Sport

John Cena keeps following random people on Twitter and Lancashire Cricket Club had the best response of all

Danny Jones Danny Jones - 25th January 2023

If you told us that we’d one day be writing about professional wrestler-turned-actor John Cena and Lancashire Cricket Club in the same sentence, we’d probably have given you a funny look.

However, as weird a combo as it may sound, that day has come.

You’d be forgiven for not knowing this but it turns out John Cena follows A LOT of people on social media and not exactly people you’d expect him to be following.

We’re talking everyone from random fans, comedian-actor Danny Wallace, various regional journalists home and abroad; even our lovely editor — though that makes much more sense, we admit (great content, boss, please don’t sack me).

Honestly, you only have to type in ‘John Cena followed me’ on Twitter to pull up literally thousands of results. This was one posted literally minutes before we started writing this:

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As it turns out, Cena follows some over 533, 700 different people on Twitter alone and we seriously can’t find much of a thread that links any of them, but that doesn’t make any it less fun to dive into.

With that in mind, it recently came to light that the 45-year-old WWE legend and Suicide Squad star just so happens to follow Lancashire Cricket Club. Because why not?

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Playing just down the road at Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Lancashire Cricket might sound like a far cry away from the Hollywood sound stages and giant entertainment arenas where he made his name, but the familiar face has actually played a bit of cricket in his time.

Better still, thanks to the social media guys over at the Manchester-based cricket club and their absolutely impeccable response to spotting a certain Cena in their likes, he’s been put in Lancs colours. Turns out you can see him after all:

Read more:

Somebody give that social admin a pay rise, right now.

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Not so long ago, Cena did address the question as to why he follows so many people and the answer was actually quite a simple but wholesome one.

“It’s tough to follow the timelines because of how many people I follow. But I am trying to learn more about the world.”, he told ESPN‘s ‘Pardon My Take’ podcast, confessing that he even went down “a rabbit hole following EDM dance culture and non-fungible tokens and also Twitch streamers”.

He said that part of the reason is that he simply knows “nothing about any of these avenues of the world” and gets a kick out of people following him and vice versa, adding: “I am learning a little bit about each and every person as I go.” Well that’s just nice, isn’t it?

Guess we have a new favourite wrestler. Give us a follow while you’re at it, John.

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Featured Image — Wikimedia Commons/Lancashire Cricket Club (via Twitter)

Sport

Bernardo Silva refused to speak to Bruno Fernandes during the FA Cup final

Danny Jones Danny Jones Bernardo Silva pushes Bruno Fernandes FA Cup final

The first-ever Manchester Derby FA Cup final in history was always going to be an acrimonious affair, but one flare-up fans might not have expected came between midfielders Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva.

Man City took one step closer to winning the treble on Saturday — a feat which would see them equal United’s treasured achievement in 1999 — but at half-time, Bernardo Silva’s derby day mentality was well and truly locked in as the two Portuguese players had a little spat on the pitch.

With the United captain walking up to share a few words with his international teammate as they went to walk down the tunnel, City’s number 20 had no interest in chatting with his compatriot.

In fact, in a moment picked up by the cameras on the day, Bernardo not only did his best to ignore Bruno but even shoved him away when his opposite numbers tried to get his attention.

Bernardo Silva pushes Bruno Fernandes away as he tries to chat in the middle of the derby.

That’s an icy blue cold shoulder if we’ve ever seen one.

Despite apparently having been friends ever since they met in Portugal’s under-18s camp, it’s clear that City star Silva was fully focused on seeing out the result and had no time for pleasantries with the task still at hand.

Moreover, while Fernandes has previously insisted he has “a great relationship with Bernardo” and that the two share regular WhatsApp messages throughout the season, he did admit ahead of that game they “normally don’t speak” until after the full-time whistle these days.

That being said, it would seem only Silva got the derby day memo this time around and, much like City have been on the pitch for a good five or six seasons now, he chose to remain ruthless and quite literally push his friendship to the side.

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Although seeing rival players (often fellow countrymen or ex-teammates) greeting and hugging each other before, during and after a game is much more commonplace these days, it’s still one that split opinion — especially if you’re Roy Keane.

The United legend has previously slammed a number of players from his former club for being far too friendly in the tunnel before going up against each other — including in a Manchester derby not long ago — stating that they need to “cut that” and “just get down the tunnel”.

Nevertheless, it looks as though the more cutthroat attitude helped the Blues on the day, scoring within 13 seconds to set the tone for the rest of the game.

Pep Guardiola‘s side now only needs to win one more game, the Champions League final against Inter Milan this weekend, to do the treble and put themselves even deeper into the history books than they already are. Either way, many already believe Pep will go down as the greatest of all time.

Jamie Redknapp insists Pep Guardiola is the ‘greatest manager ever’

For all the latest news, events and goings on in Greater Manchester, subscribe to The Manc newsletter HERE.

Featured Image — BBC/@FutbolMuu (via Twitter)

Sport

Half-naked belly slides and cuddles with Elton John – the wild and wonderful Manchester City celebrations

Daisy Jackson Daisy Jackson

There ain’t no party like a Manchester City party, it seems, with some big celebrations last night following the club’s FA Cup victory against Manchester United.

Players were seen swigging beers in their pants while other staff at the club did belly slides through the dressing room at Wembley.

And then, weirdly, they were congratulated by Sir Elton John himself, who offered hugs to every player in turn.

If you’re going to look anywhere for the Manchester City post-match party scenes, it’s straight to Jack Grealish, who always seems to be at the heart of the chaos (who could forget his antics at the parade last year?)

On his Instagram stories, Grealish nicely summed up the celebrations in the dressing room after their 2-1 victory.

He showed the players singing along to Wonderwall by Oasis and swigging Asahi, saying to the camera ‘Get it down ya!’.

Then he cuts to a video of Brandon Ashton, Man City’s kitman, doing topless belly slides across the floor.

Manchester City dressing room celebrations
Manchester City dressing room celebrations
Manchester City dressing room celebrations. Credit: Instagram, @jackgrealish
Manchester City dressing room celebrations
Manchester City dressing room celebrations. Credit: Instagram, @jackgrealish

At one point, Ederson (wearing a blue afro wig) is seen lubricating the floor with more Asahi, like some weird beer-soaked version of Curling.

Egged on by Erling Haaland and John Stones, Brandon strips down to his underwear and keeps sliding around, at one point travelling all the way under the benches, at which point Grealish hilariously shouts: “Oi, watch my Gucci bag, f***ing hell!”

Once the dressing room party was over, it was off to the airport, where the entire team ambushed none other than Sir Elton John.

On the strangely star-studded runway, the legendary musician – who had just finished his third gig at the AO Arena – stood in position offering hugs to each Man City player in turn.

Videos shared by the club show the bewildered Kevin de Bruyne, Manuel Akanji, Kyle Walker, Nathan Ake, and Julian Alvarez each taking turns for a cuddle, while Phil Foden stopped to take a selfie with the rock music great.

Then the lads all surround Elton to serenade him with his own iconic song, Your Song.

The surreal videos even captured the moment Pep Guardiola is left awkwardly hanging with his hand up when he offers Elton a high-five.

There’s now just one week to go until the Champions League final, when Manchester City will seek to cinch the treble.

Featured image: Instagram, Manchester City

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