As the game petered out in the 72nd minute and Oscar Bobb was subbed on for Norway, Murphy was heard telling commentator Steve Bower: “I used to have a cat called Bob.”
Footie fans were left baffled when Danny Murphy went on a bizarre rant about his pet cat called Bob. The ex-Liverpool man went on a weird tangent as he commentated on Ivory Coast’s defeat at the hands of Norway in the World Cup on Tuesday night.
As the game petered out in the 72nd minute and Oscar Bobb was subbed on for Norway, Murphy was heard telling BBC commentator Steve Bower: “I used to have a cat called Bob.” Bower quickly interjected: “The game’s not that bad.”
But Murphy – capped nine times for England as a player – ignored him and continued: “Yeah he jumped in the back of a Royal Mail van and we lost him.” And with incredible comedic timing, he added after a brief pause: “Sad, really.”
One fan shared the clip on social media with the caption: “Danny Murphy with a bizarre piece of commentary.” They quickly added: “This isn’t a dig at Danny Murphy btw. This is everything I want in commentary.”
Another fan replied: “I actually give credit to him for that. Sounds like the bizarre sort of leap in conversation from down the pub rather than football commentary and that’s a good thing.”
A second said: “If you don’t see this as it is, intentional or not (very likely unintentional), then you need to cheer up. F**king hilarious.” A third dubbed it: “English comedy in its most splendid form.”
Within minutes of the clip going viral, X account No Score Draws had doodled a ginger cat jumping into the back of a Royal Mail van, captioned “Bob the Cat.”
Even former Daily Star supremo Jon Livesey got in on the jokes. He broke a month-long Twitter silence to post a photo of the book “A street cat named Bob.”
One social media wag Tweeted Royal Mail and asked them: “Could you ask your drivers if anybody knows what happened to Bob.”
Another fan said: “I quite like the Danny Murphy – Steve Bower dynamic. Almost as good as Jon Champion – Ally McCoist.”
Someone else agreed: “Steve Bower & Danny Murphy are such a breathe of fresh air – compared to Matterface and Dixon.”
But not everyone found Murphy’s dry wit to be so hilarious. One fan fumed: “Should lock him and Lee Dixon in a room and see who can bore the other one to death first.” Another said: “He’s unbearable. As is Dixon.”
Ivory Coast were dumped out of the World Cup after Erling Haaland’s late winner sealed a 2-1 victory for Norway. Amad Diallo had equalised on 74 minutes after Antonio Nusa had earlier put Norway in the lead. They will now face Brazil in the last 16.