Football Twitter 2021: The best football tweets of the year

What a year it's been

After a rather vacant 2020, this year was when football picked up again and the content machine went into overdrive. The Super League fiasco, an incredible Euro 2020, Lionel Messi leaving Barcelona, Cristiano Ronaldo going back to Manchester United, Jack Grealish and his calves going to Man City, Newcastle's Saudi takeover, Barcelona being in financial ruin, and all the other mad shit I've forgotten about, gave us quite the year of tweets. Here are some of our favourites. Yes, we've included a couple of ours. Sorry if we ignored one of your bangers. Drop them in the replies. Enjoy.

January

It wasn't the easiest start to 2021 for anyone. A perfect visual representation of how we all entered the new year after the worst 365 day period of all time. https://twitter.com/TiagoEstv/status/1347631267962089472 No explanation needed for this one. https://twitter.com/chorleyfc/status/1347911844464381952?lang=en Never under-estimate football Twitter's ability to turn a threat to democracy into memes. https://twitter.com/fistedaway/status/1346928709119471629? Shout out to all the Cockburns out there. It can't be an easy life. https://twitter.com/stevecockburn/status/1346787833764315136 If you say so, Steve. https://twitter.com/JonnyGabriel/status/1355107464832823301

February

Then there was the time we discovered Dermot Gallagher has been Anglicising his strong Dublin accent for a British TV audience, and we lost our collective mind. https://twitter.com/waynefarry/status/1359785257902485506 A timeless deconstruction of the banal punditry that curses our screens far too often. https://twitter.com/MrMichaelSpicer/status/1362003614101893121 Still waiting on the original audio for this. https://twitter.com/MicahRichards/status/1358562690344566785 Someone, please stop politicians from using footballing analogies. https://twitter.com/ReubenPinder/status/1363449317361598467 https://twitter.com/MyGuyRudi/status/1364291869413429249

March

That's the real quiz. https://twitter.com/SanMarino_FA/status/1375199720948305924? Ah, the José Mourinho era at Tottenham. https://twitter.com/Billie_T/status/1372634122078846979 Hasn't aged well, but a brilliant use of one of our headlines. Chapeau. https://twitter.com/JKnowsBall/status/1367555411314946057 All that's missing is a never-ending chorus of boos. https://twitter.com/PQCFC/status/1370423288292380682 The greatest match promotion tweet ever sent from a club account. https://twitter.com/ManCity/status/1368320813473075205 That time Christian Benteke used World Book Day to remind the world of the biggest smash and grab in recent history. https://twitter.com/chrisbenteke/status/1367469728697114628

April

THE SUPER LEAGUE TWEETS. Some absolute bangers in here. https://twitter.com/PaddyArsenal/status/1384589974142656519 https://twitter.com/demarionunn/status/1384055571821727745 https://twitter.com/jonawils/status/1384590372786085898 https://twitter.com/Carra23/status/1384587722627682316 https://twitter.com/rogbennett/status/1383868064165339141 https://twitter.com/_Zeets/status/1384177923834335235 https://twitter.com/tom_usher_/status/1384072838395555843

May

Maybe we should re-evaluate the way we analyse missed penalties. https://twitter.com/oilysailor/status/1391081531247140867 https://twitter.com/Reemzestilo/status/1392605878692495360 This one was particularly prophetic... https://twitter.com/SamMcGuire90/status/1391088877943894016 Hope his head wasn't too badly hurt after this. https://twitter.com/Stevie__may/status/1396139682791137281 Return of the King. https://twitter.com/charles_watts/status/1396460367153451014 A true Premier League great departs. https://twitter.com/aguerosergiokun/status/1396542084304281609 Liverpool Alisson sent Twitter into a frenzy with his last minute winner against West Brom, but nothing quite topped this brilliant stat from Richard Jolly. https://twitter.com/RichJolly/status/1393987713209090052 https://twitter.com/GraceOnFootball/status/1393659153495859207 The Turkish Süper Lig continuing to be batshit. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1393658129502642177

June

The Euros kicked off in June, and there was no shortage of entertainment. https://twitter.com/36Johns/status/1403704783643590656 Until the BBC suffered some technical issues during Turkey vs Wales. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1405202380828856321 Scotland might have only scored one goal in their three group games, but at least they had this absolute banger as a soundtrack. https://twitter.com/MiguelDelaney/status/1404421676620816391 Holland once again proved to be a disappointment. https://twitter.com/Ankaman616/status/1404162240941547523 Turkey being a complete flop in the tournament after everyone tipped them as dark horses was a particular highlight. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1405205017825624067

July

For many fair weather fans, the Tiny Football Car was the best bit of the tournament. And fair enough, it was very cool. https://twitter.com/TinyFootballCar/status/1412845306891341825 Even God was getting involved when England conceded their first goal of the tournament to Denmark. https://twitter.com/TheTweetOfGod/status/1412846761450741760 As England reached the final, Euros fever got a hold of all of us. https://twitter.com/Thandietweetss/status/1412889698834558981 Never forget Tyrone Mings dunking on our awful Home Secretary. https://twitter.com/OfficialTM_3/status/1414655312074784785

August

Transfer silly season always kicks into gear in August. https://twitter.com/_collinsville/status/1423345895207284743 https://twitter.com/EvanMcFarlane/status/1423343927399223304 Do you want the options again? https://twitter.com/MatchoftheDave/status/1423594535494590464 https://twitter.com/CFCDUBois/status/1423331743432683522 The footballing world was rocked by news of Messi leaving Barcelona, but few will have been more fearful than Ligue 1 defenders. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1425515644347371526 https://twitter.com/greenaugustus12/status/1425101195518128135 When you see it... https://twitter.com/DanielDPrescott/status/1426921281065213954 Kit launch of the year: Crystal Palace getting their oldest fan, 101-year-old Pam, to do the photoshoot for their home kit. https://twitter.com/CPFC/status/1422587984885420037

September

Simple but effective. https://twitter.com/SmnLlyd5/status/1436036768181129218 One regular day of CONMBEOL. All I ask for. Will never happen. https://twitter.com/TomasORuanaidh/status/1434602205466841090 It was always going to be Burnley to do this, wasn't it? https://twitter.com/Zonal_Marking/status/1429031468622401540 Ronaldo's return to Old Trafford saw everyone fly off the hinges a bit... https://twitter.com/OllieHolt22/status/1436723463817990161 An underrated Twitter moment: Patrick van Aanholt calling Mateo Guendouzi 'likkleman.' https://twitter.com/pvanaanholt/status/1443704333774770181 Still wish we could have seen Graeme Souness' reaction to his. https://twitter.com/utdreport/status/1436755634129620998 https://twitter.com/SebSB/status/1437118556618039297

October

Long after Frank Lampard's departure from Derby, Leeds fans continued to mock his reaction to spy-gate. https://twitter.com/EamoV1/status/1450475033185374215 *Chef kiss* https://twitter.com/JohnBrewin_/status/1449788968116031489 When Rob McElhenney realised just what he'd got himself in for as his players mopped the pitch dry. https://twitter.com/RMcElhenney/status/1444329846625030145

November

Any excuse to show you this again. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1462007227166908419 Solskjaer's sacking feels like longer than six weeks ago, doesn't it? https://twitter.com/AdamCrafton_/status/1462085361757208589 https://twitter.com/oilysailor/status/1462194597824761862 Sure he was smiling on the inside... https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1461664236220919808

December

The managerial merry-go-round was in full swing as Lampard was linked to every bottom half job available, but decided none of them were quite right for him. https://twitter.com/FootballJOE/status/1459181359533068291 Leeds' injury crisis saw them turn to a literal 15-year-old to fill a space on the bench. https://twitter.com/FootballCliches/status/1472261159730434049?s=20 Perfect. https://twitter.com/TamsellicsonIII/status/1472715996943241221 Oh yeah, and the Champions League draw had to be re-done due to a mistake. Thankfully for Chelsea, they still ended up with Lille, and made the most of a great opportunity on social media. https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/1470398980735574026 This clip took the world by storm in late December, but the numbers would dictate she should have passed. https://twitter.com/xGPhilosophy/status/1474460410258546693   Be more creative with the presents, fellas. https://twitter.com/MatthewStanger/status/1474716323284402177 And the year signed off with John Terry getting really into NFTs of sad looking apes. No, we don't get it either. This was very funny though. https://twitter.com/SmnLlyd5/status/1475207000652984325 Happy New Year, folks. Here's to another year of great tweets.