Bully claims: Chang, who joined Liverpool in the
summer, denies allegations made by 'Jenkins'
Headlines: Duncan Jenkins (L), followed by thousands on
social networking site Twitter, posted about Liverpool
This is the first picture of the meeting between a
senior Liverpool official and a fake blogger that is at the centre
of a potentially-damaging investigation at the
club.
Liverpool have started a probe into the background behind the
extraordinary claims from a fan - written under the Twitter
alter-ego Duncan Jenkins - alleging serious harassment by the
club’s director of communications Jen Chang.
It is the latest PR crisis to engulf the club after their
handling of the Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra race row last
season.
Managing director Ian Ayre is due to speak to Cummins as well
as Chang and others involved in an unseemly episode which began
when Jenkins started publicising information Chang believed must
have come from inside Anfield.
Chang describes Jenkins’s allegations about threats made at a
genuine meeting in Manchester as ‘fictitious nonsense’ but his
position looks vulnerable if Ayre decides
otherwise.
Cummins published his version of his communication and
meeting with Chang in an explosive blog post on
Friday.
In it, he claims that Chang demanded to know who his alleged
mole inside Anfield is. Cummins has denied that he has an insider
at the club leaking information - instead pointing out that all his
information was lifted from fans’ forums.
Chang set up a meeting with Cummins at the Evuna restaurant
in Manchester in August - but Cummins alleges this was the start of
the meltdown in the relations between the pair.
After accusing Cummins of costing the club £300,000 extra in
the Fabio Borini transfer from Roma this summer because of
‘information’ posted on the Jenkins Twitter feed, it is then
alleged that Chang demanded he tweet under the fake account to
‘confess’ there was no mole and the whole account was made
up.
At this point, Cummins asked Change what would happen if he
didn’t agree to the deal.
Caught on CCTV: Liverpool director of
communications Jen Chang is pictured meeting 'Duncan Jenkins' - fan
Sean Cummins - at Manchester restaurant Evuna in
August
Internal investigation: Liverpool's managing
director Ian Ayre will now probe the claims
According to the blog post, Chang claimed he would be
banned from Anfield along with the other man he shares a
season-ticket with.
Chang, it is claimed, also threatened to hand over his
dossier on Cummins to journalist who could ‘run smear stories on me
in the tabloid press’.
And, perhaps most shockingly, Chang is also alleged to have
told Cummins: ‘You know how crazy football fans are. You’ll have
dog shit coming through your letterbox, you’ll have to take your
Facebook page down, you might even have to move house.’
Chang, who has confirmed that he did meet the self-styled
Slam Dunc in Manchester, has already denied the
claims.
He said: ‘I will not be responding to total nonsense. The
contents of my tweets that are included in the blog bear no
relation whatsoever to the false accusations made by a fictional
character. There was never any investigation by Liverpool over the
tweets.’
However, that has not stopped Liverpool launching an
investigation into their own PR chief.
Chang was brought in to Liverpool this summer to boost their
PR drive after last season’s troubles with the Suarez affair. He
replaced long-serving Ian Cotton, who was forced out after 16 years
at the club.
@DuncanJenkinsFC
is an amusing fake Twitter account
of a wannabe football journalist.
It is the work of Sean Cummins,
a 35-year-old who lives in Manchester. The Duncan Jenkins character
originally started on Facebook - someone who was inept and
delusional in equal measure, as well as being obsessed with The
Bill.
Just under a year ago, he
relaunched on Twitter as a 'perspiring journalist'. Dotted with
misspellings and dodgy cliches, it also oddly predicted the correct
Liverpool team well before anyone else ahead of each
game.
Cummins later admitted he just
pinched it off a fans' forum and published it instantly, as he had
done with transfer gossip.