Very good piece in today's Guardian on why football fans are such bloody miseries. It's not particularly well-written, but there's a lot which rings true about The Valley, I reckon.
You see, the average age of fans attending Premier League matches has been gradually rising over the past decade. Currently it stands at 43. Nowadays just about everybody in the ground is 15 years older than the players. No wonder the atmosphere seethes with rage and resentment. Every time Cristiano Ronaldo bursts down the wing it's a chilling reminder of what Pele once memorably dubbed "erectile dysfunction".
Comments
Of course I can only judge on what happens at the Valley but I think to try to give this phenomenon of booing some sort of age justification is completely false. Yes of course there are 40 and 50 something’s that make this quite ridiculous cow mimicking noise with their mouth. In fact there is one that sits in front of the Killer clan who actually smiles as he vents his spleen at our own shortcomings.
But where as in the past these supporters were generally few and far between, what we now get is a chorus, especially from the singer’s area in the Upper Covered End and in every case where I've witnessed it, home and away, the majority I would place between their late teens and mid twenties.
I don't think that it is a coincidence that the worst examples of our fans booing their own has coincided with cup defeats and a much younger audience.
These supporters have been fed a diet of hyped up SkyTV football over the past decade or more, where entertainment is the regularly used tag word and nothing else will do, but what it basically boils down to is that you must win at all costs and if you are not part of the elite group, then you are nothing.
As a result the patience levels have all but evaporated and I have to say that if it continues I am going to get ejected from the Valley one of these weeks. Last week after Lloyd Sam had skied that third attempt high and wide, he was actually booed by the J Block, (Ultras my arse!!!) No credence was given to the fact that he was our best player by a country mile that day.
Madjid was another to get the treatment after his howler that led to the first goal. Quite how the brains of these people work out that if you subject your own player to constant verbal abuse it will somehow spark an improvement, is beyond me completely.
Or do they think that this ridiculous form of protest will cause the manager to drag his player from the fray 15 minutes into the game?
I am beginning to despair!!!!
I dont boo when we are shitt (seen it all before) i might explode with the Old Anglo Saxon once or twice. On the other hand if i did want to boo i would and bollox to those that dont like it !
I dunno Sco, I might give it a try! Infact come to think about it, I don't think i've ever done anything but try to get behind the team!
Unfortunately this is now manifesting itself more & more in football. Owners will sack managers if they have not won the league in their first month & fans are turning on players if they fail to win every single game that they play. The concept of long term planning, of building slowly for the future is no longer acceptable. This is why young English players struggle to get into Premier League teams & why supporters start booing any player that ever makes a mistake.
I think ALL supporters are now demanding instant success. Not sure age has really got very much to do with it.
I think thats a superb idea! Why don't we all do out best to actaully get behind the team tomorrow? When someone does something wrong why don't give them a shout of encouragement rather than getting on there backs, and try and make as much noise as we can and support our team from the off. You never know, it might actually work!
He doesn't like us applauding former players :-)
Surely, the definition of a "supporter" is someone who "supports" their team?
Tomorrow, let's all be "supporters"........
Wish we were more like Pompey fans they seem to sing and bang drums regardless of the score and always have done even in thier shit times,So lets give it a go eh ?
But as that being a factor for booing is utter tosh.
I may be wrong but I would think the average wage of the average player would have outstripped the average wage of a supporter. And to me that has made players more remote and perhaps open to abuse.
Whatever I will limit my booing to opposition players.
Rightly or wrongly I think the nail has been hit on the head here. Yes "society" is more demanding of instant gratification these days, but because we all know the players get paid so much - not to mention the price we pay compared to 10 or 20 years ago - means that people, probably quite rightly, expect more for their money. Of course, if the market dictates that you have to pay £3million and £30k per week for an average player of limited ability then despite the ridiculous amount of money being coughed up all you end up with is an average player of limited ability. Fans paying more at the turnstile and clubs paying more in fees/wages is not going to make the standard or entertainment any better in a generally over-inflated market - you just pay more for the same old shite, or maybe even for worse!