Ipswich loanee Aaron Mclean has laughed off the controversy surrounding what he insists was a misinterpreted Tweet soon after his arrival on loan from Hull.

Mclean shared his thoughts on an unsuccessful clothes shopping experience in the town centre with his 15,000 Twitter followers and didn’t hold back, stating: “To say the shops are dead is an understatement.”

The striker, who was also less than complimentary in a series of further comments subsequently removed from the social media website, later apologised for his remarks and was keen to emphasise, when the subject cropped up as he looked ahead to Saturday’s home clash with Barnsley, that no offence was intended.

Mclean, 29, said: “That was just a bit of banter about the town centre. I’m probably one of the trendiest players at the club and all my comments on Twitter are always light-hearted.

“I like to interact with the fans and have a bit of banter with them. Nothing I say on there should be taken too literally. It’s brilliant, Twitter, but I know a lot of players who don’t go on there because at the end of the day you are putting yourself out there and there are one or two people who are always going to have something negative to say.

“But you find that in all walks of life. It’s about using it in the right way, which I think I do. I try to speak to as many fans from different clubs and different places as I can and I always respond to people.

“There are those who will try to trip you up and you have to make sure you are aware of that. A lot of it is common sense. If people can see your personality through what you say on Twitter then they’ll take things as a joke when they are meant to be taken as a joke — like the shopping incident.

“If you go on there and you are respectful the majority of the time, when something like that happens it will be taken with a pinch of salt.”

Photo: Action Images

Lord_Mac added 06:18 - Jan 18 Footballers + Twitter = Oil + Water
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Len_Brennan added 06:25 - Jan 18 How he performs on the pitch is what interests me, but while here he also has a responsibility in how he represents the club. At 29 he should be mature & experienced enough to know this and also be aware of the perils of social media.
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andys_legg added 06:53 - Jan 18 So when u go somewhere your not allowed to not like the place. I seem to remember when I travel with the away fans most places we go they sing the song eg. (insert generic football club) a sh*t hole I wanna go home etc etc.
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BigAlwasmyhero added 07:09 - Jan 18 No offence taken..... Who cares, lets just play football
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JimmyJazz added 07:39 - Jan 18 What he said was true anyway, Ipswich shopping experience is rubbish
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MattinLondon added 08:01 - Jan 18 Charity shops, mobile phone shops, empty shops, mobile phone shops mixed in with 99p shops and that folks is Ipswich Town Centre. It is awful -he has nothing to apologise for.
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RegencyBlue added 08:08 - Jan 18 Personally I think he had a point! Its disgusting how the town has been allowed to deteriorate. Much as I hate to say it shopping in Norwich, for example, is light years ahead of Ipswich.
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Edmunds5 added 08:27 - Jan 18 I really don't see the problem with what he said, it wasn't as if he was insulting a member of the public or slagging of fans, not everyone has to like a place just because its located where you play your football. If anyone else apart from a footballer would have said that then no one would have cared, at the same time he should count himself fortunate, some people dont have the luxuries at his disposal so to complain about things like that is a little petty.

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algarvefan added 09:37 - Jan 18 Most town centres are the same all over the UK, here in Portugal they went mad for a few years building glitzy shopping centres and now most town centres are dying.
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bluesman added 09:42 - Jan 18 It's not exactly a controversial view. Weren't we voted England's worst town a couple of years ago? We were near the bottom anyway. Having said that football is a team game and I don't like to see players go public on Twitter. I think it works against the team ethic even if its light hearted.
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Fatcatevans added 10:04 - Jan 18 'I'm probably one of the trendiest people here' Cool people don't have to advertise the fact. He sounds a knob
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MattinLondon added 10:11 - Jan 18 Just an add-on as a Town itself, Ipswich is actually quite nice - relatively safe and the neighbourhoods aren't that bad. But the Town Centre is awful.
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Paulc added 10:35 - Jan 18 Mattinlondon - Spot on, but this is not isolated to Ipswich, this could be any high street in almost any town in the UK, and it will get worse. Who saw the sign on a Jessops door? it said "The staff of Jessops would like to thank you all for shopping at AMAZON - Avoiding tax 1% at a time" Fatcatevans - you are also correct, that was my first thought
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RaymondovicBlue added 11:29 - Jan 18 Not entering the debate about the Town Centre - nor whether the player should be allowed to say he doesn't like it .....or not ..... What bothers me is the attitude to twitter and the MISGUIDED view that if you NORMALLY are nice you can get away with OCCASIONAL other stuff.... Does the guy have NO idea how the media works?? And from my experience even the most light hearted joke can be taken as a serious one and no amount of apologising can undo what you never even intended to do !!! - it is DANGEROUS and anyone who writes on social media ignoring the POTENTIAL dangers is a fool. even if they are the trendiest fool here !!!!!!

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MattinLondon added 11:43 - Jan 18 Paulc Yeah, agree with you
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LordMamu added 11:47 - Jan 18 I haven't heard anyone use the word "trendiest" since the 1980s....ironically.
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MattinLondon added 11:51 - Jan 18 RaymondovicBlue I think too many people get on the 'I feel offended bandwagon far too easily - so what if you're offended. I don't think people should water down their opinions just because a few will get upset -obviously racist, homophobic abuse is unacceptable. But if someone is going to get offended by a 'light hearted comment' or joke - so what? At New Years there was a programme on C4 and a few comedians made jokes and a couple of people complained - millions didn't. The Daily Mail gets all moral and a few hundred people who didn't even watch the programme complain...idiots.

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Edmunds5 added 11:56 - Jan 18 I agree, If the issue is very sensetive, i.e race, religion, sexuality something like that then I would entirely understand why people would be angered and he would be in the wrong. But all he has said is that he doesn't really enjoy a place? how can it possibly offend anybody. If there is anything that may get misinterpereted then of course you shouldn't write anything regarding that subject, but its as if any slightly contreversial comment makes footballers vunerable and I don't think thats right, just because they're footballers and know they're in the spotlight doesn't mean they dont have a right to express an opinion, if people are offended by something so minor then that isn't his problem, anyway Aaron just score some goals.

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Lord_Mac added 16:25 - Jan 18 If you are in the public eye and you go public with an opinion, or hit the headlines in some other way, , you are not just representing yourself, you are representing the organisation that you work for. Twitter is lethal, because it provides a ready-made audience without any control or education about what it is wise to say. It doesn't matter what he thinks about Ipswich shopping centre or whether or not he is right, his opinion made public is damaging PR for the club and for the town itself. He should keep his views to himself.

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