Leeds United players have come under fire for appearing to ignore awaiting fans at their team hotel this weekend.
A short clip posted on social media shows the players leaving their hotel in Bournemouth prior to their 4-1 defeat at the Vitality Stadium.
There were a number of fans waiting for them, including children, but it appeared as though the players ignored them and walked straight onto the team coach.
The Leeds stars are now facing a backlash on social media, with echoes of the criticism Arsenal players faced for their lack of interaction with their young mascot at a recent game.
Piers Morgan led the criticism of the Leeds squad, writing on Twitter: “Selfish arrogant p****s.”
talkSPORT host Laura Woods also addressed the video after a number of listeners sent it into the Breakfast show.
She said: “There’s a video loads of people have sent me and asked ‘are you going to talk about this because you talked about Arsenal, the Arsenal players and their reaction to their mascot pre-match?’
“There’s a video now circulating of kids and fans saying hello, addressing each of the players and they don’t stop and keep going.
“With these kind of things, and I said this about the Arsenal thing as well, it’s a short clip and there might be other players who did stop.
“The ones who didn’t and the way it went down doesn’t look good and once again throws players into the spotlight and perhaps needing a reminder it doesn’t matter if you’ve lost 4-1, whether it’s pre-match, these fans make the game. These are your fans, no matter if you win, lose or draw.
“These fans have travelled to watch you play and they deserve a little bit. They definitely deserve a bit of eye contact.”
Former Leeds defender Danny Mills joined Breakfast on Monday morning and admitted that something like that would never happen in his day.
Mills said: “I don’t get it at times. Maybe there were different characters when I played, but when we had mascots or kids around the dressing room you’d bring them in and play a bit of head tennis with them. You’d make them part of it.
“There was 10 minutes maybe once you come back in after the warm up where you go ‘okay, game face on’. That’s when it gets a bit serious.
“Even sometimes walking out with the mascots, certain players would be very engaging and most would speak to them.
“I know the players are focused and maybe are trying to put a front on and say ‘look how focused we are and look how hard we are trying’.
“Maybe one or two players need to think about the situation. We had COVID, we had lockdown, we had no fans at all and no engagement.
“Just think about those kids because they are idols, it’s as simple as that. Maybe it’s a generational thing, but that would never have happened in my day.”
