Former Leeds United loan star Micky Gray has criticised the club’s social media department after its Twitter spat with pop star Niall Horan.
The Whites’ official Twitter account engaged in a bizarre back and forth with the former One Direction member on Monday, after Horan’s Derby County side were beaten in the Championship Play Off final by Aston Villa.
Gary wasn’t impressed: “These tweets aren’t coming from supporters or players, they’re coming from the clubs themselves,” he said on talkSPORT [28/05; 10:37]. “I don’t think this is a move that any other club should be doing. Official sites on Twitter or wherever it might be, is just getting a little bit ludicrous.
“There’s bad blood between the teams anyway. This is from the official club Twitter account. So I think whoever is writing these messages, they need to either be told to stop or just don’t do it in the first place. It’s a little bit demeaning, if you like. It’s Leeds United , they’re the ones who’ve sent out the nasty tweets.”
? Hopefully you performed better than @dcfcofficial! See you next season! #StopCrying https://t.co/YHYJciXGvg
— Leeds United (@LUFC) May 27, 2019
OPINION
Gray is absolutely right, here. There’s no reason for an official club account to be getting involved in a Twitter spat with a world famous pop star like Horan. It’s just not a good look. Some people will dismiss this simply as ‘banter’, which is no doubt how it was intended, but these official club accounts should be acting more professionally than this. When there’s already so much tension between the Rams and the Whites after everything that happened this season, there’s just no need for Leeds’ official Twitter account to be winding up Derby fan Horan like this. To take a dig at how Frank Lampard’s side played on Monday, and then to tag them in that tweet, was just unnecessary. This is simply the latest instance of a football club’s Twitter account trying to ‘win’ social media. There’s no need for it and it’s a bad look for Leeds. This spat should never have happened and all parties involved simply need to move on now.