Everything wrong with Leeds United's Karen Carney Twitter Post

Leeds epitomised everything there is to love about them during Tuesday evening's 5-0 win at Sam Allardyce's West Brom, scoring so many outstanding team goals that Romaine Sawyers' wonderful piece of self-sabotage was almost overshadowed. Almost.

In an attempt to save Sawyers' blushes, Leeds' Twitter account took matters into their own hands by tweeting out a clipped video of Amazon Prime pundit Karen Carney doing her job, accompanied by a caption mocking her analysis.

The video triggered a Twitter pile on, with an assortment of ridicule direct Carney's way. And because she's a woman daring to have an opinion about football, much of the abuse received was sexist.

Firstly, the comment.

"They outrun everyone," Carney said. "My only concern would be: will they blow up at the end of the season? We actually saw that the last couple of seasons, I actually think they got promoted because of COVID, in terms of it gave them a bit of respite. I don't know if they would have gone up if they didn't have that break."

Carney wasn't questioning Leeds' pre-lockdown form - any Leeds fan on Twitter last night will proudly tell you they won five from five prior to the three-month coronavirus enforced hiatus.

However, having been excellent for the first eight and a half months of the 2018/19 campaign, the Whites infamously picked up one point from 12 in their final four league games to miss out on automatic promotion, before imploding in the second half of their playoff semi-final second leg against Derby to consign them to the Championship for another year.

Such are the demands placed on a Bielsa side due to their intense, exciting, all-action style of play, they have a history of burning out towards the end of the season. At both Marseille in 2014/15 and Athletic Club in 2011/12, his sides suffered an end of season dip in form.

Therefore Carney's point - perhaps clumsily phrased - is not an absolutely outrageous one. Leeds had a three-month rest and then won seven of their final nine league games to storm to the Championship title.

This is not an attack on the club, or the players or the manager or their achievements. She is simply suggesting Leeds benefited from having a rest and subsequently experiencing less physical and mental fatigue given how exhaustive their style of play is.

Secondly, the decision to post the video.

Social media is usually a kind, caring, supportive place, which always provides context and is the perfect platform for a nuanced debate. How could one have predicted such a malicious response?

Oh wait, Twitter's horrible.

Individuals running a club's social media account have a responsibility. Leeds are a big club. They have over 665,000 Twitter followers. You can have absolutely have a sense of humour, but the club's official social media account has just instigated days of personal abuse towards a human being for having an opinion. It wasn't a rude, nasty or mean opinion. It was a simple opinion about football.

You've just won a football match, don't be petty, have a bit of class.

Leeds have 'condemned' the abusive comments directed at Carney. They haven't deleted the video though.

Thirdly, Gabby Agbonlahor.

People have rushed to the defence of Leeds as the club have a habit of calling out critics out on Twitter. You know, like a bitter 13-year-old calling out haters on a Snapchat story.

Former Aston Villa striker Agbonlahor posted a series of tweets blatantly aimed to wind up the Leeds fan base - and it hit a nerve, as Leeds happily responded following October's win over Villa. However Carney's comments were not intended to antagonise. She was doing her job as a pundit.

The club's Twitter account has also previously hit back at Chris Wilder and Swansea City - but not with a video of Wilder or Swansea. On those occasions, they celebrated Leeds' success and had a subtle dig at the pair. The post's full attention is on Carney, with Leeds' victory an afterthought. And this has resulted in a barrage of unwarranted hate directed at her.

Finally, the sexism.

The post was not sexist. Pundits, male and female, will make comments about Leeds throughout season - some will be insightful, some will be nonsense and some will be somewhere in between. It's just unfortunate that the one time Leeds decided to call out a pundit so publicly, they happened to be one of the few females working in the men's game.

However, the post was naive.

When you single out a female pundit, obviously they're going to get abuse related to their gender.

If the post had been about Gary Neville, he would not have been told to get back in the kitchen, he would not be accused of being given his job not on merit but simply to tick a box, and he would never be told his opinion is not valid because of his gender.

Women can have opinions on men's football. Dion Dublin and Ian Wright have opinions on women's football, and they're brilliant.

Carney has spoken openly about battling depression during her playing career, and she was the subject of rape and death threats while at Chelsea in 2018. You didn't have to pick on her.

The video also unhelpfully adds fuel to the nasty rhetoric about female football pundits in the male game. Or just any woman in a traditionally male environment.

Every time Alex Scott appears as a pundit, she starts trending on Twitter. And it's never people saying nice things about her or praising her role in Arsenal's 2006/07 quadruple winning side.

When Jacqui Oatley got the Sunday Supplement gig in January 2020, Twitter users insisted it was because she was filling a quota and not because of her quality as a broadcaster.

When Sue Perkins was linked with the vacant Top Gear post after Jeremy Clarkson and co departed in 2015, she was forced to come off social media because the trolling was so horrific. She didn't even want the job - she was just happy chatting about cakes with her mate Mel.

Women in male dominated fields get this all the time and so of course Carney was going to be subject to the same thing.

Official club accounts are there to give you the team news and post official statements accompanied by an ominous corner flag photograph. Anything else is a bonus. Publicly inviting mass abuse towards a person for having an opinion is not part of the parcel.