A manager of a major English football club has snubbed Rishi Sunak with an explicit rejection to meet him. The Prime Minister’s visit to Southampton to watch them take on Plymouth Argyle ended up backfiring as the home manager admitted: “I’ve got no interest in saying hello”.
Sunak was in attendance at the Championship match to see his favourite team, Southampton FC consolidate their third-place position with a 3-1 over the Devon outfit. He has previously spoken of his desire to “run Southampton”, saying if he got a top job there it would make him a “very happy man”.
The Prime Minister boarded at the nearby £40,000-a-year Winchester College, and has said football is one of his hobbies. He has said the current conspiracy theorist Matt Le Tissier was his childhood hero – while an 18th birthday card signed by the whole squad is one his “prized possessions”.
Despite Sunak’s cheerful interactions with Saints mascots, club manager Russell Martin was less than welcoming. When asked by BBC 5 Live Sport if the Prime Minister had “been down to see you”, Martin replied: “He might have come down [but] I’ve got no interest in saying hello”.
Martin, who has previously managed Swansea City and a franchise football club based in Buckinghamshire, followed up the blunt statement by asking: “How’s that for honesty?”
The interviewer let off a chuckle and said: “I don’t expect anything else from you”.
The Southampton manager has previously dabbled in politics, while on a podcast in 2021. He said: “If you look at the way the country’s been run for however long, I think it’s going to be quite a scary place. We lack leaders with empathy and emotional intelligence.”
Sunak, meanwhile, was mocked on Twitter/X by football fans around the country for using the match as a photo opportunity, with one account saying: “Rishi Sunak is at the Southampton game sat next to a man who’s got a camera fixed on him ready to catch any sort of authentic human emotions. As you do when you go to the football”.
Another wrote: “I refuse to believe Rishi Sunak actually likes football/Southampton”.
Sunak isn’t the only politician who claims to like football. Labour leader Keir Starmer regularly attends Arsenal games, while former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also gets down to the Emirates, although it’s safe to assume they don’t meet for a pint at half time.
