A "jolly" good read:
Among the fans' chants in and around Old Trafford on Saturday
there was the one about Rio Ferdinand being a "smackhead" and
another about Fernando Torres wearing a "frock" (the rest is
unprintable, even given The Independent's liberal editorial
policy).
Wayne Rooney got the "fat granny shagger" abuse and Steven
Gerrard was the "Chelsea rent boy".
When Rooney says he hates Liverpool – or in his exact words, "I
grew up hating Liverpool and that hasn't changed" – we know what he
means when he says it. He has been conditioned that way, brought up
in the lingua franca of football fans. Hatred? The whole act of
supporting a team these days is defined by hatred.
Then, on top of that, Rooney is a professional footballer and
has had to endure a gutful of abuse — from Liverpool fans and
others – since his football career began. For football supporters,
their hatred is a common cause, a way of defining themselves. For
the players it is something else. If you think Rooney should behave
differently because he is a footballer, maybe you should imagine
what it is like to stand in a stadium full of people singing about
the single biggest mistake that you have ever made.
As well as the aforementioned song about Rooney, Liverpool fans
also sing "Once a Blue, always a Manc" in reference to that
occasion of youthful exuberance when, as an Everton youth team
player in May 2002, Rooney prematurely pledged his loyalty to his
childhood club. It is little wonder that Rooney hates Liverpool. It
would be much more of a surprise if he was to say that he didn't.
It is not like they have not given him cause over the years.
Rooney is not the only one to have expressed strong opinions
about opposing clubs. In his autobiography, Steven Gerrard wrote:
"I was taught to loathe Manchester United, their fans, players,
manager, kit-man, mascot, megastore-workers – everyone associated
with Old Trafford." He too was conditioned as a young fan and then,
as he became a player, it was reinforced by the abuse he gets from
the stands.
For Gerrard, the worst is not what he gets from United fans but
the Everton fans who sing that unspeakable song about his family.
Joleon Lescott probably feels the same way about the Liverpool fans
who sing that he is "the elephant man", given that the scar on his
forehead is from a car accident that almost killed him when he was
five.
Heaven only knows what goes through Sir Bobby Charlton's mind
when Leeds United fans sing their unmentionable songs about the
Munich air disaster. If any of those figures were to express the
contempt for their abusers – the same that Rooney talked about last
week – it would be completely understandable.
Yet some people actually believe the nonsense that footballers
should exist in this environment of loathing without complaint.
That they should take it all on the chin and never complain about
the level of abuse directed at them or even have an opinion on it
themselves.
Nowadays, any response from a player is regarded as beyond the
pale by fans. A lot of supporters are enraged by anything as
innocuous as a sarcastic smile from an opposing player or a cheeky
goal celebration in front of the home end. Earlier this season,
Frank Lampard responded to some "fat bastard" taunts at Fulham by
puffing out his cheeks and rubbing his belly. Quite witty, I
thought. But there were actually some Fulham supporters in the
stand around the press box who were enraged by his actions. They
seemed to be saying: how dare that fat bastard behave like, well, a
fat bastard?
For most fans their "hatred" of opposing clubs is something they
dip into at the weekend. It is a bit of a laugh, a prejudice they
dust off once a week and then put away until the next home game.
For the players themselves it is a living, breathing thing, which
can catch up with them if they bump into the wrong person when they
are out shopping or on a garage forecourt or picking their kids up
from school. They have to keep one eye open for it at all times. No
wonder they don't think it is all a bit of a joke.
Manchester United removed Rooney's comments from their website,
which tells you everything you need to know about the gutless,
sanitised world view that official club websites and their
lickspittle cousins, the club television channels, would like to
promote. Why should they be afraid of the honesty of feelings? They
claim to be worried about it being provocative. Have they not
noticed that United v Liverpool games tend not to end with both
sets of fans giving one another three cheers and all the best for a
safe journey home?
Sir Alex Ferguson got it right when he acknowledged that, while
hatred was a strong word, in the circumstances, Rooney's choice of
words was hardly surprising.
"He's had a lot of stick from their fans over the years, so it
is understandable," he said. Take a walk in Rooney's or Gerrard's
shoes for a day and you might begin to understand the strength of
their feelings too.
***************
for the record, i may be
passionate, i dun agree with abuses...esp. when they get
personal.