Watford chairman Scott Duxbury has apologised after a tweet sent out by the club was branded disrespectful by former England striker Gary Lineker.
A tweet from Watford's official account on Monday poked fun at Lineker for a year-old post in which he described the sacking of former Hornets boss Marco Silva as an "absurd decision".
Quoting Lineker's tweet from last January, which also stated the club would "almost certainly get someone less talented", the Watford post read: "This aged well..."
Under head coach Javi Gracia, Watford now sit seventh in the Premier League table, four places and three points ahead of Silva's Everton.
Yes, football can and will prove us wrong on many occasions, and I've already stated that that may be the case again here, but the sacking of managers is not something I often support and do find this tweet rather disrepectful of your former manager. https://t.co/wcfGYIycJE
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 21, 2019
While Lineker acknowledged that he may have been wrong in his assessment at the time, he took issue with the tone of Watford's tweet, suggesting it was "rather disrespectful" to Silva.
The exchange led some to call for the head of the person responsible for the "disrespectful" tweet, but Lineker self-referentially suggested that was unnecessary.
That would be an absurd decision, in my opinion, by Watford to fire their Twitter account person after his first bad Tweet. He'll be snapped up very quickly and Watford will almost certainly get someone less talented. https://t.co/HeWKGHlELh
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) January 21, 2019
And it prompted an apology from Watford chairman Scott Duxbury, who joked that he "might be going through more Social Media Managers than Head Coaches soon".
Sorry, @GaryLineker, no offence meant to anyone. They got carried away celebrating when they realised the Head Coach had been with us for a whole year!
I might be going through more Social Media Managers than Head Coaches soon 🤦♂️
Yours, Scott Duxbury, Chairman & CEO#watfordfc https://t.co/ZvDN4qnWG6
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) January 21, 2019
Watford confirmed that, unlike Silva this time last year, nobody in their media team would be losing their job for the tweet.
Silva was sacked last January with the club citing Everton's approach for their manager as a major factor in their downturn in form.
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