Five famous footballers and their Twitter mishaps

Twitter does cause controversy but is also a great way of interacting with professional footballers in a way fans never thought possible. However its clear sometimes the players go a little too far.

With a Port Talbot player being suspended this week for a tweet sent to Tom Daley, Emmanuel Frimpong fined £6000 for an offensive response on the social networking site and Rio Ferdinand and Benik Afobe also landing themselves in hot water recently we cast our eye over 5 of the biggest Twitter mishaps in the social network sites short history.

Glen Johnson

After being criticised for his attitude by former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson the Liverpool and England full back launched an attack on the Sky pundit; bringing up Merse’s chequered past.

‘’Comments from alcoholic drug abusers are not really gonna upset me and who is Paul Merson to judge players, he was average at the best of times," "The only reason he's on that show is coz he gambled all his money away. The clown!"

After complaints Johnson removed the comments.

Gregory van der Wiel

Cleverly tweeted a picture of himself at a Lil’ Wayne concert in October 2009 not long after announcing he couldn’t play for his country in Australia with concussion. The manager didn’t see the funny side and the ‘bad boy’ of Dutch football was left a little red-faced at his dim-witted error. If he joins Chelsea he should know the Premier League's eyes are watching...

Ryan Babel

A serial tweeter the Liverpool flop was in hot water in 2011 after showing his disgust at Howard Webb’s refereeing performance in Manchester United’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford against The Reds.

"And they call him one of the best referees? That's a joke. SMH."

An innocent tweet you might think but accompanying it with a mocked up picture of Webb in a Manchester United shirt is what probably landed him an FA charge. Now Babel is underachieving at German side Hoffenheim.

Darren Bent

The first man to feel the force of Twitter stupidity the England striker’s foul mouthed rant aimed at Spurs chairman Daniel Levy in 2009 was quite extraordinary.

"Do I wanna go Hull City. No. Do I wanna go Stoke. No. Do I wanna go Sunderland. Yes. So stop ******* around Levy."

As if his point hadn’t been made so publically already he posted again ...

"Why can't anything be simple? It's so frustrating hanging around doing jack ****. Seriously getting ****** off right now. Sunderland are not the problem in the slightest.’’

Not the brightest of things to do. Bent was fined £80,000 pounds before eventually tying up a deal to Wearside.

Jozy Altidore

The American was dropped after turning up late for a game in 2009 the on loan Hull striker tweeted

"Apologise to all of you. I showed up late. Made a big mistake I'm very very sorry"

This public apology was not appreciated by Phil Brown who felt it was the clubs private business. This coming from a man who conducted a team talk on the pitch at half time just 2 months later. Pot, kettle Phil?

What are your favourite football or sporting tweets? And do you think Twitter is a good thing for the sport?

image: © West McGowan