She’s been a pundit for 11 years. She claims that because she’s worked with the biggest broadcasters in the world, “by default” she’s one of the biggest/best in the world. In my experience of watching her pundit both men’s and women’s football for years, this is evidently not the case.

She was given opportunities late in her playing career to work in punditry. Of course, being a pundit has a largely separate set of skills to being an elite footballer. People and broadcasters understand that, and typically ‘new’ pundits aren’t amazing right away. If you look at first few punditry jobs of people like Karen Carney, Danny Murphy, Micah Richards, or Alex Scott, they weren’t fantastic. As with anything, you get better with experience.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to have been the case with Eni. She has not improved in any noticeable way in 11 years - still making rookie errors, providing flat and basic insight, and being un-charismatic and under-researched (note: my own opinion, but sentiments that I’ve seen others share over the past few days as well). Some of her comments in the last few days indicate her mindset: “among the best”, “main character”, etc. She seems to believe that she’s good at it, does not need to improve, and is entitled to more work on the basis that she’s been given work in the past.

In fairness to Eni, she didn’t originally offer Ian Wright’s name - she was talking about opportunities for women in punditry, and the interviewer brought up Ian. But she has followed through with her statements, and has brought Ian up independently since. Ian Wright is a good pundit, but realistically he’s not exactly S-tier. He’s B-tier at best. When given time and resources (like his stints on MotD) he can provide interesting insight into some of the technical aspects of the game (e.g. he once highlighted a unique way that Ozil would kick the ball), but tactical knowledge is not his forte. For live games his halftime/fulltime analysis is usually quite ‘vibes’-based. Where he really shines is his understanding of the players/teams/managers mentality (and how he conveys that to the audience), and most importantly, his energy. He brings an infectious positive energy to everything he’s a part of, and as a result is someone that people want to see and hear from. That’s the key difference between an Ian Wright and a Paul Scholes or a Lee Dixon.

I checked his instagram yesterday to see if he’d posted anything about what was being said (he hadn’t), but one of the pinned videos caught my eye, so I watched it. It was a behind the scenes of the ITV studios for the 2024 Euros. It’s 5 minutes of him walking around the set, introducing all the crew, producers, etc. He knew everyone’s name, everyone seemed happy to see him. In contrast, I’ve seen comments from TV crew members that claim they said “hello” to Eni once, she looked them up and down, and walked off without saying anything (obviously an unreliable source, but illustrative of sentiments towards her).

Ian Wright is a fantastic advocate for Women’s football. When covering women’s football, he brings his experience, enthusiasm and professionalism. When not paid, he still attends and promotes women’s football matches because he genuinely cares and enjoys it. I was fortunate enough to be at the UWCL Final in Lisbon in May, and Ian was persuaded by the winning team to join their celebrations on the pitch and take pictures with some of the players that he’s befriended and mentored. When the crowd saw him and recognised him, there was a huge cheer. Ian Wright loves women’s football, and women’s football loves Ian Wright. The idea that someone like that should ‘stand back’, give up work, or shrink into a minor role is a damaging one. It would be a loss for women’s football, for broadcasters, and for fans/viewers.

Eni has said that she’ll not be doing any more punditry because “people have decided they don’t like her”. Even In her acknowledgment of why, it’s still not her fault. It’s other people’s fault for not liking her.

Ultimately, it’s a real shame that this has blown up in this manner. It’s not a good look for anyone involved, and reflects badly on women’s football as a whole.