Evra short on applause after Aluko exchange

TO paraphrase a gag on social media, Patrice Evra was dressed for a snooker tournament yesterday but took a few wrong turns. Judging from what followed, one of those turns walked him face first into the rack of cues while dropping a ball on his foot. Quite what the waistcoasted Frenchman was thinking in his little exchange on ITV with Eni Aluko is anyone’s guess, but making sense of this guy has never been straightforward — a World Cup mutiny here, kicking a fan there. But what a peculiar mess he landed himself in just a few minutes into coverage of Costa Rica-Serbia. Hardly a game to get folk talking and in the end it was a few folk talking that overshadowed the game. In order, it went something like this: Aluko was discussing Costa Rica’s scoring issues, spanning the absence of Joel Campbell to the poor form of Marco Urena in MLS. Evra warmed up with a ‘very good’ that might have slipped unnoticed, and then, after Jacqui Oatley agreed she is, indeed, ‘good’, Evra went a little further and did something else. He gave Aluko a round of applause. Viewers started heating up on Twitter and when Aluko’s analysis turned to Serbia, it ratcheted up another notch. Turning to Henrik Larsson, Evra said: ‘This is just amazing, I think we should leave, Henrik, because she knows about more football than us! I’m really impressed you know.’ By half-time, he had a decent section of social media justifiably calling the episode sexist and questioning whether ITV should sack him. It is understood the latter option hasn’t been discussed by the broadcaster, with one source suggesting last night that the pair were getting on fine post-broadcast. Time will tell on that, but there is an interesting side to all this, which was the strange on-screen chemistries at the World Cup. None of the other spats qualified as a Twitter storm, but there has definitely been a cranking up of moods in the usually placid studios. The excellent Slaven Bilic responded to a question from Mark Pougatch about VAR being used to spot a foul against Brazil by saying what most of us were thinking: ‘To be fair, I don’t care.’ Cue guffaws from Ian Wright, in his lime green away kit, and Gary Neville. It even raised a smile from Roy Keane. Possibly. Keane had been brought in alongside Lee Dixon and Bilic for Croatia v Nigeria. At one point, in discussing England and Gareth Southgate’s decision to tell his squad the team two days before they faced Tunisia, Keane said: ‘Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough named the team two hours before kick-off. What helped me was I probably always knew I was starting. The lads (nodding to Bilic and Dixon) might be able to give you a better answer.’ Savage. Previously, on the BBC, Jermaine Jenas and Phil Neville had livened up UruguayEgypt with an odd tango over who appreciated the midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur the most. ‘Don’t tell me how to play central midfield, Phil,’ Jenas snapped. Of course, there has also been excellent punditry among the elbows. Rio Ferdinand has stood out, as have Martin Keown, Bilic and Neville, with ITV perhaps holding an edge. If they can avoid punchups or industrial tribunals, both sides ought to be fine.