Former Wolves striker Stephen Elliott has come to the defence of Raul Jiemenz, after he was mocked by Troy Deeney and Luther Blissett for his goal celebration at Wembley on Sunday.
The Mexican, who will join the club permanently for £30 million this summer (BBC Sport), pulled out a mask after putting Wolves 2-0 up in the FA Cup semi-final clash with Watford.
The Hornets levelled things up thanks to goals from Gerard Deulofeu and Deeney, before the Spaniard got the winner in extra-time.
After the game, Deeney ripped into Jimenez for the mask celebration, branding the striker a ‘loser’.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Blissett harshly told the star he should ‘get a different job’, at which point Elliott waded in.
He clapped back via Twitter: “Lighten up people. He celebrated goal a bit differently. With the amount of real problems developing in our game surely this bit of fun is the least of the problems. Some folk love a moan!! We need characters in game. You do wonder at times?”
TBR’s view
Jimenez always ran the risk of looking ‘silly’ with his celebration, but as Elliott says it was just a bit of fun.
The striker scored a quality a goal which surely gave him the right to celebrate in whatever way he saw fit.
It was a great moment for him and he revelled in it.
Deeney and Blissett are entitled to their opinions, but there’s certainly no denying Jimenez is an outstanding footballer.