Mark Allen has publicly blasted Shaun Murphy’s ‘baffling behaviour’ in the latest instalment of their bitter war of words. There is clearly no love lost between the two players, who have been exchanging verbal barbs over the last few days.
The latest flashpoint comes after Murphy sent a pointed message to Kyren Wilson, who recently complained about his treatment on tour. The world champion was frustrated about playing on table two at the British Open while Mark Selby and Thepchaiya Un-Nooh played on the main TV table.
Responding to Wilson’s complaints, Murphy said on his podcast: “It’s about time the players understood that it’s about which match is the most attractive, the most exciting, which is going to pull more viewers in and that’s the one that will go first. It’s no more complicated than that.
“Kyren asks what are the rewards for being world champion. You’ve got half a million pounds, that was your reward for winning the World Championship. And you’ll forever be known as a world champion, that’s your reward. It doesn’t entitle you to be on table one every match.”
Allen was less than impressed with Murphy’s response to Wilson and has taken to social media to accuse his rival of ‘attention seeking’ and being a ‘yes man’.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Allen said: “Actually getting a bit boring reading [Wilson’s] recent views. This is someone who is meant to represent the players at board level but openly criticising the current world champ and others. Baffling behaviour or is it just attention seeking from the yes man?”
Earlier this week, Murphy hit out at Allen over his criticism of the playing conditions at the British Open, prompting another furious response from the Pistol.
At the British Open, Allen said that the conditions were ‘absolutely embarrassing’ and suggested the table he played on should be ‘burned’. A few days later, Murphy said the criticism from ‘fellow professionals’ was nothing short of ‘rude and amateurish’.
Allen was quick to hit back at Murphy’s stance, posting on X: “Anyone taking [his] opinions seriously, I seriously question their judgement or quite possibly their sanity, not gonna lie. Anyway, maybe I’ll take three cues to my next match.”
When a fan suggested that Murphy’s opinions were ‘perfectly valid’ given that he has reached four World Championship finals, Allen replied: “You misspelled irrelevant.”
