Players in the English fourth tier don't usually get much attention during the transfer window, but today Marvin Morgan grabbed at least a little of the spotlight.
Morgan, a striker with League Two's Aldershot Town, was fined two weeks' salary and placed on the transfer list by the club following a Twitter post that berated Aldershot fans for voicing their displeasure in a match on Monday.
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From Morgan's Twitter account after an Aldershot 2-1 loss to Hereford (emphasis mine):
"Like to thank the fans who booed me off the pitch. Where's that going to get you! I hope you all die."
Nice sentiment.
Morgan apparently apologized for the outburst, but Aldershot proceeded with the disciplinary action as they found his words to be against club values.
Ultimately, Morgan paid the price for what was likely just a momentary outburst of emotion.
This isn't the first time a player's Twitter account has gotten him into trouble with management. Just last week, Newcastle defender Jose Enrique announced that he would be missing a match against Tottenham due to injury, a vital bit of information that manager Alan Pardew had hoped to keep from his club's opponent until the last possible moment.
Enrique deleted the Tweets about his injury shortly afterward, but at that point the cat was already out of the bag.
Pardew said that while it's hard to keep players off social networks, he would like his players to refrain from releasing information that could affect the club competitively.
"It’s something as a club we need to look at. Players can’t be giving that sort of information out," he told the Associated Press. "We need to make it as a club policy that it has to stop.”
As social networks become more commonplace in everyone's lives, high-profile athletes will need to learn another level of discretion that simply was not required even five years ago. Information moves around now faster than it ever has, and even the slightest slip could become costly.
Many clubs - across all sports - have instituted social networking policies, with some banning their players from the new media outright. Just as many "regular" professional environments are trying to adapt to the changing ways that people share information, so are high profile sports teams.
And while we as fans love the added layer of access that social media provides to our favourite stars, it's not hard to see why such unprecedented access could present unforeseen problems, not only for team management, but ultimately for the players themselves.
Some other transfer talk around Europe on Wednesday:
England
- Aston Villa are interested in 20-year-old Tottenham defender Kyle Walker.
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Hatem Ben Arfa is now permanent property of Newcastle United, having impressed on a loan spell from Marseille.
- Nottingham Forest has completed the transfer of Marcus Tudgay from Sheffield Wednesday. Tudgay was previously on loan at Forest.
- Birmingham City have contacted Tottenham about acquiring Robbie Keane.
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Stephen Warnock is pondering a move away from Villa after being dropped from the starting XI.
- Arsenal is considering loaning Mexican Carlos Vela to Bolton Wanderers. Owen Coyle had expressed interest in the move earlier this week.
Italy
- Fiorentina is set to swoop on Brazilian keeper Neto.
- Genoa has agreed to a transfer of Slovakian midfielder Juraj Kucka from Sparta Prague.
Scotland
- Aberdeen is hoping to get Nick Blackman on loan from Blackburn Rovers.
- Celtic is interested in signing SK Brann's Erik Huseklepp.
Turkey
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Colin Kazim-Richards moves to Galatasaray from Fenerbahce.
Czech Republic
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Tomas Zapotocny transfers from Besiktas to Sparta Prague.
Ukraine
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Metalist Kharkiv signed Jonathan Cristaldo from Velez Sarsfield in Argentina.