STRICTLY Come Dancing’s Paul Merson has lashed out at show bosses for giving him multiple ‘joke’ dances.
The former England player, 56, made a series of subtle digs about his routines when discussing his Strictly journey so far.
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Last week, Paul was finally given a ballroom dance with his pro partner Karen Hauer and they achieved their highest score yet.
But they had previously performed to football anthem Vindaloo, danced around a fake barbecue to Pitball’s Fireball and ridden giant plastic horses.
However, within minutes of making his feelings known, it was revealed Paul and Karen are dancing a Salsa to the disco track Car Wash this weekend – and fans are not happy.
Paul was asked about his time on Strictly during Wednesday’s episode of spin-off show Strictly: It Takes Two.
Host Janette Manrara asked the Arsenal legend ‘what it meant to him’ to achieve his highest score yet with a ballroom quickstep.
Speaking via video link, Paul replied: “It was amazing just to get a nice dance.
“Obviously a barbecue and Vindaloo and Football’s Coming Home and looking like someone who works on a ship… yeah, it was nice to dance.
“I thought Karen deserved that as well, to be fair to her.”
In a second swipe, the dad-of-three continued: “I felt more comfortable. It was just nice.
“When I first took up the chance to come on the show, this was what I thought it would be roughly. Do you know what I mean?
“It was nice to get one of those dances in. Before, I just thought of Fred Astaire and I couldn’t see him dancing to Vindaloo.”
Janette asked him: “So you feel like you’ve got your proper who Strictly experience under your belt now?”
But in a third swipe, he shot back: “Now it’s back to reality again this week.”
Even Karen appeared to echo Paul’s feelings, saying: “It’s what Strictly’s about. When you have your top hat, you have your beautiful glamorous dresses.
“This is what people tune in at times to see.”
It was then revealed Paul and Karen are dancing a Samba to the 1976 disco track Car Wash, by US soul and RnB band Rose Royce.
Having watched Paul’s interview, fans immediately shared their frustration at him being given another “joke” dance.
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Writing on X, formerly known as Twitter, one raged: “It makes me annoyed to see Paul & Karen talking about how much he loved being Fred Astaire during the quickstep and that’s what he always expected #strictly to be, not the silly stuff.
“And then this week they have a samba to Car Wash, back to being the joke again.”
A second added: “The whole vibe of this interview has been ‘ooh yeah it’s great doing proper ballroom’, I’m so cross they’re now making Paul do the samba.”
Another agreed: “He’s quite right….They need to stop all theses stupid dances they give to ex sports people.
“It’s embarrassing and never works properly. Paul’s dance was far better with the correct music and outfit.”
And someone else begged: “#Strictly Please listen to Paul and Karen! The expectation when signing up was to learn to dance, with all the associated elegance, not silly songs and silly themes.”
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