‘I see vanilla, sanitised messages. I read apologies that don’t come over sincerely to me or any United fan’
Gary Neville has once again criticised Manchester United stars who don’t control their social media accounts, claiming he ‘doesn’t recognise’ them after a defeat.
Neville has been constantly critical of players who are not in control of their own social media and in his column for the Times, continued to express his strong feelings on the topic.
Recently the Sky Sports pundit called out the CEO of media at United, Phil Lynch, for ‘creating robots on and off the pitch’ and he believes it makes the players’ messages look fake and misleading.
He said: “There are characters inside the Manchester United dressing room that I greatly admire not just for their football abilities but their human qualities – vulnerabilities, resilience, sense of humour and all the things that make them distinct.
“I don’t recognise them at all when I see some of their social media posts. I see vanilla, sanitised messages. I read apologies that don’t come over sincerely to me or any United fan.
“I see half the dressing room posting almost identically-worded tweets like they are reading off a script. And not just at United.”
The England international previously slammed the national team for posting an identical message which read ‘job done’ after a win against Albania in a World Cup Qualifier.
In the tweet, Neville said: “Reading some of the England players tweets last night. Do any of the lads post themselves? They don’t sound authentic.”
Neville then added that he wants to encourage players to speak more honestly and openly on their social media accounts.
“I want our footballers to communicate,” he said.
“Social media attracts a lot of negative coverage – and undoubtedly those in charge need to do much more to stamp down on the worst abuse — but I still believe in the upsides and especially the opportunity to engage directly with an audience, whether that is about politics, sport, music or anything else.”
Related links:
- Gary Neville tells Man Utd CEO of media to ‘get the f@@k away’ from squad and fans
- Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher mock Gary Neville over his protection of Solskjaer
- Kevin De Bruyne reveals Man City only trained for 10 minutes before beating Man Utd
