Michail Antonio has praised Richarlison for his late heroics for Tottenham against Sheffield United but insisted that he is not going to take back the comments he made about the Brazilian last season.
Richarlison had several goals ruled out for offside last season before finally scoring his first Premier League goal for Tottenham last season.
The situation led to a very public mocking from both Michail Antonio and Callum Wilson on The Footballer’s Football podcast (via The Daily Mail) who joked back in May that the striker should perhaps wait to make sure he was not offside before taking his top off to avoid embarrassing bookings.
Richarlison hit back at the duo, asking on his TikTok how many goals the West Ham and Newcastle strikers had scored at the World Cup.
Richarlison on TikTok after viewing the clip of Callum Wilson and Michail Antonio poke fun at him for his performance this season 🤣🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/ysqNn1NCsn
— The Spurs Express (@TheSpursExpress) June 2, 2023
Antonio subsequently defended his joke to the BBC Sport, insisting that it was nothing more than banter.
The 31-year-old has now been speaking again about the Tottenham striker following his brilliant cameo off the bench against the Blades.
Antonio refuses to apologise for Richarlison joke
The West Ham man told the Footballer’s Football Podcast: “My boy. My boy Richy, Richarlison, come off the bench, one assist, one goal. You know, I am happy for him.
“At the end of the day, I said something the other day and everyone’s still talking about it, even though it was about six months ago. Even though I said it, I said he’s a quality player.
“I always said he’s quality. But maybe he shouldn’t take his top off, I ain’t going to take that back. But he’s come off the bench, got his goal, after coming back from Brazil and saying he needs therapy. Maybe that goal can be his therapy on the pitch for him, so I’m happy for him.”
Spurs Web Opinion
One only needs to listen to Antonio’s comments last season to understand that he was merely joking about Richarlison continuing to take his shirt off despite having several goals disallowed and being booked for doing so on multiple occasions.
The West Ham striker did not say anything disparaging about the Tottenham man’s ability and this whole thing has been needlessly blown out of proportion, partly down to the way the media have reported this story and how some fans have reacted on social media.
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