As footballers rush to join the social networking revolution that is Twitter, they may be advised to pause and reconsider following Darron Gibson's sobering experience.
The Manchester United midfielder – perhaps inspired by his team-mate Wayne Rooney's ability to attract nearly 200,000 followers within two days of joining the site – opened his own account at midday. The launch was announced with much fanfare by Gibson's captain at United, Rio Ferdinand, who tweeted: "We have a new member from the Man utd crew... @dgibbo28 has joined twitterverse show him some love tweeps!"
But two hours later the account had been shut down – seemingly because of the 23-year-old's unwillingness to put up with the abuse he was receiving from purported United fans.
Some of the messages aimed in the direction of the Republic of Ireland international included:
@dgibbo28 your performance on saturday was one of the worst I've ever seen of any utd player. scared of the ball much?'
@dgibbo28 hasn't tweeted yet. Seems somewhat fitting after the countless anonymous performances we've seen from the 'footballer'
@dgibbo28 my mate thought you were about 33 years old in the heart of midfield! Movement like pirlo!!
@dgibbo28 team do all hard work keeping possession then u hit row Z every fuckin time!!
@dgibbo28 the biggest compliment i can give you is that you are better than Carrick
Shortly after Gibson removed himself from the firing line, several other United supporters started a campaign to coax him back on to Twitter, attempting to get a #getbackgibbo hashtag to trend.
Gibson is among Manchester United's squad for their Champions League semi-final first leg against Schalke on Tuesday night. No doubt he will be hoping for a slightly warmer reception from the travelling United fans in Gelsenkirchen.