Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani has defended the club’s decision to single out a critical piece of punditry by former Chelsea striker Karen Carney claiming her opinion was “disrespectful”.
The official Leeds account posted a tweet at just after 9pm on Tuesday mocking Carney’s claims as she worked as a pundit for Amazon Prime for their 5-0 win over West Brom.
In the 18-second clip, Carney stated that Leeds “got promoted because of Covid” due to the enforced break allowing them time to rest and recuperate.
An often-repeated observation of Marcelo Bielsa’s teams is that their commitment to such intense pressing can lead to burnout and fatigue towards the end of campaigns.
Leeds’ decision to post the footage accompanied by quotes and with a series of sarcastic emojis was cited as childish, immature and irresponsible, encouraging online abuse of Carney but Radrizzani himself took to Twitter to defend the post.
“I take the responsibility of the Club tweet,” Radrizzani wrote.
“I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our Club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches whom were understanding on the pitch for the last two championship seasons by all stats.”
Brighton defender Ben White, a key part of that Championship-winning squad while on loan at Elland Road, retweeted the Leeds post with three laughing emojis.
Carney was also complimentary of Leeds’ performance and their display against the Baggies, in which they recorded their largest Premier League win since 2003.
The 33-year-old received rape and death threats in 2018 during her time as a player with Chelsea.
Carney retired in 2019 after making 144 appearances for England, finishing her career with Chelsea before becoming a successful pundit, working for Amazon, the BBC, BT Sport and Sky Sports.
Leeds' official account has developed a reputation for highlighting pundits comments regarding their club, mocking Gabriel Agbonlahor and Paul Merson for misguided views about Bielsa's team.
