It's a continuing debate amongst most. Should athletes have full control of their social media channels? After all, it's just a few sentences here or there.
But what if they say the wrong thing? What if their words are taken out of context? What if they don't want to read all the harrowing comments underneath?
One thing that has come to the fore recently is the growing degree of ingenuity associated with these posts. This is most apparent from those playing in the Premier League.
It's widely known that the majority of Premier League players' social media accounts are mass controlled by tech teams who do this sort of thing for a living.
However, more often than not they play it incredibly safe, and put together a set of words that have no meaning, no message or no real identity.
Nobody is more frustrated than me. I have to keep my head up, no excuses. pic.twitter.com/6O5tx2Caom
— Eric Bailly (@ericbailly24) November 6, 2021
As with Eric Bailly above, it's hard to think the Manchester United defender took to Twitter to deliver that message. Neatly compiled with pictures to match.
The ingenuity is even more apparent in a loss. The usual "We move on to next week," or "Keeping our heads up" crap is a yawn at this stage.
How can players differentiate themselves in a world managed by a few social media execs? It's becoming harder and harder to separate players thoughts from those that push the buttons.
Take Harry Maguire for example. In contrast to Bailly's above, it's a bit more of a heartfelt message that I believe he did write, or at least sent on to someone else to post.
As a group of players we are going through a tough period. We know and accept this is nowhere near good enough. We feel your frustration and disappointment, we are doing everything we can to put things right and we will put things right.
Thanks for your support ❤️🔴 UNITED pic.twitter.com/9cvD8vXKXq— Harry Maguire (@HarryMaguire93) November 7, 2021
But given the fact that earlier in the season the same man posted, "Tough one to take last night but lots of time to bounce back," should he be given the benefit of the doubt?
What has become more common is mistakes and errors by social media account managers. Those that control multiple accounts and end up posting on the wrong one.
Everyone is entitled to a bad day at the office, don't get me wrong. When you're posting to millions and are that much in the public eye, some of the mistakes are hard to accept.
Not to harp on the Manchester United social media analysis here but given the weekend that was in it. This mistake from Bruno Fernandes' account manager was truly awful.
Bruno’s social media team accidentally posting on the wrong account is absolutely hilarious, couldn’t have been a worse post to make either. pic.twitter.com/ZEpo0qabIV
— James. (@afcjxmes) November 6, 2021
In September, an error in typing made Marcus Rashford's innocent looking Twitter post look like something completely different.
What can be done to get rid of the bore-fest that is players social media posts after games? It's unlikely to change anytime soon.
For convenience and for sound mind, it is the easier route for most to just hand off the responsibilities to someone to take it from there.
I'm sure these teams could come up with something more than the usual garb. Even just a stroke of creativity would be a welcomed boost.
For now, we'll have to endure the "Heads up, lads" and "Great 3 points" unless there's a huge shift in overall footballing culture.
See Also: Roy Keane Took No Crap From Angry Fan Outside Old Trafford
