One of the great hypocrisies in football is the idea of loyalty.
We as football fans ask the players to up their workrate, to run until they cannot run anymore, to care for the club as much as we do. Never leave a 50/50 ball, train all day and all night where possible, present yourself in public as a role model and not be seen falling out of bars. We ask them to give up bigger and better opportunities to stay with our club, especially if it is a youth player. Johnson is pretty disliked at Middlesbrough now, for selling out. Barry is hated at Villa. Adebayor was hounded out of Arsenal for asking to move. There was a time where SWP got a bunch of criticism for his move to Chelsea's bench. Sturridge went from the next England striker, to a guy with a horrific attitude who we were glad to be rid of. Robinho went from a great talent who is the leader of the new Blue Revolution, to a washed up whinger who didn't care about the club.
Whether or not any of these are true doesn't seem to matter. I think I can get away without much disagreement, of saying that football fans demand loyalty from their players and are appalled when it isn't given.
Reading the forum over the past seven days or so, the hypocrisy of this actually becomes clearer. We currently have a thread questioning whether or not SWP is a mercenary because he asked for a contract extension when he has several years to go. This could have been spun that he is desperate to pledge his loyalty to the club in a time of low morale. But seemingly it is agreed that he is after money. As far as I am concerned, SWP has paid his dues as a player, and if we have unlimited wealth, then let him grab £100,000 a week. But that's an argument for another thread, my main point is that we immediately questioned his commitment to City despite him being one of 'our boys'.
Two years ago, Stephen Ireland was fast becoming a Championship-at-best player and many, many fans were calling for him to be sold and labelled him as crap. Last season, he came out with something to prove and shown everybody that his talent is there, and made a lot of people embarrassed. This season, he has had an injury and has lost a bit of form, and the calls to sell him are back. This is the Ireland, who it was strongly rumoured this summer, refused to move to Arsenal, a team with bigger prospects, a great manager and European football. Yet, five bad games (or even five not on-fire games) now seem to be enough to make a judgement that somebody is crap.
At the beginning of this season, I was pretty upset that we sold Richard Dunne, a person who I felt summed up the spirit of the club and a personal favourite of mine for many years. He went in fans eyes, to being a great defender and one of the most underrated in the league, to a pile of shit who constantly gets sent off and scores own goals, in the space of one year. Dunne had more than shown his loyalty to us, again and again, and one of the reasons I was disappointed is that I felt he gave us that extra bit of fight in the team that Toure and Lescott do not bring.
I don't think I really need to enter into a conversation about the level of loyalty shown to management.
The point, is that we seem to demand this type of loyalty from our players, yet are unwilling to show them the same back. We could be one of those teams that get behind their players when they are doing badly and show them that we are with them. Instead, we seem to be snapping at them and telling them that they are shit.
Anybody remember Diego Forlan? I can't remember how long it was, but when he was United, he didn't score for an absolute age. United fans still were singing his name and were willing him on, instead of saying how shit he was. As much as I dislike to use this as an example, it is the first that comes to mind.
For the first time in my memory, we seem to be living up to the "bitter" name. We've lost many things recently, patience is certainly one of them, that loyalty and respect for our team is another. The expectation of success has turned us into a snarling beast of a mob.
I do not know why we expect them to love us, if we refuse to love them. You can go on about money, wages and the like of, but it matters very little. It isn't our money we are spending, it isn't coming out of our season tickets, so it doesn't really matter. Besides, nobody loves a club because it is paying them lots of money, so to ask them to die for the shirt because of it is backwards.
We as football fans ask the players to up their workrate, to run until they cannot run anymore, to care for the club as much as we do. Never leave a 50/50 ball, train all day and all night where possible, present yourself in public as a role model and not be seen falling out of bars. We ask them to give up bigger and better opportunities to stay with our club, especially if it is a youth player. Johnson is pretty disliked at Middlesbrough now, for selling out. Barry is hated at Villa. Adebayor was hounded out of Arsenal for asking to move. There was a time where SWP got a bunch of criticism for his move to Chelsea's bench. Sturridge went from the next England striker, to a guy with a horrific attitude who we were glad to be rid of. Robinho went from a great talent who is the leader of the new Blue Revolution, to a washed up whinger who didn't care about the club.
Whether or not any of these are true doesn't seem to matter. I think I can get away without much disagreement, of saying that football fans demand loyalty from their players and are appalled when it isn't given.
Reading the forum over the past seven days or so, the hypocrisy of this actually becomes clearer. We currently have a thread questioning whether or not SWP is a mercenary because he asked for a contract extension when he has several years to go. This could have been spun that he is desperate to pledge his loyalty to the club in a time of low morale. But seemingly it is agreed that he is after money. As far as I am concerned, SWP has paid his dues as a player, and if we have unlimited wealth, then let him grab £100,000 a week. But that's an argument for another thread, my main point is that we immediately questioned his commitment to City despite him being one of 'our boys'.
Two years ago, Stephen Ireland was fast becoming a Championship-at-best player and many, many fans were calling for him to be sold and labelled him as crap. Last season, he came out with something to prove and shown everybody that his talent is there, and made a lot of people embarrassed. This season, he has had an injury and has lost a bit of form, and the calls to sell him are back. This is the Ireland, who it was strongly rumoured this summer, refused to move to Arsenal, a team with bigger prospects, a great manager and European football. Yet, five bad games (or even five not on-fire games) now seem to be enough to make a judgement that somebody is crap.
At the beginning of this season, I was pretty upset that we sold Richard Dunne, a person who I felt summed up the spirit of the club and a personal favourite of mine for many years. He went in fans eyes, to being a great defender and one of the most underrated in the league, to a pile of shit who constantly gets sent off and scores own goals, in the space of one year. Dunne had more than shown his loyalty to us, again and again, and one of the reasons I was disappointed is that I felt he gave us that extra bit of fight in the team that Toure and Lescott do not bring.
I don't think I really need to enter into a conversation about the level of loyalty shown to management.
The point, is that we seem to demand this type of loyalty from our players, yet are unwilling to show them the same back. We could be one of those teams that get behind their players when they are doing badly and show them that we are with them. Instead, we seem to be snapping at them and telling them that they are shit.
Anybody remember Diego Forlan? I can't remember how long it was, but when he was United, he didn't score for an absolute age. United fans still were singing his name and were willing him on, instead of saying how shit he was. As much as I dislike to use this as an example, it is the first that comes to mind.
For the first time in my memory, we seem to be living up to the "bitter" name. We've lost many things recently, patience is certainly one of them, that loyalty and respect for our team is another. The expectation of success has turned us into a snarling beast of a mob.
I do not know why we expect them to love us, if we refuse to love them. You can go on about money, wages and the like of, but it matters very little. It isn't our money we are spending, it isn't coming out of our season tickets, so it doesn't really matter. Besides, nobody loves a club because it is paying them lots of money, so to ask them to die for the shirt because of it is backwards.