Paul Merson says he ‘couldn’t do any better’ after Strictly Come Dancing exit

Former Arsenal footballer Paul Merson has said he “couldn’t do better” after being voted off Strictly Come Dancing on Sunday night.

The 56-year-old was speaking on the BBC dancing show’s sister programme, It Takes Two, on Monday, where he said he was “very proud” of his performances, after becoming the fourth contestant to be eliminated from the 20th anniversary series.

Merson and professional partner Karen Hauer lost to JLS star JB Gill and Amy Dowden in the dance-off after coming bottom of the leaderboard on Saturday night with their samba to Car Wash by R&B group Rose Royce gaining just 19 points from the judges.

Speaking of his time on the show and his final performance, the former England midfielder said: “I wouldn’t know if that was hard or not.

“I’m alright, I’m very proud, proud of Karen as well.

“I (did) as best as I… couldn’t do any better, it’s not like I’m sitting at home today thinking, ‘if I had just done better’ – I couldn’t.”

Asked why she thought they had been eliminated with their samba, Hauer said: “It’s the bounce action, the timing behind the body rhythms, and these are key things that the that the judges look for.

“But you know what? What we brought was the entertainment value of it, and samba is a lively dance.

“You know it’s fun, but yeah it was murder on the dance floor.”

Merson said he would like to take judge Craig Revel Horwood for some football training.

He added: “You turn up here and I’ve never danced – as I said, I danced three times in my life – you’re taking someone to do something, and you then freeze.

“The other week, he said, ‘Karen dances around you, she dances around you’.

“If I took him to football and I learned him how to play football and, in a month’s time, we had a football match, I’m giving them the ball about three or four times in the match.

“He’s not playing centre-midfield and dictating, it’s so hard, but because he’s a professional dancer, you know, it’s easy to be critical.

“It is easy to be critical, but it was so, so hard.

“I have the utmost respect for dancers.

“I didn’t really pay any attention before, if I’m being honest, but now when I watch, it’s like the good dancers, the music plays around them, with me, it’s the other way around.”

Merson said he had joined the show for his mother and to raise awareness of issues caused by addiction after being open about his struggles with drugs, alcohol and gambling

He revealed he had received “a lot of messages” after his departure, adding: “You know my thing when I first started off, one for my mum, because of what she did, but the other thing was to help people who struggle with addiction badly, because it takes your life away addiction.

“Just to show people that anything can happen, you can then do anything when you stop doing something that keeps on ruining your life.

“So, yeah, and Karen was a big part of that, which I’m very grateful for.”

The remaining 11 couples will compete in a Halloween special on Saturday at 6.25pm, with the results show on Sunday at 7.20pm on BBC One and iPlayer.