Football Food For Thought / Dan Fitch / 13 October 2009 /

As a freelance journalist, Dan 'The Betting Man' Fitch perfectly understands the pressure of filling your day when you've finished work by lunchtime. He takes a break from his life of leisure to look at footballers on Twitter.

You have to pity the modern footballer. Like their counterparts from yesteryear they're finished with training by lunchtime and have the rest of the day free. Unlike their counterparts from yesteryear they can't go and get blitzed in the pub every afternoon. What's a boy to do?

In the absence of birds, booze and bets, many of the Premier League's top players are turning to Twitter to while away their free time.

The most famous Tweeting footballer is Sunderland's Darren Bent, who hit the headlines when he used Twitter to criticise the Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy, during his protracted transfer this summer.

"Do I wanna go Hull city NO. Do I wanna go stoke NO do I wanna go sunderland YES so stop f**king around levy." This legendary rant got every Tottenham player banned from using social media sites, but when Bent eventually joined Sunderland he was back in business.

A quick look at DBTheTruth will transport you into Darren Bent's world. For instance, I now know that yesterday Bent purchased a box set of Heroes from HMV, despite the fact that it's rubbish after the first season and it's much cheaper at Amazon.

Bent has not been so wasteful in front of goal this season. He's hit the net seven times thus far, with only Fernando Torres having outscored him. The [11.5] available for Bent to be the Premier League's top scorer this season still represents pretty good value.

Darren isn't the only footballer who has upset people using Twitter. Aston Villa's James Collins (jamescollins29) didn't please his side's fans when he wrote on Russell Brand's page just two days before Villa's game with Manchester City.

"hello russell,its james collins here (ex west ham)!!im trying to get down the the game tomorrow,are you about??hope ur well."

Villa's fans would obviously prefer James Collins to be concentrating on their next game, rather than watching his former club. I'm not sure if Russell replied to James, but considering that he's knocking off Katy Perry I think it's safe to assume he's well. Villa are [3.05] to finish in the top six.

Stoke City have a plethora of Tweeters within their ranks, with the likes of Matthew Etherington, Ryan Shawcross, James Beattie and Rory Delap all having accounts.

DelapSCFC is by far the most active of the accounts. Delap recently revealed that neither Shawcross or Beattie had made his Sun dream team. Considering that Delap's throw-ins are no longer causing mayhem this season, I'd wager he's nowhere near their teams either.

You can lay Stoke at [12.0] in the relegation markets. Unless their obsession runs out of control and they start Tweeting during matches, that looks a pretty safe bet.

Then there are the impostors. In a world as anonymous as the internet, there's bound to be some people posing as famous football stars.

I doubt for instance that harrysblog is actually being maintained by Harry Redknapp, considering that all Tottenham staff are banned from the site and his famous claim that he couldn't turn on a computer.

Steven_Gerrard is bland enough to be the man himself, but I've got my doubts over RedRio. Would Ferdinand really use Twitter to apologise for his mistake against Ukraine? I suppose it might be apt considering that 500,000 web viewers were calling him something that sounds similar to 'Tweet' on Saturday.

Despite the frauds, the Twittering footballer can only be a good thing. In these days when players seem so removed from the fan, this is one way that they can connect.

Now please excuse me. I'm dying to find out what Darren Bent had for dinner tonight.

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