West Brom striker Charlie Austin has gone on a foul-mouthed Twitter rant - calling one Southampton fan a cheeky c*** and accusing the Saints collective of being s*** fans after tweeting about the negative effects of social media.
The former Southampton striker later deleted his tweets following his x-rated comments on Twitter, but only after he had severely criticised fans of the Premier League side.
The Baggies striker, who moved to the club in the summer from Southampton on a two-year deal, was an unused substitute in West Brom's 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
But quote tweeting a post about social media becoming an ever-increasing curse, Austin himself tweeted: 'Couldn't agree more it's a f****** joke, gives people and companies a platform to say what they like without any remorse... think before you speak/tweet/post'.
Some fans took umbrage with what Austin had tweeted, with one Southampton fan replying to Austin saying: 'Difficult to get behind a striker who couldn't run five minutes without huffing and puffing Chaz!
'Big mouth for a man who accelerates slower than a 50 tonne lorry on an icy slope. Blame the club that paid your wages and supports your kids instead of yourself. WHAT A ROLE MODEL' - followed by a laughing emoji and a 'middle finger' hand sign.
Austin replied to the fan's tweet with similar disdain, stating: 'Oh they didn't support my kids you cheeky c***, I support my family so relax your comments about them! Fire them at me but not them!! I'm all for fan/player banter but your fan base is s***'.
Similar sentiments were then handed out by the 30-year-old when another Saints fan quote tweeted his original post with the words: 'Didn't think when you insulted our whole fanbase and club did it tho chazza #Saintsfc'.
The forward showed no signs of letting up, reacting to the message by saying: 'You're s*** fans, you don't sing to get behind the team, only when they score, never when they need a boost.'
Austin has previous of publicly hitting out at others after his sensational outburst following Southampton's 1-1 draw with Watford in November 2018, when his goal was wrongly ruled out for offside.
Maya Yoshida was ruled offside by referee Simon Hooper, who failed to spot that the ball hit Austin twice.
The 29-year-old fumed at the time saying: 'It's ridiculous. We scored a perfectly good goal that was ruled out for offside.
'The officials cost us two points. They said it was offside, that is a joke.
'Sure there are many positives, we worked hard, we deserved three points and we would have got that had we not been let down by the official.
'We didn't get beat but we should have gotten away with three points going into the international break.
'The performance was there, we can take that away and we should manage the game. I'm angry is what it is, we should have won 2-0.'