The Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has become exasperated with his players, especially Joey Barton and Jose Enrique, criticizing the club on Twitter, and has issued legal letters to the Toon players saying that discussing the club in public is in breach of their contracts.
Pardew admitted that he rang the Man United boss Alex Ferguson to find out what the policy was at Old Trafford.
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Pardew said: “I’ve spoken to Sir Alex Ferguson about this very subject, and their [Manchester United's] policy is that nobody at their club can comment about the football club,”
“It’s probably where we should be because it’s in breach of contract if you’re criticising the owner, the masseur, a player – anyone at the club, in fact.
“We’ve notified the players this morning – they probably see it as another sort of dictatorial moment from us. We’ve had to issue them, legally, with a letter to say this isn’t right, it’s a breach of contract and you have to understand you’re going to be fined and disciplined for it.”
Pardew was then asked if Fergie had any sympathy for Newcastle over there Twitter rebeles, and he gave an emphatic ‘no’. He said: “I had none from him whatsoever. He laughed, actually. I think he quite enjoyed it.
“He shared with me, quite ferociously, the view that this Twitter issue for clubs, and particularly managers, makes it difficult when information is coming out left, right and centre. You can’t have that happen.
“I didn’t go down the route of discussing an outright Twitter ban with him, we were giving our letter out to the players this morning. It had to go to the lawyers and I wanted to make sure we’re not stepping over the line.
“The problem I have with Twitter is that people are on there in an emotional state. Not just footballers.
“Sportsmen are an emotive people. They get in an emotional state and then put something out instantly on Twitter – it’s very damaging, not only to a football club but to any organisation and it could be to the police too, which I’ve seen on occasion.”
Now that this issue is out in public now there will probably be a LOT of legal letters going out to a lot more footballers in the next few weeks…….
