Leeds United’s post on Twitter, seemingly belittling supporters for refusing to pay £39 for a ticket, was a strange post at best – but it also points to a wider and perhaps stranger trend on social media among certain football fans.

On social media, people regularly argue with one another over the issue of supporting local clubs. Even before the advent of social media, this was a debate we’ve seen frequently for years and years.

Of course, the debate is usually light hearted and good natured. Supporting a local club is the normal go-to response whenever a supporter of a lower tier club debates with a fan of a more established and successful side about their sides.

This’ll never change. But, in response to the Leeds tweet yesterday, there was no shortage of fans criticising Reading’s fan base for not selling more tickets.

Undoubtedly, a lot of these supporters will also believe that fans should support their local sides and avoid going down the ‘glory supporter’ route.

Reading have, historically, not been the biggest club. It doesn’t make anyone less of a fan to admit this – it’s fact.

If you take the last two decades out of the equation, Reading have been a club who’ve existed in the third and fourth tier of English football.

Common sense dictates that, given the proximity to London and the historic success of sides in the capital, many Berkshire residents would’ve chosen to support the more successful clubs in decades gone by.

Due to this, we now regularly see a strange paradox on social media when talking about Reading’s support.

Certain users on social media will criticize people for not supporting their local club, but then criticize the number of people who do choose to follow their local club. Seems like a bit of a no-win scenario, does it not?

By this logic, the only way to avoid social media ridicule is to support a club with a massive support base that’s local to you. Great. But if such a club doesn’t exist near you – then what?

Well, if social media is to be believed, you have two options.

You can follow the advice on social media and support your local club. Be aware - this will lead to criticism if they're not historically a massive club with a large support base.

Option B is follow a side who've been very successful in decades gone by and who historically have a large fan base but are not geographically close to you. Be aware - you'll be a glory supporter if this is what you do.

Circling back to the Leeds tweet, another issue I had with it was the wording.

To say that Reading are the latest side not to sell the away end seems like an admission that the pricing is wrong.

If a restaurant only filled half of its tables due to the pricing of the menu, you’d think that something was wrong with the business model, would you not?

Of course the seats will be filled by Leeds fans and ultimately, the Yorkshire club will not feel the effect in their pockets.

Most clubs in the country, however, are not blessed with the level of support around the country that Leeds have.

To have thousands of supporters based around the country means that the side will almost always sell out their away allocation. Good on them – this isn’t something I’m criticising. Leeds have historically been a giant of English football.

But, to then poke fun at clubs who aren’t blessed with the luxury of such a massive supporter base seems completely counterintuitive and only fuels some of the bizarre hypocrisy we see on social media.