When Jozy Altidore turned up late for Hull City’s match on Saturday against Portsmouth, he knew he has screwed up.

Left off the active roster for the day, Altidore wrote on his Twitter page a little over an hour before the match, “Apologize to the all of you. I showed up late. Made a big mistake I’m very very sorry.”

A nice gesture to apologize like that directly to the fans, but it quickly became clear to Altidore he had made things worse by tweeting that because the message was removed from his page before Saturday’s kick off.

Indeed, Hull manager Phil Brown seemed to take as much issue with Altidore’s tweeting as he did his tardiness.

“It’s going to cost him a lot of money, unfortunately, Brown said on Saturday. “That for me is information that stays in house. The reason he wasn’t on the bench was our business.”

It’s been a frustrating season for Hull, sitting near the bottom of the table with a 2-6-2 ledger. Certainly a player of Altidore’s caliber showing up late is not acceptable. Altidore admitted that with his tweet, and Brown certain echoed that.

“You prepare all week for a matchday, mentally and physically,” said Brown. “To ask a player to arrive an hour and a half before a game is not too much to ask is it?”

But for Brown to take such an issue with Altidore’s tweeting seems to be a bit of misplaced frustration. At some point, the reason for Altidore’s absence was going to be discussed, and the reason behind it would come out.

For Altidore to express contrition directly to the fans is not a bad thing. It’s certainly admirable for the manager to not have the club’s dirty laundry aired publically, but this news was going to come out.

It would seem far more important, and relevant, for Brown to limit his anger simply to the irresponsibility Altidore showed by being late. Piling on about the tweet seems to really be making more of something than it really deserves.

When your club is 2-6-2, there’s certainly enough negativity in the air. Adding flame to an otherwise benign situation will not help matters for Brown.