As we mentioned last night, The Sun, and the other British tabloids for that matter, doesn't make great reading for England manager Roy Hodgson this morning.
In a truly bizarre story, they report that Roy Hodgson made a NASA space monkey joke, referring to Andros Townsend, in his half-time team talk during England's match with Poland.
The Mirror report that at least one player thought the joke had offensive connotations but Hodgson has said 'There was absolutely no intention on my part to say anything inappropriate. I made this clear straight away to Andros in the dressing room.'
The joke was:
'NASA decided they’d finally send a man up in a capsule after sending only monkeys in the earlier mission. They fire the man and the monkey into space.
The intercom crackles, ‘Monkey, fire the retros.’ A little later, ‘Monkey, check the solid fuel supply.’
Later still, 'Monkey, check the life support systems for the man.’
The astronaut takes umbrage and radioed NASA, ‘When do I get to do something?’
NASA replies, ‘In 15 minutes – feed the monkey.'
Hodgson was basically going the longest possible way about telling players to get the ball to Townsend as he was in flying form but it seems to have blown up in the media that the joke had some sort of offensive undertone.
The England manager, quoted in the Mirror, has since said 'I also spoke to Andros again on Wednesday. He has assured me and The FA he did not take any offence, and understood the point I was making in the manner I intended.'
Wayne Rooney has tweeted this morning about the whole debacle:
Seen the story on roy this morning. He done nothing wrong. This is ridiculous.
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) October 17, 2013
