sport news Gary Neville tells players they can't hide behind statements - after Leeds and ... trends now
Gary Neville has ripped into footballers for hiding behind statements, after Leeds players released an apology message after they were seen snubbing supporters.
Leeds players apologised for ignoring young fans waiting to greet the team at their hotel, after footage emerged of them blanking supporters on Sunday.
It was not the first time a team has been criticised for something like that this season after Arsenal players were branded 'entitled, overpaid and rude' by football supporters after the club shared footage of them ignoring an eight-year-old mascot as they briskly signed her shirt before walking away.
Sky Sports pundit Neville has hit out at footballers for hiding behind statements and told them to do their messages via video so people can see their faces.
He tweeted: 'This isn’t a message to Leeds players it’s to all players/teams apologising.
Gary Neville has told footballers they can't hide behind statements after Leeds players posted an apology following a video went viral of them ignoring their supporters
Despite a young fan waving, the video shows no Leeds players acknowledging the fans
Arsenal players were also criticised after they signed a young mascot's shirt but didn't acknowledge her in a video posted by Arsenal to their social media channels last month
In response to Leeds' tweet linking to their apology statement, he said that no one is falling for 'sanitised/PR guff anymore' and that players should speak on video
'No-one is falling for sanitised/vanilla PR guff anymore. Speak from the heart and better on video so fans can see your faces.'
A clip posted on Twitter showed members of the Leeds first team walking towards the hotel's entrance in silence, while a group of fans tried to get their attention.
Most of the Leeds team were wearing headphones and avoided eye contact as they headed for the door.
One young boy waved at the players to try and get their attention but no one looked in his direction, and his view was later blocked by a member of the Leeds security team.
On the club's website, a statement entitled 'A Message From the Players', read: 'As the first team squad at Leeds United, we wanted to reach out to the fan base regarding yesterday’s game and subsequent posts on social media.
'Firstly, the performance was not good enough. There is no other way to look at it and the only way to respond is on the pitch. Leeds fans travel up and down the country in huge numbers and deserve more than this.
'Words can’t express how sorry we are that the youngster in the video wearing the Leeds kit is not shown more
