Leeds United have reportedly invited Amazon Prime pundit Karen Carney to their training ground, after public outcry at their social media post criticising the former England international.
Leeds hit out at Carney after the pundit said that they were promoted due to the Covid crisis. While the Championship season had a mid-season break due to the pandemic, Marcelo Bielsa's side were top of the table at the time and were likely to be promoted either way.
The Argentine's teams have found the last months of the season difficult in the past, due to the high demands he places on his players. However, they had won five games in a row before the break last season.
It is very rare for an official club account to criticise punditry of themselves, and many in the footballing community have denounced the club for doing so.
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Former Elland Road star Rio Ferdinand asked for the tweet to be deleted, while ex-England international Darren Bent also criticised the incident. Women in Football also called the tweet, "inciteful and inappropriate," in a statement.
It now seems that Leeds are looking to limit the damage from the tweet, although at the time of writing they are yet to delete it.
According to The Times, the club have contacted Carney and invited her to carry out a TV report from their training ground ahead of the FA Cup Third Round match with Crawley Town.
This reaction is reportedly due to staff being shocked by the abuse levelled at Carney following the tweet, despite regularly being outspoken about criticism in the past.
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Leeds have since issued a full statement on the matter. As per Phil Hay, it reads as follows:
Topics: Football News, Football, Leeds United, Rio Ferdinand, Darren Bent
