Tottenham fullback Kyle Walker says he's learned how to handle Twitter critics.
Walker knows better than most the swarm of criticism that can come a Premier League footballer's way in the current climate, having reacted angrily to abusive messages and then deleted his account following Spurs' 4-2 defeat to Chelsea in October. He is back on now and has nearly 300,000 followers - but is more aware of the responsibility this brings.
"After every game you get certain people tweeting about you and you will get three or four who do slag you off," he reveals. "In their eyes you can't do right for doing wrong. And I do think to myself: 'Do these people even have a clue about football?' But then I think: 'Well Kyle you've got 300,000 followers and only four out of them are saying negative things about you.'
"I do it for the fans to know what I'm up to. If I can tweet something of the lads having a bit of banter in the changing rooms, that's what I give back to them.
"I think (responding angrily) was me showing my immaturity. I'm just being human but in the job I do you have to react a certain way. If you've got that many followers on Twitter I think you should just bite your tongue.
"How I've been brought up - I would react. But then you have to say you're a professional footballer, you've got a lot of kids following you on Twitter who look up to you. If my role model was doing that I wouldn't like it."
