Ten of the most hilarious social media blunders in football after Man United's Instagram Live error

Published on: 08 March 2021

Footballers and social media have a complicated relationship. This week, Manchester United showed that it's not always easy to manage an online platform - especially while working from home in lockdown.

A Red Devils employee accidentally set the club's 'Instagram Live' feature on last Wednesday and more than 37,000 fans tuned in to watch a black screen and hear noises of the employee appearing to hear the knocking of plates together and the sound of a microwave.

Manchester United fans branded the gaffe as their 'worst nightmare' as people in the UK continue to work from home and connect with colleagues via Zoom and other online platforms.

Sportsmail looks at other occasions where football players, managers and club staff have made fundamental - and hilarious - social media errors...

Everton enjoy day out with... their sister?

Manchester United's Instagram live gaffe this week is not the first time a Premier League club account has made such an error.

In the 2015-16 season, Everton posted out a tweet in early January which did not quite fit in with the club's content plan.

The day before the Toffees were due to play Tottenham in the Premier League, the official club Twitter page posted 'Best day out with the best sis in the world' which baffled both Everton fans and football supporters in general.

It appears one of the social media team wanted to post that message on their personal account but forgot they were still logged into the Everton social media account.

Lescott's tasteless car picture after 6-0 thrashing

After your side is beaten 6-0 at home, it may be wise to stay away from social media. Joleon Lescott failed to do so when Aston Villa were humbled by Liverpool in 2016 and it certainly led to some bizarre scenes.

Soon after Villa were thrashed by the humiliating scoreline, a picture of a flashy car was posted from Lescott's Twitter account which angered the club's supporters who were already left reeling from the day's events.

Yet the drama was not over. In apologising for the tweet and the heavy defeat, the defender sensationally claimed that the tweet was an accident and was sent from inside his own pocket.

His post-match apology statement ended: 'I would like to add that the tweet sent out from my account involving a picture of a car was totally accidental it happened whilst driving and my phone was in my pocket.'

Villa's fans were not buying the excuse and continued the criticism of Lescott. The Midlands club were relegated at the end of the season after finishing bottom of the season with just 17 points.

Anichebe fluffs his post-match reaction lines

Lescott is not the only player to put out the wrong message after a game. Sunderland's Victor Anichebe and his social media team appeared to overuse the copy and paste buttons when reacting to a 1-0 defeat at West Ham in October 2016.

Footballers tend not to write their own tweets unless for special reasons, meaning they are often in dialogue with their various representatives who send out the classic post-match 'thanks for your support' messages.

After the defeat at Upton Park, Anichebe and his team forgot to cut out their comments advising the tweet, as the post read: 'Can you tweet something like... Unbelievable support yesterday and great effort by the lads! Hard result to take! But we go again!'

Anichebe is not the only Premier League player guilty of such as act. Former Tottenham defender Kyle Walker and his team also just copy and pasted a private message to promote an interview with Soccer AM in 2015.

Walker posted on Instagram: 'So could go something like: Good to see @tubesocceram earlier for this Saturday's @socceram. Always good to catch up.'

Boro show balls in Sunderland victory

Staying on the topic post-match reaction, dressing room images can be a lottery.

Some post-match celebrations from inside the locker room can be pretty standard, others end up exposing tactical information... and some catch players with their pants down - literally!

After Middlesbrough won away at local rivals Sunderland in the 2016-17 season, the visiting players grouped together for a group photo to celebrate their victory.

Midfielder Adam Clayton, who was changing back into his regular clothes, posed for the photo - but one of his testicles was poking out of his shorts.

Fellow Boro player Adam Forshaw appeared to be pointing at it in the photo suggesting the ploy was deliberate, but forward Christian Stuani was forced to come out an apologise for the gaffe as they 'didn't realize it'.

Simon from The Inbetweeners would be proud...

Benteke gets his new club wrong after Crystal Palace move...

Football transfers are sometimes last-minute deals with certain players not sure where they will end up on deadline day.

When Christian Benteke joined Crystal Palace from Liverpool at the start of the 2016-17 season, many were confused by the Belgian's Twitter bio which stated he played for Burnley.

Not only did Benteke and his social media team get his club wrong, but they also spelt 'Burnleyl' incorrectly.

The striker was forced to come out and apologise after the error - before confirming that it was Palace he had signed for.

A tweet from the striker read: 'Oops my bad lol Yes I signed for cpfc and not burnley. Sorry for the little mistake the person that manages my Twitter got a little confused'

Sacked for tweeting abuse about the club three years before joining them!

Speaking of football transfers, sometimes a player's career does not go the way they thought it would. Spanish winger Julio Rey found that out the hard way.

The forward made a dream move from fourth-tier side Pobla de Mafumet to one-time LaLiga champions Deportivo La Coruna in the summer of 2015.

The contracts were signed, the player was photographed in the club's colours and details of his transfer were posted online.

But days after his Deportivo arrival, the club found abusive messages sent by Rey in 2012 which criticised the Spanish side.

Deportivo cancelled the 20-year-old's contract immediately and his dream move had died.

'The club have decided to cancel the transfer after analysing an unfortunate comment on the player's social media profile,' said a club statement. 'A player deserves to wear the shirt if he's an example of sportsmanship.'

Tottenham's Matt Doherty was right to delete his pro-Arsenal tweets then...

Phil Neville's Google Translate gaffe

It is not just players who struggle to get to grips with their new surroundings after a new transfer, managers and coaches have struggled on social media after moving to a new club.

While he was coach of Valencia, Phil Neville wanted to show fans that he was keeping his fitness levels high despite retiring from playing a few years before.

The former Manchester United and England left-back chose to reach out to his new Spanish followers and tried to say: 'early morning run on the beach to start the day'

Neville translated that into Spanish and posted what came out of Google Translate, with one key error.

The Valencia man used the word 'corrida' to describe his run. The term does mean 'sprint' or 'dash' - but it is colloquially translated as 'ejaculate'.

Spanish fans certainly had a chuckle...

Rooney struggles in his early Twitter days

Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand are clearly close friends. They were both key players for both Manchester United and the England national team for 13 years between 2004 and 2017.

But striker Rooney hinted that the pair even shared a lift into work together at the Red Devils with a hilarious tweet that was probably meant to be a text.

Seemingly unaware of how Twitter worked at the time, Rooney's first ever tweet in 2011 read: 'Hi rio do u want picking up in the morning pal' and several football fans piled in on the conversation on social media.

Rooney continued to have problems with social media for the rest of the calendar year. While conversing with a Liverpool fan online, the striker appeared to say 'bring ur sandwedge girl' following criticism.'

The striker then posted a message to himself, saying: '@WayneRooney I'll put u asleep within 10 seconds u little girl. Don't say stuff and not follow up on it. I'll be waiting.'

Matuidi searches for photo of his own wife on Twitter

As well as arguing with fans, footballers enjoy to put out public tweets of affections towards their loved ones on events such as Valentines' Day.

French midfielder Blaise Matuidi frequently expressed his love for his wife on February 14 - but one year the intended message of affection turned into a laughing stock.

The midfielder sent his best wishes to his 'loving wife' on Valentines' Day along with a screenshot of a photograph of them together. The only problem was the Frenchman included a screenshot of him searching for 'Matuidi's wife' on Google in the post.

You would think Matuidi would have an image of his wife on his phone, would you not?

Oxlade-Chamberlain part of the 'Wenger Out' brigade?

When Arsenal were thrashed 6-0 by Chelsea in Arsene Wenger's 1000th game in charge of the Gunners in 2014, it was one of the high-profile 'Wenger Out' episodes in the club's recent history.

The French manager was under pressure at that point with his contract up at the end of the season but Wenger could rely on his players' support for the back end of the campaign - or so he thought.

Enter Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who followed up a disastrous performance which saw him gift Chelsea a penalty for a clear handball by liking a post from Arsenal Fan TV which shared a fan's reaction stating that Wenger 'needs to go'.

Perhaps the England international's hand just slipped - it certainly did enough damage on the Stamford Bridge pitch that afternoon.

Source: m.allfootballapp.com

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