Watford's social media expert appears to have touched a nerve after poking fun at Gary Lineker on Twitter.
A year to the day since the arrival of Javi Gracia as manager of Watford, the club's official account has unearthed an old tweet from the Match of the Day presenter.
In it, he criticises the sacking of Marco Silva back in January 2018, saying they 'will almost certainly get someone less talented.'
Watford, currently sitting seventh in the Premier League, looked to get a reaction from Lineker by retweeting it and adding the comment: 'this aged well.'
They followed it up with a picture of Javi Gracia shrugging at the camera, alongside a winking emoji as they tried to suggest it was all in good fun.
Lineker did indeed react, calling the tweet 'disrespectful.'
'Yes, football can and will prove us wrong on many occasions,' wrote Lineker, 'and I’ve already stated that that may be the case again here, but the sacking of managers is not something I often support and do find this tweet rather disrepectful of your former manager.'
Marco Silva was sacked after a string of bad results towards the end of 2017. Losses to Manchester United, Burnley, Crystal Palace, Huddersfield, Brighton, Swansea, and Manchester City left them in a bad position in the league.
Watford ended up in 14th place at the end of the season after Gracia took over, but have been enjoying a better run in the Premier League so far this season.
tension
1
Shocker the club actually tweeted this. 38 games in a season , let’s see at end
Howarer
1
They’ll sack him one day for poor results so it’s only gonna come back to bite them
Loversad
1
Silva disrespected Watford by jumping ship for more money. Shows ed Watford absolutely no respect. Why should they show respect to him! Good on Watford
Fordroad
2
Marco Silva is the most overrated manager I've ever known!
Lisajust
1
He really does need to wind his neck in a bit. He kicked a bag of wind and he talks about a bit about footy and flogs us crisps, he's not exactly Einstein is he.
Funearl
1
Regardless, this is still very petty for an actual football club to tweet something like this. Show a bit of class or take the moral high ground instead of doing something like this.
rockermang
0
A professional football club trying to prove a point by being disrespectful to their previous manager. This is low.
blackhappy
0
Never watch match of the day or anything with this numpty hosting, guys a 100% thicko.
introduce
0
Considering we have spurs next and they have Huddersfield, this tweet could be the focus of quite a few memes come February by the Snake Liverpool fans.
sadness
0
Not really keen on the club tweeting this, but the state of some of the replies are hilarious.
Sambill
0
To be fair to Gary, it must be hard to provide an accurate and informed view of the game when your head is wedged so firmly up your own backside.
ookiss
0
Remember he was too happy about Ranieri being appointed LCFC manager.
lkoop
0
People normally tell him to stick to football, but these days he's not even very good at that.
Davidgardner
0
I find this man very irritating to listen to,I don¿t watch his programme as he talks some bloody crap when he opens his big mouth,just stick to your crisps adverts,,,,,but there again he would turn them stale.
Heroselisee
0
Socialist numpty only respects his bank account.
Carybary
0
Right up there with Dianne Abbott this lad is. Both should just belt up.
moon09
0
Linekar is a pretentious t w a t I wish he'd stop waving his hands about when he speaks. He seems to think it makes him look all contential.
reasonlife
0
I also find his original tweet to be disrespectful towards Watford FC.
neutron
0
Bit quieter on Walker's staff losing their jobs en masse back in the day though, Gary? Sanctimonious, champagne socialist bore of the worst kind.
Elismer
0
Does anyone take Lineker seriously these days, champagne socialist on the BBC gravy train....
Bensons
0
Linekar was always popular, hence his lucrative TV contracts, but in the past few years he's been making a name for himself as a very condescending, self-important person who thinks he is a lot smarter than he actually is.
Carybary
0
Poor old Lineker, no one is listening to you any more.
Mustfer
0
Does he ever get sick of being owned on twitter??
ruinous
0
Typical left winger. Gets called out for being wrong and twists it into a moral argument.
Nissan
0
Really dislike Gary Lineker. The last couple of years he's really said some stupid things. Don't know why the BBC still pay him megabucks.
Harrington
0
Managers who behave in the way Silva did deserve absolutely zero respect from Watford. With Silva incidentally, I'd be interested to if a "bigger club" will come in for him now
keaiae
0
No.1 Twitter tw.t
TDgarden
0
Is it actually possible for a person to be more sanctimonious than Lineker?
genuinen
0
When will you just stick to presenting Mr Lineker - your previous presenters had class Jimmy Hill, Des Lynam - you Mr Lineker steer clear of social media and you may be respected more.