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29th May 2018

Gary Lineker puts Piers Morgan back in his box over Raheem Sterling tattoo

Check mate

Ben Kiely

Gary Lineker and Piers Morgan don’t see eye-to-eye on Raheem Sterling’s new ink.

It’s pretty clear that certain members of the English media have a real problem with Raheem Sterling. Every time he makes a mistake, or even, you know, does anything, he seems to be vilified.

Well, the Sun have caused a real stir with their coverage of Sterling’s new tattoo. On the lead story of their FRONT PAGE on Tuesday, they ran with a piece on the Man City man’s ink. Sterling got a machine gun tattooed on his ankle, which the publication pointed out had ‘sparked fury’ from anti-gun campaigners. They even reported that some of these campaigners are calling for him to be withdrawn from England’s World Cup squad as a result.

Match of the Day host, Gary Lineker found the whole story bizarre.

A wild Morgan appears

Sterling was compelled to respond to the front page on his Instagram Story. He explained the tattoo was a reminder of his vow to never touch firearms following the death of his father, who died after being shot when he was a small child. He added the body art had ‘deeper meaning’ and was still unfinished.

Lineker saw the story as an attempt to destroy Sterling’s confidence prior to the World Cup. He considers that ‘unpatriotic’ trait unique to England.

That chap off from that TV show where they wheel out folks who are desperate for their 15 minutes of fame and make them dance for mindless entertainment, Piers Morgan, responded to Lineker’s tweet. He callously disregarded Sterling’s explanation for getting the tattoo.

Lineker was befuddled.

When Morgan fired back with the hackneyed, hypothetical and utterly irrelevant, ‘what if it was a swastika tattoo?’  argument, Lineker gave it the response it warranted.

Then the ‘debate’ just refused to end. Morgan seemingly being a glutton for punishment.

It could have been worse. It could have been a Piers Morgan tattoo.

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