer theory and described the reaction to her previous comments as "sexist, racist and misogynistic.”
Former England forward Aluko claimed earlier this week that Manchester City only made a bid for Rice at the request of Gunners boss Mikel Arteta, who had called in a favour from his ex-boss Pep Guardiola.
At that point the Gunners had seen two bids below Rice's valuation rejected by West Ham and the rationale was that a rival City offer would prompt the Arsenal hierarchy to offer more and for Arteta to get his man.
"I think there’s a lot of cat and mouse going on here," Aluko said on talkSPORT. "As a sporting director I used to do this a lot.
“I don’t think #MCFC actually want Rice!”
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) June 27, 2023
“I think Arteta has asked Pep to put a bid in. It pushes the #AFC owners. I used to do it.”
Eni Aluko questions the intentions behind Man City’s £90m Declan Rice bid. ✍️ pic.twitter.com/oNpIksLQ7Y
"I used to call up a club, a big club, and say, 'right can you put a bid in' and that would basically force my owner to put a higher bid in.
"I don’t think Manchester City actually want to sign Declan Rice, I think what’s going on is Arteta has picked up the phone to Pep and said 'listen, Arsenal are going to do the incremental bid approach, if you put a higher bid in, that will push my owner'."
Asked why Arteta would want to ramp up the price of his main target, Aluko explained: "For speed and to get the deal done. West Ham obviously want a certain valuation and I don’t know why Arsenal are taking this incremental approach.
"It says to me that Man City coming in later on is going to help Arsenal, because the fans are going to get on it now.
"The fans are going to say 'hold on, if you let Declan Rice go to Man City when he was our number one target, that says a lot about Arsenal'. I used to do it all the time and it used to work."
The reaction to her comments were widely ones of bewilderment, with the likes of former players Paddy Kenny - "how does she get airtime" - and Darren Huckerby - "she hasn't got a clue" - joining the chorus.
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City did made a better offer for Rice, which was promptly rejected by West Ham and, on Wednesday, Arsenal saw their record-smashing £105m bid accepted as the Premier League champions withdrew from the race.
Rice is now reportedly set to undergo a medical to become the most expensive British player of all time.
Aluko has congratulated the West Ham captain on his "big move", adding that "haters" have now gone "missing" after days of "men who project their own jealousy and insecurity” in their reaction to her previous comments.
She posted on Instagram: "I guess the 'token' 'clueless' 'braindead' pundit knew exactly what she was talking about on this one. Go figure."
Then added on Twitter: "Interesting 24 hours in the transfer window. Congratulations Declan Rice on a big move to Arsenal.
"What a player, what a guy! Had the pleasure of meeting Declan “Jollof” Rice and happy to see he got the record transfer move he wanted. Big intent and ambition from Arsenal.
"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."
