Leeds owner defends club tweet singling out Karen Carney for criticism

Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani has defended a club tweet criticising Amazon Prime pundit Karen Carney for having an opinion.

England legend Carney suggested before Leeds' 5-0 win at West Brom that the coronavirus enforced break had helped Marcelo Bielsa's side secure the Championship title last season, as it prevented them from burning out towards the end of the campaign.

Leeds responded to this by tweeting a video of her comments accompanied by a disparaging caption, opening up Carney to a flurry of sexist abuse and pointed criticism in the process.

This initial tweet was backed up by Leeds midfielder Mateusz Klich, who replied with two vomiting emojis, while ex-defender Ben White also quoted it and added a laughing face. Many others pointed out that the Whites had been on a run of five straight wins prior to the enforced break, while conveniently choosing not to mention that Leeds had lost four of their final five league games during the 2018/19 season.

Club owner Radrizzani then chipped in, defending the decision to single Carney out for criticism.

"I take the responsibility of the club tweet. 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," he tweeted on Tuesday evening.

However, Leeds also received widespread condemnation for the tweet. Former defender Rio Ferdinand called on the club to delete it and he was not alone.

The furore that followed the game has rather detracted from Leeds' fantastic performance. After going ahead early on when Romaine Sawyers scored a calamitous own goal, the visitors were then merciless at the Hawthorns.

Ezgjan Alioski, Jack Harrison, Rodrigo all added goals before the break, while Raphina scored the picked of the bunch in the second. Cutting in from the right, the Brazilian curled an unstoppable strike past Sam Johnstone to cap off his side's 5-0 win.