James McClean: Is he correct or a believer in his own hype?

The list of footballers who have tweeted their way into trouble is too long to give a comprehensive list, but Emmanuel Frimpong, Federico Macheda, Rio Ferdinand and Jack Wilshere are among them.

James McClean is now a name which can be added to that list, after his angry and some might say petulant posting on the social networking site on Friday evening.

McClean was part of the Irish squad who traveled to Kazakhstan for their opening World Cup qualifier, and had hoped to be selected from the start in the match.

He wasn't, and let his thousands of followers know, by Tweeting:  "delighted as a fan we got the win. Personal level #fuming #*****joke #embarrassing".

Realising the potential fallout from his actions he deleted it, but too late. It had already been spotted and widely circulated.

Giovanni Trappatoni has proved over his managerial career he is not a man to be messed with, and is unlikely to take kindly to the winger's show of immaturity.

For McClean, his career has taken off in a big way over the past 12 months. Simply to be involved in the international squad is an achievement, so you might well consider him to be acting like a spoiled kid.

Last summer he had only just signed for Sunderland from Irish side Derry City, and was yet to make a Premier League appearance. Despite being signed by Steve Bruce as one for the future, Martin O'Neill felt he was ready immediately, and he played a key role in the club's revival post-Bruce.

This season he has continued that, but as a young player, in his defence, the rapid way his career has taken off can be difficult for a player to adjust to.

Players can believe their own hype, Kieran Richardson was accused of it at Manchester United before he had truly made it, and never did, so McClean simply has to show a bit of patience.

He is a very good player, and clearly desperate to play for his country and show what he can do. But he is not helping his manager, teammates or himself by acting like a kid when he does not get his own way.

Even if he was right, and you consider that he should have started, he has gone about dealing with it completely the wrong way.

Ireland would have liked the headlines to be on their good performance and professional job which saw them come away with the three points, but a discarded winger inadvertently stole them.

McClean will have to cut out this behaviour and attitude as it will only hinder his career, and is likely to now find out the hard way 'too many tweets make a twit'. Or something like that.

Should McClean simply stay off Twitter in future?

image: © vagueonthehow