Can we judge a player's commitment to the sport from his social media?

There is a race element to some of the talk about his hair too. I know I'll get some shit for saying it, and I'm not claiming it's a huge deal, but it's definitely there. Aaron Ramsey died his entire head Pat Butcher blonde and the response amounted to 'doesn't he look silly'. Whenever Pogba gets a daft footballer haircut you start to get a lot of talk about 'lifestyle.' Since neither of them has any reputation for excess partying, indiscipline, or lack of fitness, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because only one of them is a nice white Welsh boy.

You'd think we'd have learnt what nice Welsh boys get up to in their private lives by now.
 
Sorry for what I said, Pogba, about being a big games player. You're the real man. :D
 
Obviously not.

That doesnt mean Neville was wrong though. He didnt say that we should be talking about the colour of Pogba's hair if we lose, just that it would be talked about. And he's probably right a bunch of people who dont like Pogba would have probably talked about it as showing Pogba isnt loyal to us, on here, if we had lost and everyone was looking for reasons to bash the players they dont like. Some posters do that even when we have a good result like today. Smalling's thread has many examples of that.

So yeah, I dont think Neville was suggesting everyone should make a big deal out of it. Just that thing like that can be made a big deal out of, by hysterical and silly fans
 
InLevyITrust said:
You don’t think what a player, or anyone really, says on social media reflects their intelligence? That’s an odd train of thought.
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Let's give you a shot here, as I'm in a generous mood.

Show me a Pogba Instagram post that justifies drawing conclusions of poor intelligence.
 
Rado_N said:
Let's give you a shot here, as I'm in a generous mood.

Show me a Pogba Instagram post that justifies drawing conclusions of poor intelligence.
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I’m not talking about Pogba, I’m talking in general. Where did I say anything about Pogba?

Oh and thanks for being generous :lol:, I appreciate it.
 
InLevyITrust said:
I’m not talking about Pogba, I’m talking in general. Where did I say anything about Pogba?

Oh and thanks for being generous :lol:, I appreciate it.
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The thread is essentially about Pogba.

Don't mention it, I'm in a good mood :D
 
Unless players are literally on their phones during matches or training, no.
 
If city had won and Pogba was his usual ineffective self he would have been slaughtered after the game.
 
I've been critical of Pogba this season and I think he needs focus on the pitch but that has nothing to do with his hairstyle and what he does on social media. It would be stupid for club/fans to demand Pogba to stop those social media updates. He can be whatever he wants and do whatever he needs to do as it is his life. Having said that, I felt that his last update on Instagram (say what pose cupping his ears in response to Guardiola's ill-advised comments were not the brightest idea. Sometimes it is better to have your say on the pitch and then do the pointing but it has nothing to do with hairstyles and dabbing.

But it can't be denied that he has been underwhelming this season. He plays like an angel but goes missing in many important games. Whether it is because of Pogba himself or because of the tactics we are using, I don't know for certain, so I won't get into this too much in this thread. Generally, extroverted players are criticised more in the press when they have poor matches, sort of 'You talk the talk, now you walk the walk'. I don't know if Gary Neville was saying these from a sympathetic perspective that Pogba exposes himself to criticism more than other players. Ronaldo, for instance, seemed to come alive with criticism. The more you booed him, the better he played. I don't know how criticism affects Pogba. If it does affect him, perhaps a more savvy/less flashy approach may endear him to the press. Although that's not needed, it is once again entirely up to Pogba. Listening to Souness today, I think there's more than a hint of casual racism about the criticism of Pogba, but that's my view anyway.

Personally, I've been disappointed solely by his contribution and I hope he performs much better next season. Disappointment is equally towards Pogba for his complete meltdowns in a few matches and Mourinho for not getting enough out of him.

tl;dr : Can't make my mind up.
 
"In next week's episode of Last of the Summer Whine: Foreign players who wear gloves when they're not even in the Arctic."
 
As someone who has a 9 to 5 corporate job, I’d hate it if my social media activity was used as a shill to trick others into thinking i lacked commitment towards my job.

The simple fact is that using your smartphone when you’re free shouldn’t be a concern for anyone else.
 
Of course you can use a players social media to judge their commitment to the game. If they're posting updates at 3am from a nightclub or McDonald's then that's an obvious lack of professionalism.

Posting your latest stupid haircut or filming yourself practicing hand-shakes is not at all detrimental to your career, it just makes old farts like me roll my eyes because I'm an old fart.
 
I generally don’t care about the social media activities of football players but Pogba’s (Sky) blue hair showed him to be a bit dim in judging the mood music. If we had crumbled like we were threatening too that could have been a point of no return for him given the rest of the noise around his relationship with Jose, Raiola etc. As it happened it was his coming out party as a United player for many.

Hope he ditches that hair cut soon (looks a bit like a cheap birthday cake) and gets a Red Devil shaved in.
 
His hair is a non issue. He dyed it on 19th March for France. If he had changed his hair just after Pep's comments then people would've been saying that he spends too much time at the barber.
 
Red00012 said:
If city had won and Pogba was his usual ineffective self he would have been slaughtered after the game.
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Surely this proves it absolute bollocks then? Whether he plays well or not has feck all to do with the colour of his hair, or his posts on instagram, and it's baffling people try to imply it is.
 
KM said:
His hair is a non issue. He dyed it on 19th March for France. If he had changed his hair just after Pep's comments then people would've been saying that he spends too much time at the barber.
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It’s not a non-issue if it gives the press ammo though. It very much is an issue. The media sh*tstorm won’t care a jot when he had it done, especially after Pep’s comments. If he had shaved it off only his instagram groupies would have noticed.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
It’s not a non-issue if it gives the press ammo though. It very much is an issue. The media sh*tstorm won’t care a jot when he had it done, especially after Pep’s comments. If he had shaved it off only his instagram groupies would have noticed.
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Who cares what the media thinks? It's bizarre that you're imploring a footballer to change his hairstyle just because media won't like.

The manager and the club seem to have no problem.
 
I don't see the correlation between hairstyle and football ability / focus on the pitch. I had a few mates on at me for him dying his hair blue in the week leading up the game, despite having actually dyed it a couple of weeks back. If he wants to dance and post it on Insta then who really cares? He's not doing that when he should be on the pitch or training so there is literally no harm in it whatsoever.
 
InLevyITrust said:
You don’t think what a player, or anyone really, says on social media reflects their intelligence? That’s an odd train of thought.
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Do you, or anyone else for that matter realise that the Caf is a social media website?

There’s so many people who are critical of social media, and ironically bitch about it on social media.
 
KM said:
Who cares what the media thinks? It's bizarre that you're imploring a footballer to change his hairstyle just because media won't like.

The manager and the club seem to have no problem.
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The media have power to create a cloud if we like it or not. Personally I didn’t even notice the hair until everyone started talking about it but in light of Pep’s comments it would have been smarter to shave it off. This conversation wouldn’t exist in that case. And contrary to what you say, I don’t believe he would have been criticised for changing it.
 
Relfy said:
I don't see the correlation between hairstyle and football ability / focus on the pitch. I had a few mates on at me for him dying his hair blue in the week leading up the game, despite having actually dyed it a couple of weeks back. If he wants to dance and post it on Insta then who really cares? He's not doing that when he should be on the pitch or training so there is literally no harm in it whatsoever.
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I have studied Dragon Ball Z for many years and I can without any doubts confirm that hairstyle is reflective to ones abilities and powers.
 
Oldyella said:
Surely this proves it absolute bollocks then? Whether he plays well or not has feck all to do with the colour of his hair, or his posts on instagram, and it's baffling people try to imply it is.
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It’s complete rubbish but the media out there don’t need much these days to write a story.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
The media have power to create a cloud if we like it or not. Personally I didn’t even notice the hair until everyone started talking about it but in light of Pep’s comments it would have been smarter to shave it off. This conversation wouldn’t exist in that case. And contrary to what you say, I don’t believe he would have been criticised for changing it.
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Then you haven't been paying attention to the media coverage around him this season.
 
Nah it’s fine, dyeing your hair blue makes you look like a tit though.

But that’s not a crimeI guess.
 
Brightonian said:
There is a race element to some of the talk about his hair too. I know I'll get some shit for saying it, and I'm not claiming it's a huge deal, but it's definitely there. Aaron Ramsey died his entire head Pat Butcher blonde and the response amounted to 'doesn't he look silly'. Whenever Pogba gets a daft footballer haircut you start to get a lot of talk about 'lifestyle.' Since neither of them has any reputation for excess partying, indiscipline, or lack of fitness, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because only one of them is a nice white Welsh boy.

You'd think we'd have learnt what nice Welsh boys get up to in their private lives by now.
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In my opinion, you are right. It is definitively there.
 
So Pogba didnt change his haircolor before the game = no commitment :wenger:

Tbh I think that every player that have kids will spend more time and commitment on the family rather than the time players like pogba spends on hairstyle etc.
 
VP89 said:
Let's be honest if I didn't make this thread Pogba wouldn't have read it and score 2 goals.
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'Let's be honest, if I didn't do this dumb thing then this unrelated good thing wouldn't have happened...'
 
Brightonian said:
There is a race element to some of the talk about his hair too. I know I'll get some shit for saying it, and I'm not claiming it's a huge deal, but it's definitely there. Aaron Ramsey died his entire head Pat Butcher blonde and the response amounted to 'doesn't he look silly'. Whenever Pogba gets a daft footballer haircut you start to get a lot of talk about 'lifestyle.' Since neither of them has any reputation for excess partying, indiscipline, or lack of fitness, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because only one of them is a nice white Welsh boy.

You'd think we'd have learnt what nice Welsh boys get up to in their private lives by now.
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Yup.
 
KM said:
His hair is a non issue. He dyed it on 19th March for France. If he had changed his hair just after Pep's comments then people would've been saying that he spends too much time at the barber.
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Bang on. It only came to my attention when Gary Neville was asked about it pre-match and even he was extremely critical about it but then I remembered from the Swansea game he had this haircut and then managed to track it back to his France duty (who we all know play in blue) but I guess that doesn't suit the press' narrative. The way everyone was talking it was like he had a Man City tattoo.
 
Brightonian said:
There is a race element to some of the talk about his hair too. I know I'll get some shit for saying it, and I'm not claiming it's a huge deal, but it's definitely there. Aaron Ramsey died his entire head Pat Butcher blonde and the response amounted to 'doesn't he look silly'. Whenever Pogba gets a daft footballer haircut you start to get a lot of talk about 'lifestyle.' Since neither of them has any reputation for excess partying, indiscipline, or lack of fitness, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's because only one of them is a nice white Welsh boy.

You'd think we'd have learnt what nice Welsh boys get up to in their private lives by now.
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If Ramsey changed his hair colour as often as Pogba did, he would definitely be questioned by the media. Rightly or wrongly.
 
In a very vague sense with a lot of caveats I would say yes.

The example I am thinking is a few years back after a loss or when we (Arsenal) barely squeaked into the top 4 the players were posting a bunch of selfies of themselves in the dressing room like teenage girls. I do think that example of social media could reflect some lack of commitment or at least some poor judgment and lack of self-awareness.
 
vi1lain said:
Do you, or anyone else for that matter realise that the Caf is a social media website?

There’s so many people who are critical of social media, and ironically bitch about it on social media.
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I don’t get your point, of cours it’s social media, and you can tell a lot by what people post.
 
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