We are living in truly strange times
Gary Lineker found himself in the middle of an utterly bizarre Twitter spat with Watford FC’s official account today, which began with the club bringing up an old tweet of his which, let’s say, has not aged well.
The original tweet from Lineker, posted when the club sacked Marco Silva and hired Javi Gracia, suggested that Watford would come to regret their decision. The club sarcastically quoted this tweet with the caption ‘This aged well…’ this afternoon.
This aged well…🤷♂️ https://t.co/UFEoQRUqbR
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) January 21, 2019
Lineker responded by admitting that he had been proved wrong, but maintained that the knee-jerk hiring and firing of managers is a part of the country’s football culture with which he doesn’t agree.
Yes, football can and will prove us wrong on many occasions, and I’ve already stated that that may be the case again here, but the sacking of managers is not something I often support and do find this tweet rather disrepectful of your former manager. https://t.co/wcfGYIycJE
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 21, 2019
This is when it gets weird.
Former Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Darren Altman then chimed in, claiming that Watford’s tweet was disrespectful and not the way a club’s Twitter account should be run, before saying that the social media manager responsible should be sacked. Bit extreme, I reckon.
Lineker rebuked his suggestion that he should be sacked, with a witty response that mirrored the original tweet that sparked this entire spat.
That would be an absurd decision, in my opinion, by Watford to fire their Twitter account person after his first bad Tweet. He’ll be snapped up very quickly and Watford will almost certainly get someone less talented. https://t.co/HeWKGHlELh
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 21, 2019
This is where it gets really weird and out of hand.
Watford’s chief executive Scott Duxbury then decided to get involved, taking over the account to apologise to Lineker, reiterating that there was no offence intended.
“They got carried away celebrating when they realised the Head Coach had been with us for a whole year! I might be going through more Social Media Managers than Head Coaches soon,” he explained.
Sorry, @GaryLineker, no offence meant to anyone. They got carried away celebrating when they realised the Head Coach had been with us for a whole year!
I might be going through more Social Media Managers than Head Coaches soon 🤦♂️
Yours,
Scott Duxbury, Chairman & CEO#watfordfc https://t.co/ZvDN4qnWG6— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) January 21, 2019
Lineker responded with a simple thumbs up emoji, concluding the weird beef that pervaded our timelines on Monday afternoon.
