Sharks' not so social post

Sale Sharks have been on the receiving end this season – both on and off the field.

The bottom-placed English Premiership team, fresh from a 60-point drubbing in the European Cup, were embarrassed further when it came to light this week that Sale's social media manager decided recently to take the team's fans to task on Facebook.

The incident is a major embarrassment for the North-West club and outraged many supporters, who have already endured their worst start to a Premiership season.

According to the Telegraph the incident only came to light on Friday, although the message was posted by Holleh Nowrouz, responsible for the club's social media output, in October.

The post read: "Oh, the joys of managing a sport club's social media when we've lost the last seven Premiership home games. To the Sale Sharks fans who comment about the club needing to spend less time blogging and tweeting and more time coaching, the staff who create content for the website and social media platforms are not the same members of staff who coach the team. You absolute f—wits."

Nowrouz has been formally warned about her future conduct.

The club's senior media manager, the experienced Dave Swanton, issued the following statement on Friday: "Holleh Nowrouz deeply regrets the posting. Disciplinary action has been taken and both Sale Sharks and Holleh Nowrouz would like to apologise to supporters of Sale Sharks for causing unnecessary distress."

There was fury among a section of supporters reacting to the news, many of whom were aware that some popular behind-the-scenes figures have left the club recently.

"Well, that's just about typical from this franchise," read one comment on the website.

"Utter shambles, kick out anybody who cares about Sale/the fans, replace them with utter f—wits who have no idea. Brilliant."