Former England women’s international Karen Carney has deleted her Twitter account three days after Leeds United’s official account mocked her analysis of the club’s Championship-winning campaign last season.

In her analysis for Amazon Prime Video Sport, Carney had suggested that the pandemic-induced break in 2020 helped the English club in their bid to qualify for the Premier League, allowing Leeds players a rest from manager Marcelo Bielsa’s notoriously exhausting demands.

But the Yorkshire club picked on one point of the analysis – “promoted last season because of Covid” – and targetted it. A clip of Carney speaking during Leeds’ 5-0 win at West Brom on Tuesday was tweeted by Leeds’ official Twitter handle with a caption that mocked it.

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Football: Leeds United criticised as pundit Karen Carney is trolled by club, owner defends tweet

Leeds’ post prompted an angry response from some fans and Carney received a barrage of abusive messages, many of them sexist in nature.

The following day Leeds issued a statement condemning the abuse but did not apologise for the tweet, which was not deleted.

On Friday, Carney’s own Twitter account was deactivated.

The club’s actions were widely criticised, with Women in Football saying the tweet was “inciteful”.

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Former Leeds defender Rio Ferdinand branded it a “disgrace” that was “trying to embarrass a hard working pundit who will now be subject to vile abuse from LUFC fans”.

A Leeds statement said the club “completely condemns any abuse received by Karen Carney on social media” but owner Andrea Radrizzani defended the club’s right to criticise her comments.

Radrizzani, who himself retweeted the club’s tweet, said: “I take the responsibility of the club tweet. I consider that comment completely unnecessary and disrespectful to our club and particularly to the fantastic hard work of our players and coaches.”