Gary Neville urges Premier League stars to run their social media accounts after Phil Foden incident

Gary Neville has urged Premier League stars to run their own social media accounts and warned that their ‘independent thought and authenticity is at stake’ after Phil Foden was left furious when a company he uses taunted Kylian Mbappe on his account ahead of Manchester City‘s Champions League semi-final with PSG. 

Former Manchester United defender Neville raised concerns last month about players not posting themselves on social media when he said England stars ‘don’t sound authentic’ after a number of them posted similar messages in wake of a win over Albania.

City midfielder Foden, who scored in Wednesday night’s win at Borussia Dortmund to cement Pep Guardiola’s men’s place in the Champions League semi-final, was left in an awkward position after a Tweet sent sent out taunting PSG forward Mbappe without his approval.

Gary Neville has urged Premier League stars to run their own social media accounts after Phil Foden’s awkward incident with Kylian Mbappe on Wednesday night

Shortly after City’s victory, a picture of Foden began circulating with the words ‘@KMbappe are you ready?’

The 20-year-old City star and his representatives were not happy with the tone of the tweet, as it looked almost as if he was throwing down the gauntlet to the PSG superstar. 

Neville later took to Twitter to urge players to take charge of their accounts so they can avoid similar incidents. 

‘I mentioned on here a few weeks ago about players having their accounts run by social media companies. Lads run your own accounts!’ he wrote.

‘Your independent thought and authenticity is at stake . It’s your voice , not anyone else’s. Morning by the way . Go and attack the hell out of it.’