Laura Woods has doubled down on her criticism of Eni Aluko after the former England striker reignited her feud with Ian Wright. Aluko caused a stir last year when she targeted Wright, accusing him of blocking opportunities for female pundits in women’s football. Wright was left outraged by those claims and refused to accept Aluko’s subsequent apology.

Last week, Aluko name-dropped Wright again while discussing her frustration at being overlooked for a punditry role at last year’s Women’s Euro final. She claimed “the women’s game should be by women for women” and suggested that when male pundits become “the main character”, it repeats “the patriarchal stuff that we’ve been fighting against”. Aluko followed up with an Instagram video in which she branded Wright “childish” and called him out for sit-down talks.

She said: “I just want to put it out there publicly that I’ve always been open to having a conversation where we share perspectives, we talk and we move on. That’s where I’m at.

“I’m a little bit disappointed to hear that Ian, if you’re watching this, that there’s been sort of like: ‘I don’t want to work with her’, and there’s this active choice that people are now having to make, which is childish.

“I would never use my privilege to say: ‘I don’t want to work with that person so that person shouldn’t get an opportunity’.”

Woods, meanwhile, responded to Aluko’s initial comments on X (formerly Twitter), simply writing: “Wow.” When asked by another user if she would back her fellow pundit, she bluntly replied: “Nope.”

She shared another series of posts on Monday morning, making her stance crystal clear as she explained how being a former player doesn’t necessarily make somebody a good analyst.

Woods wrote: “Caps don’t win automatic work and they don’t make a brilliant pundit either. The way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you are and the chemistry you have with your panel are what makes a brilliant pundit.

“‘The women’s game should be by women for women’ is one of the most damaging phrases I’ve heard. It will not only drag women’s sport backwards, it will drag women’s punditry in all forms of the game backwards.

“If you want to grow something, you don’t gatekeep it. We want to encourage little boys and men to watch women’s football too, not just little girls and women.

“And when they see someone like Ian Wright taking it as seriously as he does, they follow suit. That’s how you grow a sport.”

Woods added: “Here’s a picture of our team at ITV. We won best production at the Broadcast Sport Awards 2025 for our coverage of the Women’s Euros. Seb Hutchinson won best commentator too. So I think ITV got it just right.”