Liverpool have been forced to delete a tweet about Jon Flanagan following strong backlash in the replies section of the post.
Kopites weren’t best pleased that their club wished the 29 year old ex-defender well in his retirement, having come through the Reds’ academy and made 40 appearances for the club in the Premier League.
However, the dark side of his personal life saw the England international arrested for assault in 2017, near the end of his time on Liverpool’s books, and was handed a community order after pleading guilty to the charge.
Footballer Jon Flanagan arrives at Liverpool Magistrates Court where he faces a charge of common assault @PA pic.twitter.com/3YtCntVVuq
— Rich McCarthy (@VJRichMcCarthy) January 2, 2018
He also spent time in the Scottish and Belgian leagues, but has now announced his retirement after receiving medical advice.
He had played in Denmark with HB Koge, joining in July 2021, making a handful of appearances for the team managed by former Liverpool fan favourite Daniel Agger, who had just been appointed manager of the club.
It was in June 2022 that his contract was terminated.
“Best of luck in your next chapter, @jon_flan93,” a message from Liverpool’s official account read this week. But, the post was quickly taken down following the backlash.
Jamie Carragher however took it upon himself to send a message to Flanagan, writing: “Well done Flanno on achieving your dream of playing for your club @LFC good luck in the future lad”.
At the time of writing, Carragher’s message it still on his profile, though a number of replies to his post have referenced Flanagan’s arrest and sentence.
LIVERPOOL STATEMENT:
Flanagan graduated through the ranks of the Reds’ Academy to make his senior debut for the club under Sir Kenny Dalglish in April 2011.
That landmark moment for the full-back came in a 3-0 victory over Manchester City at Anfield and he went on to feature on 16 more occasions during the two years that followed.
It was in 2013-14 that Flanagan reached his greatest heights in the Liverpool shirt, as he established himself as a regular figure in the Brendan Rodgers team that went so close to winning the Premier League title.
Deployed predominantly on the left side of defence, he made 23 top-flight appearances – and scored one goal, away at Tottenham Hotspur – during a thrilling campaign that ended with the Reds narrowly edged out into second place.
Well done Flanno on achieving your dream of playing for your club @LFC good luck in the future lad 🤞🏻
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) October 18, 2022
Liverpool tweeted a similar message on Wednesday morning – this time to little backlash but still enough to not only vent frustrations but also fans were clearly unhappy they had seen the club repost the sam announcement as the day before. However, this time Liverpool didn’t deleted the message, as of when writing this article.
Liverpool’s statement continues: “Flanagan’s progress – which had included international recognition from England – was unfortunately then halted by serious injury, with the Scouser requiring two knee operations as he spent 20 months on the sidelines.
He made a memorable return to the pitch under Jürgen Klopp in January 2016 and played nine times in total for the current boss, as well as heading out on loan to Burnley and Bolton Wanderers.
Flanagan departed Liverpool in the summer of 2018 and went on to represent Rangers, Charleroi and HB Koge before the decision to retire following further knee surgery.
“Ultimately my long-term health has to come first,” he said upon announcing the news. “So following medical advice the right thing for me to do now is retire from the game.
“My dream as a boy was to grow up and play football for a living and today I’m so proud to say I lived that dream.
“Not only playing [for] and captaining my boyhood club Liverpool but also making an appearance for my country, those memories created will last a lifetime and I’m so grateful that I have had the experience that most others can only wish for.”
Flanagan added: “I will now begin the next chapter of my football journey and I’m excited about what the future brings.”
Jon admitted assaulting Rachel Wall on Duke Street back in December 2017. The month after, he was handed a 12-month community order, 40 hours of unpaid community work and 15 ‘rehabilitation days’.
“You are a relatively young man with no previous convictions and it is therefore sad that you have come before the court today due to your behaviour,” Judge Wendy Lloyd said at Flanagan’s hearing at Liverpool Magistrates’ Court. “This is an unpleasant episode… as we have discussed at the previous hearing this was not just a single act in that few minutes it was a matter of this lady going to the floor twice and you used your foot on her on one occasion.
“I find this was a category two offence, this lady does have injuries but of course she did not attribute those injuries to you. You claim to have no memory of this incident which does suggest you were very drunk indeed.”
Flanagan spoke of the “careful consideration” which informed his decision to retire. He didn’t play the entire 2014-15 season with knee problems, and has had further treatment before making his mind up to retire.
“The last 14 months I have tried everything possible to recover from my most recent knee surgery,” a statement from the Liverpool-born player read. “However, ultimately my long term health has to come first, so following medical advice the right thing for me to do now is retire from the game.
“My dream as a boy was to grow up and play football for a living and today I’m so proud to say; I lived that dream. Not only playing and captaining my boyhood team Liverpool but also making an appearance for my country, those memories created will last a lifetime and I’m so grateful that I have had the experience that most others can only wish for.”
JON FLANAGAN’S CAREER
Youth career
–2010 – Liverpool
Senior career
2010–2018 – Liverpool – 40 games (1 goal)
2016–2017 → Burnley (loan) – 6 games (0 goals)
2018 → Bolton Wanderers (loan) – 9 games (0 goals)
2018–2020 – Rangers – 21 games (0 goals)
2020–2021 – Charleroi
2021–2022 – HB Køge – 4 games (0 goals)
National team
2011 – England U19 – 1 game (0 goals)
2013 – England U20 – 1 game (0 goals)
2011 – England U21 – 3 games (0 goals)
2014 – England – 1 game (0 goals)
Flanagan was eligible to represent both England and the Republic of Ireland.
In May 2011, Flanagan was called up to the England under-19 squad for the first time, although he had to withdraw due to a calf injury.
In August 2011, he was named in the provisional squad for England’s 2013 Under-21s qualifying matches for the first time.
He made his debut in the 6–0 win over Azerbaijan. In May 2013, Flanagan was named in manager Peter Taylor’s 21-man squad for the 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
He made his debut on the 16th of June in a 3–0 win in a warm-up match against Uruguay.
On the 12th of May 2014, he was named as one of seven reserves for England’s 2014 FIFA World Cup squad and trained with the squad at their pre-tournament training camp in Portugal.
On the 4th of June 2014, Flanagan made his England senior debut, replacing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the second half of a friendly against Ecuador in the United States.
For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Flanagan was announced by Roy Hodgson as one of the standby players.
Flanagan earned numerous plaudits for his style of play since his breakthrough into the Liverpool first team in November 2013; most notably, the World Cup-winning former Brazil captain and full-back Cafu heralded Flanagan as his “successor”, applauding his “speed, strength and determination” and stating he “has everything required to be one of the best full-backs in the world”. This has led to fans dubbing Flanagan as “the Scouse Cafu”.
“It’s a day he’ll remember for a long time!” Jon Flanagan drove in his first #LFC goal two years ago today… what a way to get off the mark!
Posted by Liverpool FC on Tuesday, 15 December 2015
This is what fans said after Liverpool were forced to delete a tweet about Jon Flanagan following strong backlash…
@rr_one9: Lost a ton of respect for @LFC for the Flanagan post. Admin should be fired.
@sparky_1875: Nah he’s a woman abuser
@garylouth: Absolutely tone deaf… disgraceful.
@Jack_24__: Wishing luck to a criminal 🥴
@MarkC_LFC_: u have to be joking right you got abuse for this yesterday for doing this you deleted it and now you reput the tweet back up like you know hes an abuser right
@Edge_Hill: Do you lot know why this is wrong?
@parmetheus: You’re really trying this again? Thought you’d learned from yesterday.
@DarwinBxrner: Have some shame & delete this PR disaster
@HadrienAgnew: Best of luck? Wow. Delete.
@not_in_tune: If you have enough awareness to delete the last one because of the 👊🏼 emoji, surely that awareness is enough to just not tweet it out at all??
@Guggsey: Ridiculous posting about this given his conviction. Think about the message this sends to female fans and young supporters.
@Sorensen3014: Jesus Christ, he’s a convicted abuser, we dont wish him good luck
@TOMMYHASSETT: I’d delete this fairly quickly.
@mxddylfc: don’t be a dickhead, delete this
@ahmedIfc: You already deleted one tweet and you thought tweeting another one wishing an abuser good luck made sense????
@AntonyRaphael18: Lad punched and stamped on his girlfriend in the street, good riddance
@86_remedy: Tone deaf Club, this is disgraceful you would post this. Preach “Stop the Hate” but celebrate a man that was charged for domestic violence. This club makes me sick, the rotten core is getting exposed!
@VirgiILFC: Don’t involve ourselves with the wife beater ffs
@Cleggy_96: Battered his bird. He’s a fuckin rat
— Richard Chambers (@newschambers) October 19, 2022
Fuck him pic.twitter.com/RWyRsJ4bfj
— James Here! (@James__Here) October 19, 2022
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