Oh dear, Wayne Hennessey. Oh dear:
It certainly *looks* like Wayne Hennessey doing a Hitler salute on Crystal Palace teammate Max Meyer's Instagram photo. pic.twitter.com/HdFXdxPnyc
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) January 6, 2019
From what Paddy can see, that’s exactly what he was doing.
Wayne Hennessey is probably not a Nazi. In fact, we’d go so far as to suggest he is definitely not a Nazi. But, as pointed out by Daniel Storey in the above Tweet, it very much looks as if Wayne Hennessey is “doing a Hitler salute on Crystal Palace teammate Max Meyer’s Instagram photo.”
This is not a good idea.
Even if it’s intended as a light-hearted jibe at German Max Meyer’s nationality, it’s not a good idea. To be perfectly frank, it’s a terrible, terrible idea. Especially if you are a relatively high-profile footballer in the social media age.
Still, at least Hennessey fronted up and apologised for hi-jinks gone wrong.
Oh…
https://twitter.com/WayneHennessey1/status/1082058860423192581
Now, Paddy thinks it’s fair to give Hennessey the benefit of the doubt that his gesture was just a very tasteless joke gone wrong. But you’ve had a mare there, man.
Just say “sorry, I f*cked up” and move on. Sadly, Wayne’s gone for the Joleon Lescott approach with his statement. Which, unsurprisingly, backfired massively.
The reaction to his excuse-making has been voluminous, and hilarious:
— Jonny Sharples (@JonnyGabriel) January 7, 2019
Wayne Hennessey is going to have murder next time he tries to organise a wall pic.twitter.com/FGjWi5Z39Q
— Andy Heaton (@Andrew_Heaton) January 7, 2019
Wayne Hennessey just edged out by Mark Bosnich in the All-Time Premier League Goalkeeper "Nazi Salute" Clarification stakes pic.twitter.com/j1Oi7tO1Aq
— Adam Hurrey (@FootballCliches) January 7, 2019
Wayne Hennessey writing his Twitter explanation pic.twitter.com/1XhbVuJj6d
— Chris (@CEtchingham77) January 7, 2019
When Wayne Hennessey has guests over pic.twitter.com/yjhgUawpf6
— Jonny 🇵🇸 (@Firtinho) January 7, 2019
So Wayne Hennessey made this gesture as German, Max Meyer took a photo of the lads having dinner after the Grimsby game thinking that this would be hilarious banter, but it has backfired spectacularly.
I think it’s fair to say that he did Nazi this coming. pic.twitter.com/Tg98RCFhN0
— John Burgess (@GitliGaming) January 7, 2019
To be fair, there’s always the possibility that the whole episode was indeed some sort of horrible accident of timing. An unfortunate, one-in-a-million coincidence.
Anything’s possible, we suppose.
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