Eni Aluko has hit back at the “racist, sexist and misogynistic” people who sent her abusive messages after she voiced a theory regarding Declan Rice’s potential move to Arsenal.
The Gunners were seemingly struggling to agree a price with West Ham United for the midfielder and had two offers rejected before Manchester City entered the race.
Arsenal then upped their bid to £105m as City decided against pursuing the transfer.
Aluko’s theory was that City never wanted to sign Rice and that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta had asked his friend, and City manager, Pep Guardiola to put in a bid to force Arsenal’s owners to match the Hammers’ valuation and get the deal over the line.
She added that this tactic was something she used to do while working as a director of women’s football for Aston Villa and sporting director of Los Angeles-based Angel City FC.
“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,” wrote Aluko in a thread on Twitter before adding:
“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.”
She also posted a video on Twitter with the caption: “My DMs are a bit quiet, looks like the clowns have run away #DeclanRice #TransferTea.”
The video was accompanied by several crystal balls and laughing emojis, followed by a clown emoji as she smiled and shook her head.
Arsenal’s deal for Rice has been agreed in principle with £100m in guaranteed cash plus £5m in bonuses.
