No Smiling On The Terraces

I’m not sure how much more football I can take…no that’s not what I mean. I’m not sure how much more of the ridiculousness surrounding football I can take. At the weekend Arsenal’s Emmanuel Eboue was brought on as a substitute in the game against Wigan only to be substituted himself shortly after. Why? Well he was having what is referred to as ‘a nightmare’, the last act of which was to tackle one of his own players and pass the ball to the opposition.

It’s not Eboue’s poor performance that made me take notice of the story though, it was the reaction of the fans; he was given an ironic round of applause as he left the field. When I read this I had to smile, it was good to know that some fans still have a sense of humour, something I thought had disappeared from the terraces a long time ago.

But only hours later switchboards were jammed, phone-ins were inundated and editors were working after hours as the footballing community condemned the outrageous behaviour of everyone who had cheered. Poor Eboue, they lamented, he’s got feelings too y’know! The behaviour of some of the players towards the referee after several decisions wasn’t mentioned.

Should those fans have stayed silent? I mean COMPLETELY silent? That would have surely been more upsetting for Eboue. Or worse still what if they had jeered him? Would that have been an acceptable response? I doubt the dry humour of a few thousand football fans will lead Eboue to seek out therapy or turn him into a depressed recluse who’s afraid to leave the house.

Those people who ‘condemn’ this type of behaviour by Arsenal fans ought to take a look at the behaviour of the Arsenal players next time a penalty is awarded against them…but now I’m straying from the point; the reason why I started writing this.

Also this weekend I read that Swansea City fans had cheered ex player Lee Trundle, who came on for Bristol City in a 0-0 draw, as a mark of appreciation for all that he had done for the club in the past. How nice, I thought, all too often ex players are savaged when they play against their former clubs; just ask Frank Lampard or Sol Campbell. But that wasn’t the crux of the story…

…Swansea manager Roberto Martinez ‘condemned’ the cheering of his fans saying it sent the wrong message to his own team. There’s a man clearly confident in his own ability to manage a winning football team! I suppose if the fans had given Trundle a hard time it would have taken their minds off the fact that their team was unable to score during the 90 minutes.

At the end of the day, to use that well worn football cliché, football is a sport, sport is entertainment and entertainment is to be enjoyed. If part of that enjoyment is cracking a joke at the expense of one of your own players or given the opposition an appreciatory gesture then surely isn’t that better than some of the hate and anger that passes for fandom these days?