Kian Egan has just gone and stuck the knife into One Direction – BIG time

Westlife star Kian Egan has sensationally stuck the knife into One Direction, claiming he thinks the boys are going to ‘throw it away’.

Irish Kian, 33, was one fifth of Westlife for 14 years so knows a thing or two about boybands – but that hasn’t stopped him coming across slightly bitter with his latest comments.

Perhaps trying to give them innocent advice, Kian aired his fears that the five lads – Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan – don’t know how lucky they are.

‘One Direction would be fools to throw it away, absolute fools – and I get the feeling they will,’ he admitted to The Sun.

And then comparing them to Westlife, he added: ‘I watch them and they don’t seem to have this bond as tight as we had in Westlife – especially as they’ve only been together three or four years.’

Rift rumours between the 1D lads, who formed on The X Factor in 2010, really stepped up a gear in February when they admitted they hadn’t seen each other for three months while taking a break from their tour.

But Kian says hopefully the time out will give them a fresh boost.

‘It’s human nature to take time off. They probably needed to do that,’ he added.

And warning them against allowing one member to get a little too cocky, he added: ‘As we always said in Westlife, there’s not one person in a band that’s bigger than the band.

‘Respect each other and understand that it’s a unit, it’s not a bunch of individuals wanting to do what they want to do.’

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