The Boo Boys

Good evening and welcome to the first addition of my blog. I will admit that the idea of publishing nothing more than my own views on things is not one that I have entertained before. Then an idea went off in my head and I realized that I spend a large amount of my time moaning about the way world class sport is going in this fast paced, judgmental and glutenous world of ours.

Anyway now my intro is over and you are somehow you are still reading I would like to turn to my first subject to go under the microscope, the Boo Boys of English football. It has not escaped my attention that this is starting to get out of hand in recent months. Yes I have sat and bitched about England and Capello for the last few months like everyone else but I can honestly hand on heart say I have and never would boo my team or country off the field. Now supporting England can be a fractious and often divided experience due to everyone backing their own clubs players and thus blaming everything on the other members of the team, but this has crept into club football and has become common place. I chastise anyone who boo’s a team that they claim to love and would support through thick and thin. Whatever happened to loyalty or even given a bloke a chance? These small fundamental decencies of human behaviour seem to have lost all meaning when Man City dare to draw at home with their nearest and dearest rivals. Forgetting that a few years ago they were playing division 2 football and couldn’t dream of competing with Man Utd on a level playing field. Or of course the Spurs fans who boo’ed off their “beloved” spurs for drawing a home match against Sunderland somehow forgetting that they had beaten Inter Milan not more than 7 days previously. When Redknapp, your much heralded chief took the job they were in a relegation fight and within 3 years turned you into Champions League contenders but that’s not enough to stop them booing. This was compounded by the reaction to Chelsea’s defeat at home to Sunderland, although a minority I admit it will soon spread like wildfire. If a team that is champions and still sat on top of the league are not safe from this treatment then what hope do the rest of them have? Maybe you could argue that this is a “big club” problem and that it’s the “Johnny Come Lately” fans that are the root of this problem. I can only disagree after listening to the fans of Birmingham City booing there team off the pitch after seeing their first home defeat in a year. I can’t see too many people jumping on the Birmingham City bandwagon of late so this issue has clearly spread to all corners of the premier league.

Could this problem have started from the bitterness of the common man looking at these millionaire players living the dream (and abusing the privileges) that we all had as boys playing in the local park. Is it the media sensationalism that hypes us up into a frenzy of expectancy before every weekend? Personally I blame the culture of reality TV which has allowed a generation of people to think its ok to sit on their hands a expect perfection from celebrities on a day in day out basis. Of course forgetting that each player is in fact human and is prone to the odd error despite their large salaries. People watch shows like the X Factor and think that football can apply to the same format where each week you are judged on that week’s performance and that alone regardless of what you have done the weeks before. Analyzing each detail and then discarding them accordingly, and if the highest of standards are not met……..BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Of course the success of a football club does not and can not work under this pressure as it takes lots of time and effort (and money!!) to form a group of players and a coaching staff into a winning machine. Do you think that Manchester Utd or Liverpool would have won all those titles if they were boo’ed after every bad performance and fan pressure getting the manager the sack every 6 months? Do you think Man City will dominate Europe if the employ a new manager every time a poor substitution is made? I think we all know the answers really so I implore all you perfectionist supporters out there to back your club through the bad times and then the good times will surely follow. Well maybe not but at least give it until Christmas anyway.