As footballers rush to join the social networking revolution that is Twitter, they may want to pause and reconsider following Darron Gibson's sobering experience.
The Manchester United midfielder – perhaps inspired by his team-mate Wayne Rooney's ability to attract nearly 200,000 followers within two days of joining the site – opened his own account at midday. The launch was greeted with much fanfare by Gibson's captain at United, Rio Ferdinand, who tweeted: "We have a new member from the Man utd crew... @dgibbo28 has joined twitterverse show him some love tweeps!"
But two hours later the account had been shut down – seemingly because of the 23-year-old's unwillingness to put up with the abuse he was receiving from purported United fans.
Some of the messages aimed in the direction of the Republic of Ireland international included the following:
@dgibbo28 your performance on saturday was one of the worst I've ever seen of any utd player. scared of the ball much?'
@dgibbo28 hasn't tweeted yet. Seems somewhat fitting after the countless anonymous performances we've seen from the 'footballer'
@dgibbo28 my mate thought you were about 33 years old in the heart of midfield! Movement like pirlo!!
@dgibbo28 team do all hard work keeping possession then u hit row Z every fuckin time!!
@dgibbo28 the biggest compliment i can give you is that you are better than Carrick
Shortly after Gibson decided to remove himself from the firing line, several other United supporters started a campaign to coax him back on to Twitter, attempting to get a #getbackgibbo hashtag to trend.
Gibson is among Manchester United's squad for their Champions League semi-final first leg against Schalke on Tuesday night. No doubt he will be hoping for a slightly more favourable reception from the travelling United fans in Gelsenkirchen.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/25/darron-gibson-quits-twitter-abuse
