Brighton stopper Jason Steele has spoken to BBC’s Monday Night Club on the subject of criticism for Leeds United star Patrick Bamford – with the striker receiving death threats after missing a penalty against Newcastle United.
Bamford missed a spot kick against the Toon on Saturday. Just days after the one-time England striker had deleted his Twitter account. His partner, Michaela, highlighted death threats before Leeds themselves made a statement.
The striker had been named by Sam Allardyce as the man he was going to rely upon during his four-game stint in charge. But, he has struggled in Allardyce’s opening two matches. That is despite starting well against Newcastle.
Indeed, it was his cross that saw Luke Ayling score. Steele spoke of how he has gone through similar in his life and decided to take himself on social media completely – in order to focus on his football, and spoke about Bamford.
“It doesn’t just affect us, it’s our families, kids and wives. People who are sitting there writing these things don’t understand the effect. We are all human, we all feel things, we all have emotions,” Steele said. “I’m fully off it.
“I don’t need it. I’m old and wise enough to know when I’ve had a good game or a bad game. I don’t need people tweeting me. You’d have a game and you’d look at your phone and some of the stuff that gets said,” Steele added.
“That’s 10 years ago. It has escalated so much. I don’t know Patrick as a person but he hasn’t missed a penalty on purpose. He hasn’t done it to harm the fans. It’s one of those things. It’s football. It happens week in and week out.”
Brighton stopper Jason Steele on criticism for Leeds star Patrick Bamford
A fan deserves the right to criticise a player, they are paying spectators. But this is obviously way too far, way too personal and way too intrusive. It goes way past what is acceptable and Leeds are right to condemn those.
The club are said to be investigating it and rightly so. If any fan thinks criticism to this extent of a player is going to help him rediscover his form, and play better, then they are delusional. Bamford has given us joy in his Leeds time.
