Bird is the word for Lee

Lee Johnson: Twittering on

LEE Johnson will continue to talk to fans through Twitter - insisting that despite his relative youth as a manager he has sufficiently broad shoulders to deal with the flak that will come his way.

Athletic's new boss used his personal account yesterday to ask for fans’ thoughts on mixing-in with the team on a pre-season tour to Riga or Vilamoura.

But Johnson is fully aware of the perils of the online world, and on balance feels social networks rather than the one-way traffic of online forums — bridges the communication gap between player and fan.

"It's a risky one," he admitted in his first weekly press conference in advance of the Shrewsbury game.

"You could be in line for a lot of abuse on Twitter with the emotion that goes along with how passionate fans are.

"I have seen players get demoralised by abuse they can get on Twitter. So all I would ask is for fns to be sensible about that.

"Twitter is a modern way of getting people to feel friendly with the club and the manager."

Through his Twitter account, Johnson yesterday canvassed opinion on mixing in with players on tour and even suggested sponsors stay in the same complex as players, to help with costs.

"We will have to be creative," added Athletic's manager. "I want the fans to feel part of it and get them involved. I was just chucking it out to see what thoughts were. If a sponsor wants to come along as well and stay in our hotel, that would help."


LEE Johnson is on Twitter at @LDJhepingping; Athletic reporter Matt Chambers is at @Matt_Chambers_