I didn’t really bother with yesterday’s England match. It was on the TV but I wasn’t really paying attention. I didn’t even notice when they booed Ashley Cole. But I did notice when watching the highlights later, especially as the pundits went on and on about it.
To my mind, there’s one simple explanation for the crowd booing their own player. It’s something that has been happening to Forest for years; this shows that it is happening elsewhere as well.
We still love football. We just hate the people involved with football.
Cashley Cole, allegedly having chucked a mega-tantrum over not getting an extra five thousand pounds a week, is no longer granted the benefit of the doubt. No longer allowed to make a mistake. If he plays the perfect game we will applaud politely, we may even chant his name. But, to our minds, he needs perfection every minute of every game to justify his massive wages and his pampered lifestyle.
It’s not just internationals, or even just the Premiership. Exactly the same is happening with Forest, even though the wages are a fraction of Cashley’s. No-one is given a second chance, all our good-will has been used up.
Players used to be people we looked up to. But no more.
And that probably means that English football is in a far more precarious position than we ever suspected.
UPDATED: added the stuff about Forest.
