Manchester United’s Tom Cleverley could do with the break in Dubai that he and his teammates are to enjoy.
The England midfielder closed his Twitter account, which had 1.5 million followers, on Wednesday after a spell of sustained insults.
Cleverley conducted an interview earlier in the week where he suggested that he was “stung” by criticism at first and felt like a “scapegoat” for the poor form of the champions, who are seventh in the Premier League table.
The 24 year old claimed that he took abuse from supporters with a “pinch of salt”, yet his Twitter account was closed a day later.
Few United players have spoken publicly about the personal abuse they have received this season for their poor form.
Ashley Young was criticised throughout the autumn by fans who objected to having a perceived diving player on the team.
Young said little, but chose to heed the words of manager David Moyes to stop diving and hoped that his form would pick up.
It did, though he is still far from the most popular player among the fan base at Old Trafford.
Cleverley was advised to put his side of the argument across. He has acknowledged that this season has not been his best, but the same could be said of almost every United player.
Fans were predisposed to like him, since he is a home-grown player and a pleasant young man, but what was seen as the aggressive marketing of a player who rated David Beckham as his hero did not go down well.
Following Wednesday’s 0-0 draw at Arsenal, a positive result against the lead leaders in the face of United’s record of five defeats in their previous nine matches, Cleverley told the club website: “We’ll go away and have a good five days of warm-weather training, which will bring us together and hopefully do us good for the run-in.
“Warm-weather training is good for fitness as well as team bonding and the team spirit you get from having the lads together. We did it last year and it really helped us – hopefully it’ll have the same effect this time.”
While the squad has barely changed, United’s situation has shifted dramatically from last season. United are seventh with 42 points from 26 league games, 11 points behind Liverpool in the fight for fourth place needed to reach the Champions League.
It has been 23 years since Liverpool were ahead of United at this stage of the season.
After the same number of games last season, United had 23 more points after 26 games and were 12 points clear at the top of the table.
United have scored 41 goals and conceded 31 so far this term. A year ago, it was 62 scored and 31 allowed.
Given the discontented defenders at the club, United’s defence is the only part of the team which is comparable with the performances of a year ago. Aside from that, the swing has been significant.
Cleverley has to be positive in public and the break in the UAE should be good for United, but their problems are not going to evaporate in the Arabian sun.
Unhappy players are not suddenly going to become figures of serene contentment and the majority of players in the United squad will be thinking about their personal futures beyond this season and wondering whether they lie at Old Trafford or not.
Having been knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle, United have a 10-day break between matches before their next game at a rejuvenated Crystal Palace on February 22.
It has been one of those seasons for United where everything appears unprecedented at Old Trafford, though the announcement of record off-field figures shows that the club’s rapid commercial expansion – a rise in revenue of 29.7 per cent in the year ending June 30, 2013 – continues unabated.
That is of little consolation to the fans who continue to be frustrated with results under Moyes, though the strong financial figures will mean that United can spend big in the close season to boost their squad.
sports@thenational.ae
