Warnock: denial
Oh, dear. Here’s a spat that could have far-reaching consequences. Firstly Neil Warnock, fondly known as “Colin” by his legions of ex-fans, was heard on pisspoor radio station TalkSPORT to be making jovial remarks about his former player Jason Puncheon – after the latter missed a penalty against Spurs at the weekend. Colin opined that Puncheon lacked the “cool” to be selected as spot-kick man at a place like White Hart Lane. Jason was understandably not a happy bunny over this and he launched a series of irate tweets, many of which were swiftly deleted – and at least some of which appeared to make allegations possibly concerning the probity of Warnock in matters not unrelated to the appearance bonuses of players under his managership. Hell, it seems, hath no fury like a footballer dissed on the wireless and determined to bite back via Twitter.
Jason Puncheon
Warnock has since confirmed that the matters apparently raised in the ether are being “addressed on his behalf” directly to Puncheon. One senses the impending involvement of Messrs Sue, Grabbitt & Runn. It’s foreseeable from this point that a welter of denials and counter-accusations may well follow, and that at some point, the FA could wish to become involved.
Whether this gathering storm has any rain to shed upon Leeds United remains to be seen. There are those who are wondering away, in various social media, as to whether any light may be cast on the contractual situation and selection records of various un-named individuals who somehow managed to earn a living at Elland Road during the Colin era, despite a puzzling lack of form or fitness for a playing role with a major professional football club. Such are the whisperings that are always likely to go back and forth in the aftermath of hasty and precipitate tweets, especially tweets that appeared to allege various practices upon which the game’s governing bodies would be likely to look with grim disapproval – to say the very least.
Of course these matters, once put out there into the public domain, even if only for the briefest period – will have to be looked into. It’s possible to read a certain amount into the fact that the two men have worked together at the same club, QPR, and that – therefore – anything said in public might be expected to have some grain of truth in it, failing which it might be deemed extremely unwise and possibly costly, once the legal eagles (with apologies to Puncheon’s current employers Crystal Palace FC) get their talons into it.
For the sake of clarity and in the interests of avoiding any possible murkiness surrounding what is likely to be a developing story, a screenshot from the Twitter feed concerned is reproduced below. The blue touch paper appears to have been lit – it may swiftly become clearer as to the explosive potential of the detonation which could now result.
Those tweets, captured before disappearing
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