Port Vale striker Tom Pope dredges up old tweet making fun of John Stones as FA Cup tie against Manchester City beckons
Port Vale cult hero Tom Pope turned up the heat for next month’s FA Cup tie with Manchester City by dredging up one of his own tweets in which he poked fun at England international John Stones
The pair could face each other in the third round at the Etihad after Monday night’s draw pitted the holders against Pope’s League Two outfit.
Pope, 34, has scored over 100 goals for Vale in three separate spells with the club over the past nine years.
And it did not take long for supporters to find a six-month old tweet from the striker, posted the day after Stones featured in England’s disappointing 3-1 Nations League loss to Holland.
Pope tweeted: “Just watched the highlights of the England game! I know I’m a league 2 player, I know he plays for England, I know he’s on £150k a week, I know he’s a million times better player than me but I’d love to play against John Stones every week! I’d get 40 a season!”
The Vale star, who has scored three goals in the FA Cup so far this season, followed that tweet with the hashtags, “soft” and “weakasp---”.
But on Monday night, Pope, who has a cult following among Vale fans on social media for his humorous posts, moved to try to make light of a potential meeting with Stones, who has struggled for regular first team football with City this season.
He wrote: “This tweet was 6 months ago and you’ve all managed to dig it up. In them 6 months he’s improved dramatically and I think he’s the best centre-half in the world.”
