Eni Aluko claims Laura Woods has 'gaslit' her as ITV war of words rages on

Eni Aluko has accused Laura Woods of gaslighting her after the ITV and TNT Sports presenter claimed her recent remarks are "dragging women's punditry backwards". Former England international Aluko returned to the spotlight over the weekend following her call for women's football to be "gatekept" as she reinforced her position that male pundits, including ex-Arsenal striker Ian Wright, are preventing opportunities for females in the sport.

Aluko, 38, had encountered backlash last April for initially launching the dispute with Wright and suggesting he needed to consider "how much he's doing in the women's game". Aluko, who netted 33 goals in 105 appearances for England, argued that Wright has made it harder for female pundits to establish themselves in the industry.

She later apologised, but Wright declined to accept, stating he was "disappointed" by her remarks. Then, after Aluko restated her position on male pundits, Woods targeted her ITV colleague on X on Monday morning through a sequence of posts. Woods argued that Aluko's comments will "not only drag women's sport backwards, it will drag women's punditry in all forms of the game backwards".

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Responding to them, Aluko acknowledged she felt she was "gaslit" by Woods' statements. Speaking on talkSPORT on Tuesday morning, Aluko stated: "I respect Laura's opinion and always have done. I think it's helpful for her to outline the attributes that go into what you consider a brilliant pundit.

"[Number of] Caps is obviously part of that, as I explained. Caps isn't the decider but it's an objective way to say that a person has enough experience to talk about this specific game.

"It's interesting because Laura was one of the people I would consistently go to. We got on like a house on fire and I would go and ask her how she thought things went.

"Laura, consistently...and I had to look at the messages yesterday and thought 'hold on, I feel a bit gaslit here'... Laura consistently said to me 'I think you're a brilliant broadcaster and pundit'.

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"So I think there's a little bit of serving her argument at this point. Which I respect, she doesn't agree and that's fine. But I think there's an insinuation in there that you don't meet the standard. I've worked too hard for people just to conclude that because you're not seeing me on screen, you're not good enough. That's not true."

talkSPORT presenter Jim White brought up the "gaslit" comment before Aluko responded: "Not gaslit, I don't want to say that because she has a view and I appreciate her view.

"She mentioned about little boys being important for the women's game now and I agree. When I see little boys coming to women's games now, they have the women on the back of their shirts, they don't have the names of male pundits."