After Sunderland parted ways with Michael Beale yesterday, some surprising claims have emerged on social media.
Sunderland and Beale parted ways after just a couple of months yesterday.
The 43-year-old arrived as an unpopular replacement for the widely popular Tony Mowbray who dealt Beale his parting defeat in a 2-1 win for Birmingham City over the weekend.
Beale won four of his 12 games in charge, losing 3-0 at home to Newcastle United in the FA Cup.
His tenure will be remembered for all the wrong reasons; Beale’s comments in press conferences and that missed handshake with Trai Hume go down as some of his highlights.
And now claims have emerged on social media that Beale had a ‘burner’ account on X, formerly Twitter, with which he was supporting himself whilst at the Stadium of Light.
Michael Beale ‘burner’ account comes to light
Over the past week or so, an account on X has been sharing support for Beale, with one post shared showing an angle of the Hume handshake which suggests Beale didn’t see the Sunderland player as he came off the pitch.
The account, which has since been deleted, also shared tweets from fans of other clubs which suggested that Sunderland should keep Beale in charge, and the account had previously shared pro-Beale posts from his time at Rangers.
The name of the account was Player ID, and that’s been linked to Beale’s LinkedIn and a podcast he used to make, called Player ID; there’s also an old post on X which suggests Beale is the person behind Player ID.
Sunderland tenure one to forget for Beale
Beale has now had three jobs in management; QPR, Rangers, and Sunderland, and all three have been spells to forget.
And there seems to be a common theme emerging from all three; Beale does and says things that rub people up the wrong way.
He may well be a good coach, but Beale seems to have a poor temperament, and this emerging claim about a supposed burner account on social media seems to align with the idea that Beale can’t take criticism, and that he has to fight his corner always.
Whether or not it is Beale behind the account, we don’t know for sure and may never know. But Beale and Sunderland have now parted ways and both will hastily move on.
Sunderland have a steady pair of hands in charge in Dodds and he’ll be determined to pick up a win against Swansea City this weekend, and get the Black Cats’ season back on track.
Sunderland currently sit in 10th and with just four points between them and the top six, a play-off finish remains very possible.