Twitter anger sees Grayson shut down his Leeds United players

Hyped as a means to get information out there in an instant, the reality seemed rather different with non-believers seeing it as little more than a means for Stephen Fry to inform his followers about what sumptuous delights he had just enjoyed for breakfast.

Now, though, it seems everybody who is anybody (plus, it has to be said, a fair sprinkling of nobodies...) is Tweeting as if their lives depend on it.

The world, it seems, has caught on to this hybrid of blogging and texting with all manner of information, views and news being shared by a growing army of users.

Everyone, that is, apart from Leeds United’s footballers following Simon Grayson’s decision over the weekend to ban all his players from using the social networking site.

The reason for the United manager’s stance is striker Davide Somma, a relative newcomer to the practice, revealing to his followers last Friday night that he was facing six months out injured with a torn cruciate ligament.

It was only the South African’s 17th tweet but destined to be his last as Grayson moved to plug what he saw as a leak of information that he wants to keep in-house.

The United manager explained: “We have a club policy that players are banned from leaking any information. It shouldn’t have come out like that.

“It should have been left to me to deal with, hence why from now on all players will be banned from using that sort of network.

“It has caused too many problems for other clubs and other players and we had strict rules about Twitter, which were put in place halfway through last season.

“There were certain people at the club who didn’t know (about Somma’s injury) and they should have been told before the people on that website. There will be major implications for any player caught using it.”

A similar ‘leaking’ of club information happened last summer when one United squad member revealed, in a ‘phone interview, that Billy Paynter was facing a lengthy lay-off, a leak that led to a subsequent blanket ban on the media being able to ring up players.

That has now been extended to Twitter, meaning the likes of Somma, Andy O’Brien, Lloyd Sam, Ramon Nunez et al have had to shut down their accounts.

Just why footballers are so keen to embrace Twitter anyway is largely a mystery, especially given the number of ‘fans’ out there just wanting to vent their anger in the wake of a poor result.

Kasper Schmeichel, for instance, left himself open to all manner of jibes last season by responding to most comments posted on his site.

My particular favourite came in the wake of United’s 3-3 draw at home to Barnsley when one fan sent the deliciously barbed Tweet of: ‘Don’t worry Kasper, not ALL three goals were your fault’.

Unsurprisingly, Schmeichel rose to the bait and watching from the sidelines it was difficult not to wonder just what affect this spat could have on even someone with as much self-confidence as the then United goalkeeper.

It is not just the psychological effect, either, that should be of concern to footballers with the list of those who have fallen foul of Twitter growing longer by the day.

Some have, literally, paid a heavy price with Ryan Babbel being fined for posting a picture of Howard Webb with a super-imposed Manchester United shirt on his site.

Carlton Cole also ended up £20,000 out of pocket after an attempted ‘joke’ about immigration officers targeting the thousands of Ghana supporters at Wembley last March rightly earned the West Ham striker condemnation from several quarters.

Other sports have not been immune to problems, either, with Yorkshire cricketer Azeem Rafiq being jettisoned from the England Under-19s last year after an abusive on-line rant about a member of the coaching staff.

In Yorkshire football, Leeds’s stance is, at this stage, a hard-line one with both Sheffield Wednesday and United making only one proviso – that their players use any social networking site responsibly.

Huddersfield Town have adopted a similarly common sense approach since last January when Anthony Pilkington had some uncomplimentary words to say about Cesc Fabregas after the FA Cup defeat at Arsenal, comments that the now Norwich City man did subsequently remove from Twitter after a few hours.

Since then, the Terriers players have been reminded about the clause in Town’s Code of Conduct that states how the club must not be brought into disrepute.

Whether clubs will, in the coming months, choose to tighten up their existing rules remains to be seen, though Bradford City’s Peter Jackson admits this could soon become inevitable.

“Twitter is a new problem for a manager,” admits the 50-year-old. “The days when what happened in the dressing room stays in the dressing room are long gone.

“It is simply impossible, with the internet, texting, social networking and so on. Social networking sites can cause untold problems for a manager and, to me, that is only going to get worse.

“We haven’t been affected by Twitter yet but I would have no hesitation in doing what Simon has done if I felt we were having problems.”