Keith Andrews can empathise with Darron Gibson's situation. He too has been critical of teammates in the past. Though, not to the level which Gibson was on Saturday evening and certainly not in the company of individuals he doesn't know and trust.
Following Sunderland's 5-0 pre-season friendly defeat to Celtic at the weekend, Gibson - who had the demeanour of someone under the influence of alcohol - was filmed in conversation with fans being highly critical of the club and a number of players.
The 29-year-old called the club 'fucking shit' and appeared to suggest that Lamine Koné, Jeremain Lens and Wahbi Khazri lacked commitment.
Andrews says that Gibson should have known better.
I'm sure I've slagged certain teammates throughout my career. Certainly not to the level he did. It was naive from someone who's been in the game a long time. It's an unfortunate episode in his career and certainly Sunderland's saga goes on.
You need to be very, very careful. You can't speak in the way that he spoke about the club, about teammates - certainly to people that you don't know.
If he is genuinely feeling that and I can sympathise certainly with the frustrations that he has because I would be up the wall at that club.
But you cannot say that type of thing to people you don't know, certainly under the influence of alcohol in that type of environment.
Andrews is someone well-acquainted with Gibson. The two were part of the Ireland setup under Giovanni Trapattoni. The 36-year-old believes Gibson has not fulfilled his potential as a player.
He was in squads with myself. He was probably behind myself and Glenn Whelan; the next midfielder in. We all know that era, the manager [Giovanni Trapattoni] didn't change the team too often.
I very much thought I would start to take a backseat and he would start to kick on to another level, himself and James McCarthy. It would have been a natural progression. I would have liked to have stayed in the squad to be part of that. I would have been very content seeing that.
I don't think he's played anywhere near the amount of football he should have for the age he has. He's a very talented player but he hasn't shown that as consistently as he should have down through the years.
Keith Andrews and Phil Thompson were speaking at the Sky Sports preview of the 2017/18 Premier League season. Sky Sports will kick off the new Premier League season on Friday 11 Aug with Arsenal v Leicester. 159 live Premier League games will air on Sky Sports Premier League (Channel 402) this season including 3pm Saturday kick-offs exclusive to Sky Ireland customers.
