Hands up if you’ve ever been duped by a ridiculous footballer quote on social media.
If you have, the chances are it’s probably the devious handiwork of the Twitter account @WeahsCousin. Everything he shares is blatantly fake, but make the quote look presentable enough and it won’t be long before people start taking the bait.
We’ve spoken to the man behind the pranks before, who told us that the fake Gary Neville quote that surfaced after Valencia’s 7-0 drubbing at the hands of Barcelona was his personal favourite. You might remember it.
https://twitter.com/WeahsCousin/status/695009800334241796?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But his latest effort has certainly done the rounds, too. After England’s embarrassing Euro 2016 exit the internet has not been kind to the calamitous Three Lions, with questions raised about how such an an abject performance occurred given the huge importance of the tie.
It didn’t look good, then, when a meme containing an apparent quote from Iceland’s Kari Arnason appeared on Twitter, where he seemed to accuse Joe Hart of calling England’s opponents “shit” and said Harry Kane wasn’t even clear on the knockout nature of the tie.
The Euro 2016 logo @WeahsCousin plastered on top did make it that little bit more convincing.
It's no wonder England lost. This is unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/CngShLh4EA
— GeorgeWeahsCousin (@WeahsCousin) June 28, 2016
It was unsurprisingly dismissed by a lot of Twitter users, but among the 5,000+ retweets quite a few appeared to be conned, including BBC presenter Jeremy Vine.
I am actually unable to speak.
(via @lukenarraway) pic.twitter.com/sw0YMo66A5— Jeremy Vine (@theJeremyVine) June 28, 2016
Arnason later cleared up once and for all that he did not say anything of the sort, and actually found the England team to be gracious in defeat.
Quote attributed to me following our game v. ENG are untrue and absolutely false. Full respect to the England team and players.
— Kari Arnason (@karibestmeister) June 28, 2016
So while Harry Kane’s performance against Iceland – along with the other 10 players in England’s white – was lacking in quality (and then some), he definitely did not ask the referee if a loss would send them crashing out of the tournament.
So just remember, if a football quote sounds too outrageous to be true, it was probably written by @WeahsCousin – and he probably won’t stop until he’s caught everyone out.
