Updated, Monday, 07.29
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND and Manchester United midfielder Darron Gibson has deleted his Twitter account after becoming fed up with the volume of abusive messages he was being sent – within just two hours of setting up his account.
Gibson, who has won 16 senior caps for the Republic and is a fringe member of the United squad, set up a @dgibbo28 account (28 being his shirt number at United) shortly after noon today.
But within two hours, the account had disappeared entirely – after the 23-year-old became apparently unwilling to put up with negative comments about his footballing ability.
Among the comments directed at him were…
[Warning: there's some NSFW language in here:]
Darren Gibson on Twitter (1)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (2)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (3)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (4)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (5)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (6)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (7)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (8)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (9)
Darren Gibson on Twitter (10)
Other United fans were dismayed at the negative treatment being given to Gibson, however, creating a #getgibboback hashtag trying to urge the Derry-born midfielder to return to the site.
Update 1 (7pm, Sunday): The Times’ Oliver Kay has tweeted to share the news that Gibson apparently deleted the account because he was being driven nuts by the volume of tweets he was receiving by SMS. (Thanks to Paul Conroy in the comments field.)
Update 2 (7:30am, Monday): Gibson’s Man Utd teammate Rio Ferdinand has also tweeted to explain Gibson’s absence – and has given a different account to that of Kay. “Darron Gibson says he came on to see what the lads were up to… he came off because he couldn’t be bothered with it, not [for] any other reason,” he tweeted last night.
Among Gibson’s Manchester United colleagues who are (apparently) more willing to put up with potential criticisms on Twitter include Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Luis Nani, Michael Owen, Antonio Valencia, Jonny Evans and Anders Lindegaard.
Rooney, who boasts almost 200,000 followers, only joined the site on Saturday morning.
Gibson has been the centre of some controversy before, when he was the subject of a tug-of-war between the Republic and Northern Ireland over whether he should be allowed to play for the Republic or not.
Should a professional footballer be expected to put up with such comments?
Breaking news / Pep Guardiola is having a medical at Manchester City today after paying £50 million for John Stones
Pot . . . . . Kettle . . . . . Black . . . . Im done!
If Pep is having one then when is Jose’s?
Breaking news, Man Utd Accountants having medicals, Crazy money for an player in his twilight, again, crazy money for a player who had one year left on contract, and world record fee for a player let go for next to month a few years ago….. You see, when you point a finger, three pointing back….
Keep up the good work Man Utd, I like seeing the non Utd fans taking the bait ;)
Breaking news ….. Wolves is a bigger club then Liverpool
Oh, so, you believe it, but not when you see every player linked to Man Utd???? With your logic, Liverpool are a bigger club than Man Utd, seeing as Sadio Mane said no fcking way when that lot came in for him…. Typical of some of you Man U fans, move the goalposts non stop……
Was there an offer for Sadio ? Did the clubs talk no ! So do one
U should not drank much coffee hoff
Oooh Jose, mmm, that’s right, ooooh yeah, Pogba, hrmmph, Mkhitaryan, yeah yeah oooooooh!!
Ah Johnny cried…. seriously man, cannot take it?
I see so presumably you have seen me carrying out this apparent act which would make your a ‘peeper’ …. sick or what !
Are you guys related?
We were kind of this morning till I drop him down a big white bowl
A big white bowl with WiFi
How do you know their wasn’t, have you inside info. Supposedly there was an offer last season
Williams and kone in with 18m left over is some business for Everton
Why was Johnny Evans and Arsenal in the same sentence.
Why did they not announce the signing of Stones immediately, what had they to gain by not announcing it? Seems like a lot of embarrassment could’ve been avoided.
City get pants pulled down again in signing another English player
If stones is valued at £47.5m then Pogba for £100m+ doesn’t look too bad after all
The whole transfer market circus makes for some very repetitive commenting.
See United fans are saying stones is too expensive, this is a club who bought eric bailly and Unknown defender for £30 million and martial for even more who at the time was unknown. Not saying if they are right or wrong just its a bit funny the situation
Eric Bailly was known to many in La Liga in a team that came 4th last season so that’s good enough for me. He’s just not English or played in the premier league to be well “known”.
From what I’ve been reading is that he is good but massively overrated and relies to much on his physicality. And still. £30 million for a relatively unknown player is a lot. United can’t take the piss out of anyone else’s signings financially wise
Have a look a cost of transfers v the money earned (not handed over by sugar daddy owner) and Uniteds books are in far better shape than most if not all the Premier League clubs!
Trying to justify the prices is hilarious. It’s being the league who cares
“Good but overrated”…whatever that means. Probably best to give him a chance, no?
Good but overrated, example martial good player but the way people were getting on last season you would think it was ronaldo or Henry in their prime.
I never said he wouldn’t be good, just saying United fans in particular can take the piss out of other teams transfers especially stones when their own manager wanted him
Actually they probably can. They’ll make all the money back in Pogba shirt sales, merchandize etc before the end of the year. As much as I hate to say it, their corporate and marketing partnerships could ensure they boss the financial side of things for years to come. As for Stones, €50m they can have him. We’ll use that money to strengthen the squad with decent players. Koeman seems to have an eye for promising talent.
They will never make the pogba money back on shirt sales clubs get like Max 10 to 15% of revenue on shirt sales sure Real Madrid didn’t even make the beckham money back in shirts
Do you honestly believe that any club that’s spends money on players whether it be 500,000 or 100,000,000 do so without having a plan in place to try and recoup as much of the money as possible . He will be Mr Manchester Utd by the time the season is over if not before , nothing will happen without his picture or name being involved in some shape if form
Oh they will recoup some money back but no where near the amount of the transfer this happens with all the big clubs they never regain the money unless they sell, that’s why all the big clubs except Munich I think are in debt
And liverpool fans talking about Utd and other clubs transfers cause they have nothing to talk about regarding their own club
Think United fans had a lot to say about Liverpool transfers so what does that mean then?
Lads it’s embarrassing, give it a rest. It used to be good banter on here but that’s starting to fade. Ye are starting to sound like school kids.
Spot on Nollaig. You’re right, it’s not banter, it’s the same repetitive comments about the fee for Pogba and now Stones today. It’s not going to drastically effect the lives of anybody on the 42 so get over yourselves for Christ sake.
Meanwhile Flopp demands to know what’s happening with players at Southampton
Booya Carino! you won marketing! That’ll make the pain go away for winning nothing.
He’s not even back a day and the promotion wheels are turning already
https://www.facebook.com/adidasfootball/videos/10153739567103531/
http://bit.ly/2b40fca
That’s exactly what I’m talking about Mark .. PogBoom !
Mark, all that is fine, good business, but at end of the day, you will take the medals over that.