West Ham forward Michail Antonio has recently come under fire due to comments made on a podcast with Newcastle United striker and co-host, Callum Wilson.

Antonio, who last scored in the Hammers’ 3-1 win against Brighton, has been the main subject on popular sports radio channel, talkSPORT, with the backlash coming due to comments made about Tottenham Hotpsur and Brazilian forward, Richarlison.

The West Ham striker first made comments regarding Richarlison back in May, mocking the fact that the Brazilian had scored four times last season, three of the times being offside, and taking his shirt off all four times. Antonio and Wilson then commented on how the striker was almost on a suspension due to him taking his shirt off too many times for offside goals.

However, the backlash of Antonio’s comments have mainly come this season, as he has failed to score in his last eight matches, also missing a crucial chance to make it 3-1 away from home at Brentford. Gabby Agbonlahor of talkSPORT recently took issue with the comments made by Antonio, as reported by the Daily Mirror, stating;

‘He’s on a podcast every week, talking about how he (Antonio) is desperate for goals, he was sliding in because he’s desperate for goals, because wants to talk about it on his podcast next weekend. Embarassing, it is.

‘You can’t be coming for Richarlison and then you’re not banging in goals yourself. Don’t mind Callum Wilson because he’s putting the goals in, he’s scoring goals, but you’re not backing it Antonio.

‘I don’t mind a podcast if you’re having a bit of banter between yous, but when you’re starting to hammer other players that are playing, you shouldn’t be doing that, especially when you’re not prolific yourself.’

However, this is not the first time that Antonio has received backlash for something said on his podcast – before the Hammers played Liverpool at Anfield, he would make a bold claim that David Moyes’ side would finish higher than Liverpool this season.

West Ham would go on to lose 3-1, with Jarrod Bowen scoring the only goal for the visitors. The backlash continued after Antonio stated;

‘I swear to you, if we won that game, some would have turned up to my house! If we won that game, I was so implanted in these Liverpool fans heads they would have turned up to my house. It was a madness.

‘The amount of messages I got all week from Liverpool fans after the game. I probably won the game even though I didn’t win because how am I still implanted [in your heads]? I’m still getting messages today!’