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Football

22nd Jan 2018

Man United criticised by fans over snubbing Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s birthday on social media

Modern football is weird

JOE

Another reminder that modern football is weird.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan is – at the time of writing, at least – a Manchester United player. He also was on Sunday, the day he turned 29 years of age.

He is, however, expected to complete a move to Arsenal in the very near future, one half of a swap deal which will see Alexis Sanchez move in the opposite direction.

With his move to The Emirates all but completed, he shared pictures of his birthday celebrations on Instagram. The Armenian, already in London ahead of his move, was joined by agent Minor Raiola and Paul Pogba – his soon-to-be ex-teammate.

Much to the dismay of supporters of Arsenal and United alike, there were no birthday wishes extended to the former Borussia Dortmund forward from his current employers. Not on social media, at least.

As many football fans pointed out, United’s social media accounts failed to recognise the player’s special day. Enough to see the club branded ‘pathetic’ and ’embarrassing’ on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Shawnife_/status/955130411415425025

https://twitter.com/JackMcLean7/status/955361954411040768

Some even went as far as suggesting Mkhitaryan’s numerous posts about his birthday were a ‘dig’ at the club for their failure to wish him well.

Yeah, honestly.

Mkhitaryan is expected to be officially unveiled by Arsenal at a similar time to when Sanchez is confirmed as a United player. The Chilean was believed to have been sorting out paperwork for his work permit on Monday before completing his switch.