Petr Cech has hit back at Bayer Leverkusen after the Bundesliga club posted a Tweet poking fun at his performance with the ball at his feet against Manchester City at the weekend.
With new Arsenal boss Unai Emery keen to get his players playing the ball out from the back, Cech was forced to modify his style of play, with the 36-year-old almost scoring the mother of all own-goals.
Summer-signing Bernd Leno, who was left on the bench, is renowned for his ball-playing and the German’s old club, Leverkusen, decided to reply to a sneery Tweet about Cech before posting their own one lauding their former goalkeeper.
We might know a guy…
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
In case you all were wondering how to play out of the back… pic.twitter.com/LZkxznsGPs
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
Cech, who is no stranger to calling out people on Twitter, hit back quickly, writing:
We share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side.
Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values.
Here’s the tweet in question…
.@Arsenal we share important values which make us a big club not only on the football side . Fair competition, professionalism and sportsmanship are the biggest ones you teach young footballers and it’s sad to see when other clubs don’t share the same values. .@bayer04_en
— Petr Cech (@PetrCech) August 13, 2018
The big Czech, who made a number of superb saves in the defeat to City, certainly didn’t pull any punches.
Leverkusen eventually replied, apologising for any offence caused…
Hi Petr. It seems our joke about wanting to see Leno, our former player, in action has been taken a bit more harshly/personally than intended. It was only a bit of banter. We’re all for the values you’ve stated and wish you and your big club all the best. Nice 1v1 save on Aguero!
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 13, 2018
Fair dues to Cech for getting in touch with Leverkusen although the German club did respond rather classily themselves.
Is it just us, or are some clubs’ social media teams getting a bit too big for their boots and smug these days?