Football Twitter can be a brutal place at times.With the wave of abuse that footballers receive, it’s easy to see why so many don’t even bother handling their Twitter accounts themselves.Could you imagine what Harry Maguire’s mentions look like right now? It’d be enough to make the Manchester United defender fearful of leaving his house.Players would be more encouraged to open up on social media if they knew that they weren’t going to receive a torrent of abuse when they write one post.It’s a shame things are this way, especially given that social media provides fans with their easiest access to their favourite players.
Michael Bennett of the Professional Footballers’ Association expanded on the problem back in February."I've spoken to players who've deleted their accounts," Bennett told BBC Sport."That's just because of the barrage they get."You think about it, some of these players have 50, 60, 100,000 followers, and if you're getting negative feedback from a large proportion of those individuals, it's going to affect you."
Compare.bet carried out some analysis into the most targeted players and they came up with a lot of the 10 most trolled players in the Premier League.They considered the percentage of negative tweets aimed at each player between August 6 and September 15, with Man United’s Marcus Rashford at No.1.Yes, the same Rashford who has been so instrumental in tackling the issue of child food poverty.Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane and Dele Alli also featured in the top 10.1. Marcus Rashford | Man UnitedPercentage of negative tweets: 28.5%
2. Raheem Sterling | Man CityPercentage of negative tweets: 24.7%
3. Gabriel Jesus | Man CityPercentage of negative tweets: 22%
4. Harry Kane | TottenhamPercentage of negative tweets: 21.4%
5. Dele Alli | TottenhamPercentage of negative tweets: 20.9%
6. Mesut Ozil | ArsenalPercentage of negative tweets: 18.9%
7. David Luiz | ArsenalPercentage of negative tweets: 18.5%
8. Virgil van Dijk | LiverpoolPercentage of negative tweets: 16%
9. Thiago Silva | ChelseaPercentage of negative tweets: 15.8%
10. David de Gea | Man UnitedPercentage of negative tweets: 15.2%
Here’s what fans on social media had to say about the findings…