I wouldn't boo myself, but the booing isn't the worst thing in the World. The best players all overcome booing. If as a player booing throws you off, then you're in the wrong field.
Booing our players...
- Thread starter Massive Spanner
- Start date
fecking spot on only that Giggs is still getting the shit on here. Let's hope this Nani bollocks will expose the idiots more in the future and force them to alter their behaviour not only towards Nani but all of the lads.
No chance of that. In my experience with fellow fans, there's no middle ground with Nani. You either love him or loath him. I'm in the former camp myself but even if I didn't care for him as a player, I wouldn't boo him. It harms the team to hear one of their own getting abuse.
I'm in the middle. Not a huge fan of his style but a big admirer of his talent. All the criticism he's got from me is caused by my great expectations. Actually, bar the yesterday's booing, I think we've got much bigger problem with Giggs being ridiculed than with Nani who I believe is one of the most popular players among United fans.
No, that would be weird.
Unsuccesful and rubbish teams get booed by their own fans all the time. Last time Wolves were in the Premiership their fans basically only turned up to boo. It's got nothing at all to do with success. It happens when fans get frustrated. The idea that United fans should somehow be above it is the amusing thing about this thread. Good luck with that.
Almost as amusing is the smug high horse remarks aimed at those who were doing the booing, on redcafe...a forum that just last week was collectively slagging off Rooney horribly for selfishly daring to be United's best player this season.
Yes that's a bit amusing to be fair. Just see the Cleverley, Young, Fellaini threads to see how stick they get, obviously it doesn't excuse the booing but calling the OT people prawn sandwich brigade(especially by those who haven't been to OT) is a bit too rich.
I don't think many would be outraged if the team got booed off the pitch after a piss poor performance - it's singling out one player and booing him which people have a problem with. And there is an enormous difference there. The one could be regarded as a deserved arsekick or a wake-up call to the players - the other is just destructive.
So kick them while they're down ? Sounds more like cowardice rather than encouragement to me.
No, no - that's not what I meant. If they have clearly underperformed, I mean - looking like they're not arsed, etc. It depends on the context but I personally think booing 'em can be justified in some instances - but never for playing poorly as such, and certainly never an individual player.
If you struggle, you need encouragement - if you aren't arsed, a wake-up call may be in order.
Agreed. Strong difference between booing a player who's having an off day and a player who can't be arsed.
He got booed for being an arse in how long he was taking to leave the pitch, the same as any player would have been in that situation.
When you're watching your team play poorly and a goal down, but fighting desperately to turn it round, you're not going to react warmly to one of YOUR players deliberately time wasting when they're subbed off. I don't understand how people were expecting our fans to react to this, to be honest.
You can see in the video posted on the previous page that the booing only breaks out AFTER it becomes clear he's in no hurry to leave the pitch.
Nani wasn't helping the team in that moment, he was doing the opposite. What do you want people in the stadium to do, applaud him for it? Accept that this is an acceptable attitude for a United player to have now?
Very good assessment.
I personally don't think it's helpful to the team to single out and boo a player under those circumstances - no. But I don't think it's particularly offensive either - IF the general sentiment was that Nani was demonstrably slow in dragging his arse off the pitch, thus sending out some very dubious signals. I can understand that and I'm not getting on any high horse here. I wasn't at the match and can't comment on the specifics. But several of those who were at the match have said that it was not his tardiness in getting off the pitch which turned the crowd against him - but rather that they had singled him out already.
As I said I have never booed players myself. However I come from a culture where supporters are valued more then just mere cash cows who keep on forking money with a smile on their faces just because their 'JOB' is to support the club. Guess what? The amount of WC titles won in this area of world is quite remarkable + the number of great players who threw their career away in drinking etc is ridiculously low. So maybe, the strategy of not treating players like some sort of vulnerable and over emotional people who would break in pieces because some one had been negative towards them does work after all.
Now there were times where I believe that booing were over the top (ex against Batistuta a couple of years back) and there were times when I sort of understood the fans point of view. Nani for example doesn't come across as a hardworking lad at all, so while I wouldnt have booed him myself I can understand the point if someone at one point of another had done so.
And yes, there are people who love United more then the majority of supporters. People who stick to United during the bad times (which means digging deep in their pockets at a time when their own country wasn't fairing too great just to go and watch games when United were crap and to keep a supporters club alive). Believe me, a substantial number of those fans are no top reds at all and wouldn't mind to go beyond booing if they feel that the player is not respecting the red shirt they deem sacred. I wonder if you ever been to OT but I've heard worst things than booing in the sacred theater of dreams.
Devilish with the second version of his 'they paid the entrance fee so they can do what they want' bollocks argument.
Except Nani was also booed in the first half. And a ridiculous cheer went up when his substitution was announced (before the booing) which was bad enough in itself.
I didn't realise Malta had ever won the World Cup.
Oh Devilish... never change!
In a twisted way you could justify booing him while he was coming off. But wasn't he booed in the first half for spooning a shot? That was embarrassing.
I also don't understand how people can compare booing with criticism on Redcafe.
I also don't understand how people can compare booing with criticism on Redcafe.
Next time you are at a game you should go around telling all the fans to shut the feck up about anything they feel unhappy about. See how that goes down.
It's just a retarded argument. Fans watching team lose, player on their own team petulantly wastes time due to being rightly subbed off...fans are the ones in the wrong for voicing disapproval towards player for unacceptably childish behaviour. I mean, huh?
You want people to go to the game and create an atmosphere whilst having no emotionally invested interest in it? How would this even work?
The shot was a bit different, but to be fair, I thought that was funny. He had a shot on goal that was so bad it actually got booed. It was also more general booing at the fact we'd tried about 6 ridiculously long range efforts by that point whist showing no effort at all to get the ball out wide or into the box, which funnily enough stopped happening as soon as the crowd became angry with it.
Welcome to the real world, Uniteds fans/supporters are no different to any other club. If things don't go well it will get worse.
If things get worse, one can take solace in the silver lining that the entitled, glory hunting fans will dissipate.
That's assuming the people booing are actually glory hunters and not die hards. I suspect it could be a mixture, that's the way people are.
You're being completely disingenuous.
No ones saying fans shouldn't be emotionally invested in the game, or have a bit of a moan.
Roundly booing a player is different, it's small time classless bollocks, regardless of how you try to justify it.
Think I was the one who called them the prawn sandwich brigade, that's what a fair few of them are.
I've been to OT plenty, and you won't find me giving any of those players stick in threads on here.
There's a rather large portion of fans who think booing players is small time pathetic bullshit, there are plenty of clueless wankers with season tickets.
Two things I would mention here.
Booing is often a result of a prolonged feeling of frustration about a team/player's inefficiencies. It's rarely the cause of an individual poor display.
Secondly, swearing at players happens a lot. No applause when a player is subbed is common too. Some people actively choose not to boo because of the negativity that surrounds it(obviously) but there's a lot of other stuff that goes on which no-one talks about which is just as damaging.
Booing is often a result of a prolonged feeling of frustration about a team/player's inefficiencies. It's rarely the cause of an individual poor display.
Secondly, swearing at players happens a lot. No applause when a player is subbed is common too. Some people actively choose not to boo because of the negativity that surrounds it(obviously) but there's a lot of other stuff that goes on which no-one talks about which is just as damaging.
That is true.Nani was not the worst performer out there on Saturday, but he has frustrated fans for some time now and this has been irritated by him recieving a bumper new deal and that frustration boiled over on Saturday.I imagine a few others were relieved it was him and not them!! That said it was the sarcastic applause that was more audible than any booing for me and yes that would have been just as damaging to his confidence and i wish others had just kept a lid on it and saved the applause for the substitution.The problem on Saturday was all that had gone before this season and things came to a head and Nani suffered the wrath of an unforgiving and very frustrated crowd.
I didn't realise Malta had ever won the World Cup.
Oh Devilish... never change!
Malta never did. Its a small island with less then half a million people. The fact that since the 1970 we have won as many WCs as Britain is quite remarkable isn't it?
Our neighbour Italy did though. 4 times. The Booing culture is more prevalent there then in Malta.
As opposed to, 'they must accept all the shit coming to them with a smile on their face'
We're in a democracy Irwin and everyone has the right to voice his opinion as long as its done in a legal way. We all know what blind loyalty and total submission to the cause has lead the world into.
Honestly I prefer booing then insults towards player's relatives etc. The insults that were thrown towards Arsenal (away) by our fans was far far worse then booing.
I wonder how many glory hunters actually fork out the cash to go to Old Trafford, I'd imagine the boos came from the regular match day goers who have let the summer fiasco and bad start culminate in the unfortunate boos directed at Nani.
Probably regular match goers. It's been a frustrating season to say the least and staring down the barrel of another home defeat, the frustration boiled over. It happens, it isn't some horrific disgrace that some people are making it out to be.
Not a valid excuse. I'm a regular match day goer... doesn't give me license to act like a knob.
You can do whatever you want at a match, as long as it isn't illegal. Booing a team or even players doesn't make someone a bad human being or a horrible person or someone to be condemned. In a perfect world it wouldn't be happening, but in a perfect world United wouldn't be going down twice to Stoke.
Maybe you didn't feel like booing but it doesn't make you or anyone a superior fan. You have the right to cheer, someone else has the right to boo. Booing is the way for a majority to voice their previously unheard opinion to the club.
Plenty of other clubs fans boo, look at Chelsea and Benitez. Do you think the fans should just smile and clap politely because it's supporting the club or should they make it know that they aren't happy? I know I would have been booing to my hearts content if Rafa had been appointed United coach.
There may have been some wires crossed - I'm refering directly to the very audible booing/ironic cheering directly for Nani.
Haven't heard anything like that at Old Trafford for a long time...
Singly out one player is definitely worse. But the booing as I'm sure you realized was not only directed at Nani - if Nani had played like shit but we were winning or the season had been going a little better, he would have been cheered off. It was circumstantial, Nani was taking an age to walk off a pitch in a match we were losing in a season people are struggling to find positives in. Nani isn't the most popular player either. It was frustration.
As I said, it would be better if it didn't happen, but it does.
The booing was from a pretty small subset of the crowd but obviously enough of them to be heard. I presume the TV pics showed Nani walking off slowly or something whilst the booing was happening, hence the leaping to the conclusion that was why he was being booed. He was being booed for playing shit, nothing more complicated than that. I didn't boo, I think it's out of order and Noodles will be pleased to hear that I did shout 'shut the feck up' but actually no one near me was booing... and it predictably had no effect. I don't think Nani deserved to be booed, he wasn't that much worse than the rest of them and he did set up the first goal.
Nothing to do with it - the ironic cheer then the booing came as soon as his number was held up. The walking off the pitch had no effect.
It was very much directed specifically at Nani - who yes didn't have a good game and was very frustrating (and yet still set-up our first goal) - and I say this because Cleverley (who had an equally poor game) got no such reaction when his number was called. Maybe I'm being hollier-than-thou... but anyone who gave Nani shit is a fecking idiot. I said/shouted as much in the ground as well (though nobody directly around me was taking part)
He was definitely booed for taking his sweet time leaving the pitch. Wouldn't have happened if he had not been shite, but walking off the pitch played a big part in it.