The public and media fascination and, let's face it, glee over the Manchester United party scandal is not merely the standard British delight in seeing the wealthy brought to heel.It's also indicative of just how much our contempt for top footballers has grown in direct proportion to their wealth and also our fascination with them.
We may support them, envy them, read about them, discuss them in the pub as if they were racehorses and wish we were like them, but we don't actually like them any more. Now that they don't need us to support their testimonial, now that they don't appear to occupy the same planet as us, now that their girlfriends write columns in the press talking about how much money they've spent, now that every single last one of them will change clubs the minute the deal is right, we are all storing up our resentment just waiting for them to give us an excuse to get a bit of our own back.
Look at how fast the nation turned following the Croatia result. The nation doesn't just want results. It wants somebody to be punished.
In the midst of this Sol Campbell turns up on the Today Programme moaning about the abuse he got from the Tottenham fans last week. I'm sure it must be horrible.
But if spewing a little verbal poison is what a fan can do, he will do it. It's all he's got.
Strangely it's the English players that attract the most hatred. Deep down we like Ronaldo, Fabregas, even Drogba because we admire their skill unreservedly and we want them on our team. But no-one (other than the partisan)feels the same about Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand, Rooney, Terry, Ashley Cole etc. Something of the vulgarian about all of them.
ReplyDeleteand they don't even seem to like each other much!
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7155290.stm
I don't care for football, and can't pretend to give a monkey's about any of the individuals involved, but something in this case doesn't quite add up:
ReplyDeleteThe party was unequivocally billed as a near-orgy from the outset, with wives & girlfriends banned and only young attractive women of easy virtue invited.
So why was the boyfriend of the alleged victim present? female guests of even the most attenuated intelligence knew that they were there to be pawed by wealthy young men - and some no doubt hoped to parlay that pawing into a 'Hello!' wedding and a column in The Word - in which case taking a boyfriend along seems counter to all logic.
Well said - Premier League footballers are increasingly losing touch with reality. The Sol Campbell moan was also quite well analysed and summarily dismissed here...
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/2wr6n3
Predictable, what I was trying to say has been said more elegantly elsewhere: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article3085180.ece
ReplyDeleteWhile not condoning any racist chants (unlikely) or homophobic jibes (quite possible) from the Spurs fans, chants of the 'Judas' variety towards Sol C are totally deserved. Not only did he leave us for Arsenal, but he waited until he could leave on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling. This deprived us of the revenue Spurs, as the club who had nurtured him from a teenager, could have done with. I haven't seen him play since he moved, but I'd have to be in a particularly good mood not to boo him every time he got the ball. I know how petty this sounds, but these things mean a lot to us Spurs fans.
ReplyDeleteJon