Social media is just a part of life now, and football is no different.
Most footballers have both a Facebook and Twitter account, whether they themselves manage them, or their ‘people’ do. And of course each and every club has an online presence from which to put the best possible spin on the latest news.
But when web-based interaction was still in its infancy, everyone was still trying to get their heads around how best to convey themselves. And of course there are the late adopters who made their belated decision to jump on the bandwagon very obvious.
We thought we’d delve into the archives to pull out the first tweets of some of football’s biggest accounts, and the virgins’ tweets were certainly eye-opening…
Liverpool and Manchester City were early adopters and it showed, with personal tweets from the respective admins…
Trying to find a cameraman to film an interview with Alan Kennedy to look back on the 81 European Cup final – proving difficult! NIna B
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 16, 2009
The eagle has landed! Squad skip queues and get whisked away – Tim
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 8, 2009
Newcastle United’s first effort was even more amateur…
https://twitter.com/NUFC/status/1629560506?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea were boringly polished from the outset…
The official club website brings you all the latest news, views and ticket information from Emirates Stadium
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) April 23, 2009
New era, same spirit. The season starts here. Let's do this. #mufc
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 10, 2013
NEWS – CHELSEA TO LAUNCH OFFICIAL TWITTER: Chelsea Football Club will launch our own official Twitter acco.. http://tinyurl.com/cfvma7
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) April 2, 2009
Whilst Everton and Spurs jumped straight in, no intro, just cracking on with the news of the day…
Watch former Blues defender Ray Atteveld's exclusive interview with evertonTV, available NOW.
— Everton (@Everton) December 10, 2008
'Daws' called-up for World Cup http://bit.ly/cHcr5i
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) June 7, 2010
As for Stoke City, their first tweet was…very Stoke City…
CITY ARE THE NUTS!!! – http://tiny.cc/3OIrC
— Stoke City FC (@stokecity) June 5, 2009
Gary Lineker admitted it was his son George who coaxed him onto Twitter (and the many millions of ‘shat’ replies)…
Can't believe @GeorgeLineker has talked me into this tweeting thing. What have I let myself in for?
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 22, 2012
Whilst Arsenal fan Piers Morgan took the piss out of himself before anyone could…
BREAKING NEWS: I'm now a Twit. Official.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) November 30, 2010
Joey Barton, Wojciech Szczesny and Jens Lehmann all joined to thwart the copycats, but only the latter managed to sound like the Terminator…
This is the 1st official tweet by me, I know a few have tried to be me but this really is…………….
— 👑 Joey Barton 👑 (@Joey7Barton) May 26, 2011
https://twitter.com/13Szczesny13/status/29407989284?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This is Jens Lehmann's (JL) Tweet . Every other person who is pretending to act as Jens Lehmann has to stop doing so.
— Jens Lehmann (@jenslehmann) December 23, 2011
Gary Neville’s first act was to take the piss out of brother Phil…
@fizzer18 you'll get hammered!!
— Gary Neville (@GNev2) May 6, 2011
Whilst Robbie Savage was straight in talking about pimping up his ride…
who else would buy a black Merc and wrap it in white – just off to collect matching S65 AMG badges cost me a mind blowing 44 quid
— Robbie Savage (@RobbieSavage8) March 17, 2010
Wayne Rooney and Harry Kane are our personal favourites for these wonderfully random efforts…
Hi rio do u want picking up in the morning pal
— Wayne Rooney (@WayneRooney) April 23, 2011
Zombiesssss ! Too much !
— Harry Kane (@HKane) January 21, 2011
Both Aaron Ramsey and David Alaba managed to include incongruous references to serious world events in otherwise cheery messages…
Sitting by gibbo on way up to Manchester going to watch a bit of californication! Thoughts are with japan at this sad time..
— Aaron Ramsey (@aaronramsey) March 11, 2011
First tweet is to nobody lol, but on reccommendation from @RyanBabel i made a account !!!! #Obama
— David Alaba (@David_Alaba) March 18, 2011
You may have assumed Jamie Vardy would be tweeting about chatting shit or indeed getting banged, but his first act was a generous retweet for a commendable cause…
@vardy7 Northwich Victoria needs saving, evicted from our ground and staring down the barrel. Can you RT please. #SaveNVFC
— Jack Rowley (@JackRowley7) January 18, 2012
We think (hope) Jimmy Bullard was joking with this effort…
about time i gave facebook a bash!
— Jimmy Bullard (@jimmybullard) January 8, 2013
Whilst Michael Owen started as he meant to go on with thi…Zzzzzzzzz
Wasn't planning to tweet until next week but thought it would be rude to wait – Hello everyone and thanks to everyone who has Tweeted.
— Michael Owen (@themichaelowen) March 23, 2011
Want to win a free TV or iPad? Enter the draw to win one by taking part in our #MenUnmasked survey.
