Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer will be back on duty for the BBC’s FA Cup coverage on Saturday and hoping their questions don’t spark any backlash from fans like last year’s final
The FA Cup quarter-finals get underway on Saturday with two spots in the semis at Wembley Stadium set to be secured. Fulham’s London derby clash with Crystal Palace kicks off at midday, while Brighton versus Nottingham Forest will be shown on the BBC in the afternoon.
Presenting the action will be BBC Sport staple Gary Lineker, while Alan Shearer is expected to return to the commentary booth. And the former England duo will hope for a less controversial FA Cup weekend than last year, where they came under heavy fire from Manchester United fans.
Shearer and Lineker covered last season’s FA Cup final, which saw United pull off a shock 2-1 win over Manchester City. After the match, the broadcasting legends didn’t shy away from addressing the team’s poor performances throughout the season, as well as bringing some hard-hitting questions to then-Red Devils head coach Erik ten Hag.
Some United fans deemed their line of questioning too harsh and took to social media to express their disapproval, saying Lineker and Shearer had been inappropriate after such a momentous win. But the Match of the Day icons stood firmly by their approach when talking on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“People took a bit of umbrage to our questioning and your answer to Erik ten Hag,” Lineker told Shearer. “He came over and he didn’t seem very happy right from the start. I think he also had a pop at Roy Keane, so he obviously had something in his mind when he came over.”
Lineker continued: “I asked the question, ‘Do you think you’ve been unfairly treated by pundits, and even us?’ Obviously, it’s our job to be critical on occasion, we have to say what we think. And then he replied saying ‘definitely’, and then you challenged him didn’t you?”
Shearer responded: “Yeah. He’s entitled to have a pop back because he’s been criticised at times and I think rightly so, because his team have been miles off it. They’ve been poor. They’ve had a disastrous season in terms of the league.
“I don’t think any Man Utd fan would argue that. To finish eighth, to finish with the number of goals they’ve conceded, shots against, it’s embarrassing.
“So for all of those things we’ve had to criticise them this season. If we didn’t we wouldn’t be doing our job. But he’s entitled to have the hump with people who he feels are being unfair, but I felt I was well within my rights [to say what I said].”
Mirror Football reported in the aftermath of the cup final back in May that a clearly irritated Ten Hag lashed out at Lineker and Shearer during the interview, taking offence at the nature of their questioning and even telling them to “calm down”.
Shearer most notably turned a positive comment about United’s Wembley performance into criticism over their displays for the majority of the season. Lineker, meanwhile, boldly asked Ten Hag – who was eventually sacked in October 2024 – whether he had just managed his last game for the club.
“You are very good here in England to push players and managers very high, and then you hammer them when they have one or two bad performances,” Ten Hag fumed. “I think you should be more calm.”
Ten Hag had also hit back at ITV pundit Keane after the FA Cup triumph. “We have to improve much more,” Ten Hag told Keane and, when the Irishman appeared to scoff, Ten Hag jokingly turned to him and said: “Hey, hey, you had trouble to manage a team. So…”
Keane took it in jest and replied: “I won a Championship with Sunderland, so give me some praise. Come on, don’t be too harsh on me.” Leading Ten Hag to laugh and say: “You did, as well.”
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