Dulux’s Twitter trolling of Tottenham takes gloss off new sponsorship of club

Tottenham’s new commercial partnership with Dulux got off to a rocky start on Thursday after the paint supplier mocked the club on Twitter.

Spurs announced that Dulux had become the club’s official paint supplier, with the company’s famous shaggy dog getting a tour of the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Hotspur Way training ground. But they were soon mocked by their new partner in hastily deleted tweets, with the social media team hitting the wrong tone.

Responding to other users’ tweets, they made fun of the club’s lack of recent silverware, posting a picture of an empty trophy cabinet being for sale and then made a barb about the club’s defenders.

In a reply to a tweet asking whether the Dulux dog can play centre-back, they tweeted: “He might do a better job”. The tweets certainly made a splash as Dulux was the second-top trend on Twitter in the UK.

Spurs said that through the partnership the club would “benefit from the unrivalled expertise in paint and colour” of the country’s leading paint supplier, with all club buildings getting a facelift using specific paint colour matches.

One of the tweets from the official Dulux UK account that mocked the abilities of Tottenham’s central defenders. Photograph: Twitter

While Tottenham will no doubt fail to see the funny side, fans of other clubs seemed to enjoy the intervention by Dulux’s social media team. “The Dulux admin who ripped the piss out of Spurs minutes after announcing the sponsorship deal is a national hero,” wrote Roman Wegotziyech. “Nothing but Dulux for me from now on.”

Dulux’s media representatives told the Guardian they were preparing a statement, which would be released shortly.

A puzzled-looking José Mourinho appeared unaware of the new sponsorship when he addressed the media before Friday night’s game against Everton. “What’s that?” he inquired in response to queries about his views on the Dulux deal and attendant Twitter controversy.

The Tottenham manager seemed in downbeat mode as he declined to explain why Spurs have dropped a potential 18 points after surrendering winning positions. “I know why it has happened,” said Mourinho. “That’s what I’m not ready to discuss with you. It has to do with some of our qualities as a team but I’m not ready to discuss it with you.”

Asked when he might divulge more, the Portuguese replied: “Maybe never.”