pudge said:
sbm said:
Amen.
There has always been a minority of 'supporters' who got their kicks from slagging off the team or individual players. I can still recall being puzzled 60 years ago when my father took me to City games (with a big box to stand on): I couldn't understand why such people bothered to go to games. Later I realised in many cases it was just a way of letting off steam after a very hard week's work.
Unfortunately it has got worse. Some of the criticisms you allude to have been diabolical and are not "typical City fan" (of old, at least). I suspect that the problem has got much worse because of the internet, where the best way to attract attention in a fans forum is to outdo others in "smart arsiness" and to use as many swear words as possible.
What's wrong with fairly criticising a player?
I've only criticised Dzeko when he's played poorly and have only alluded to his awful first touch outside of a match this once. (yet have been labelled a 'hater')
Does that make me spoiled and snidey?
There is nothing wrong with "fair criticism" (by definition). But that implies necessarily that criticisms can be "unfair" and that it is not the case that "anything goes".
For what it is worth, I did not have you in mind. In fact, the one thing that I can remember about your posts re Dzeko has been your pointing out that Aguero + Dzeko has been an effective partnership.
The sorts of things I have in mind, quoting from the last few pages, are: "fucking dismal"; "far more dog shit performances than good ones last year"; "his sheer ineptitude of being able to keep hold of the fcuking thing and retain possession"; "watching both for 5 minutes shows that one (Rooney) is leagues ahead of the other (Dzeko)"; "he couldn't even trap a bag of cement". These are not fair criticisms of a player who, leaving penalties aside, had the same minutes per goal or assist as van Persie last season and is way ahead of him taking their careers. These are ignorant criticisms of a player who is 8th in the Castrol Edge Ranking of every player in Europe's top five leagues. This ranking is based "purely on objective data on the positive or negative impact on his team's likely performance of
every touch by a player” (my emphasis).
60 years ago, my father took me to City one week and United the next (It was quite common in those days). I became a City supporter partly because of Bert Trautmann. But another major reason was that there has always been something about City supporters that differentiated them from the arrogance / superiority of many United supporters. It bothers me that too many City supporters are starting to display that same sort of arrogance.
