Alan Brazil drops Steven Gerrard Saudi revelation that leaves Ally McCoist asking 'are you winding me up?'

Ally McCoist accused Alan Brazil of winding him up when he told him the crowd from Steven Gerrard's game in Saudi Arabia at the weekend.

Gerrard was one of a host of big names attracted to the Saudi Pro League as part of a major summer push to grow it into one of the best divisions in the world. But while Neymar, Karim Benzema and Sadio Mane were among the mega names who joined Cristiano Ronaldo in the Middle East, it hasn't quite caught on the way they'd hoped. In Saudi Arabia itself, at least.

The big four teams in the country – Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr and Al-Ahli – have attracted average crowds between 20,000 to 30,000 this season, but the drop off in attendances below that has been stark. Despite Gerrard jumping aboard and recruiting the likes of Jordan Henderson and Moussa Dembele, Ettifaq's home gate is only up by 1,000 to an average of 7,000 weekly spectators.

At the weekend though they took on Al-Rihadh...losing 1-0 to a paltry crowd of fewer than 700. Riyadh, granted, are one of the most poorly supported teams in the league but it still took McCoist by shock when Brazil asked him to guess how many were in attendance.

He guessed 12,000, before Brazil game him the real figure live on talkSPORT. And McCoist responded: "You're winding me up? I know I'm going to ask a silly question here, but was that a home game then?"

Brazil was mistaken when he told him it was a home match for Ettifaq – it took place at Riyadh's home ground which holds 15,000 but averages a gate of just 2,000. McCoist went on: "That's unbelievable. 700 supporters?! You wouldn't even know there's anybody in the stadium. That's incredible. It's poor."

And for more context, Brazil pointed out three non-league games in England which drew more.