He stormed in. He put it all on the line. He took a shot and was instantly dropped from Brentford's matchday squad by manager Dean Smith.
The 'he' in question is Bees midfielder John Swift, who was left out of his side's squad which ultimately fell 1-0 to a Tugay-esque winner by Blackburn and Ireland's Shane Duffy.
Swift, a 20-year-old Chelsea loanee, posted a picture, now deleted, of UFC fighter Conor McGregor which contained the caption:
Some days they love you, some days they hate you; Both days I got paid.
Swift added his own caption, which read simply 'What a guy'.
The midfielder has since apologised to Brentford fans whom he was presumably referencing, despite his denial.
Being dropped aside, perhaps the greatest indignation for Swift is that the line cited in the picture is not a Conor McGregor quote at all, but one of those annoying fucking Tumblr quotes that used to pop up on people's Bebos back in the day:
While McGregor will doubtless be chuffed to have reached Alan from The Hangover meme status, Swift's manager Dean Smith was less enthused, telling reporters:
John wasn’t in the team anyway but he posted something on social media that I was made aware of.
I spoke to him this morning and I just didn’t think it was right to put him on the bench today.
He explained it when he took it down and apologised. I don’t think there was any malice in it, but it was naive from a young lad.
Sometimes I don’t think they realise how many people it goes out to once they press the enter key, such is social media.
It does beg one question: do managers deliberately pretend not to understand social media to seem cool amongst their peers?
The enter key? Come on!
John Swift will now join England under-21s for international duty, but any more indiscretions and he may well be banished to an island of tiny people.
