As expected, his comments have caused a media frenzy. It was completely unavoidable as soon as the words left his mouth and it qualifies as a monumental f**k up on his part.
I said last night i don't buy into this idea that full capacity attendances and incessant shouting from the stands defines the merits of a fan base, or fan core: try telling an Oldham supporter they're not as passionate as a premier league "history boys" fan because they attend a three quarters empty stadium each week. And I will add, I couldn't care less what rivals think of our support; we don't need praise from the swathes of glory-hunters and tourists to validate our support as "proper".
But our manager shouldn't be adding fuel to the fire. His comments last night were unwarranted. They would have been received a little more favorably had we just played out a dour 1-1 draw or worse yet, lost the game. Yet we smashed in six against a very good European outfit. Forget the sad jibes about flat atmosphere; the mood was good when the final whistle blew because we'd just played more fluid, vibrant football. Bar a few defensive lapses (which given the Ake news earlier are now entirely understandable) we were back to our best.
I don't necessarily think he needs to apologize, but he does need to clarify his words.
