This Watford fan (for twenty-nine years) is struggling with the arguments around how to respond to his team’s lacklustre performances.
What is the role of the football spectator in the modern game? It may seem a slightly dramatic question but I couldn’t help but wonder after I’d hushed my thirteen-year-old nephew as he cat-called during Watford’s latest home defeat (Wednesday’s, to relegation-threatened Barnsley). In retrospect I (very) slightly regret infringing his freedom of expression (ok, I’ll stop with the melodrama) but I’ve done my best over the years I’ve been taking him to instil in him my own values as a supporter.
For me, the word says it all. I take the definition of “to support” to mean “to encourage/to help” and pride myself on leaving many games hoarse as I cheer on the Golden Boys whether they win, lose or draw.
In that way I have to admit to a slight sense of superiority to those who go to games and hardly make a noise (and trust me, at Watford’s Vicarage road stadium there are thousands) even when the team is playing well and winning.
A great memory from last year’s relegation season was going to Old Trafford mid-week and out-singing 70,000 Manchester United fans as they cruised past us 4-0. My nephew and I joined in the deriding of those “plastic supporters” but at the Vic it would be hard to describe the “Yellow Army” as anything approaching a genuine twelfth man.
Nevertheless, I understand the argument that people have paid good money (£25 to watch from where I sit) and therefore have the right to respond to poor performances in a manner they deem appropriate. For many on Wednesday, that meant booing individual players during the match, booing the team at half-time when we were only a goal down and had created chances of our own, while others voted with their feet before the hour mark after we’d conceded a third.
My first reaction to those who booed so early remains unchanged. I believe that this is the only noise these people make at Watford matches: in game after game the front and back rows of the stand I am in cheers the team on whereas the silence from the middle is as noticeable as it is from the Rous stand.
Coded messages of thanks from the manager, chairman and captain after an exceptionally rousing ten-man night against Leicester a couple of months ago had a clear subtext: “Why can’t you always give us that level of support?”
Digression aside, the question of the spectator’s role remains. Is football now merely another form of entertainment, which demands no more loyalty than the latest play at the local theatre? (I choose that comparison because in a cinema booing would have no effect on the performers.)
Money has flooded the sport and changed it forever. Nevertheless, for those who choose their team because of a loyalty to locality rather than a desire to be identified with “a winning product” (hence the legions of United and Arsenal “plastics” in Watford), surely the team does not need to “earn” support anew at every match?
The raising of expectations undoubtedly makes their disappointment a harder fall. Watford sat nine points clear at the top of the Championship in November and have produced only a handful of good performances since then but were still expected to beat Barnsley (despite their FA Cup heroics).
Similarly, the size of a club is not an unrelated matter. How happy must many of the fans of FC United and AFC Wimbledon be with their league performances compared to fans of Tottenham or Newcastle? Obviously more booing has been heard at the Premier League sides than at the non-league ones.
Perhaps there is something else? After all, the reactions of many of those who turn up to watch matches seem implicitly to agree with Bill Shankly’s legendary assessment of the beautiful game: that it is much more important than life and death.
Not for me; Perspective, Shankly, have a word. Whether we go up through the play-offs or not, I will not be booing Watford or leaving matches early. I do not believe this fact alone makes me a “better” supporter than those who do but ceteris paribus the ability to laugh in the face of defeat, yes, and even humiliation, might make me a better man.
What is the role of the spectator? Is it ever justified to boo your team or individual players? What would cause you to boo a performance?
1 comment:
Absolutely first-class article, with which I agree 100%. Wednesday night's performance was dire, but nothing is gained by booing individual players or the team, although I can understand the sentiments. A gentleman sat nearby said just before the match ended "the muppets will be booing the team at the end" and he was absolutely right. Muppets they are.
Passion is part of the game, and as supporters we are entitled to vent our frustrations at times during the matches, but yes - I remember the match against Leicester City at home. FANTASTIC!! As a game, it wasn't great (we were down to 10 men) but as a gritty, heroic performance it was brilliant and the crowd, I'm sure, really were the much-hyped 12th (or 11th!) man. Fabulous atmosphere and I wish I knew how to generate this at every match, because it was something really special.
There are so many Watford supporters who are martyrs. Look at the club's geography - a town the size of Rochdale. Where would you rather be - fighting for a chance to play in the Premiership or languishing in the depths of League 2? No contest. Even if we don't make it to the Premiership, it's not the end of the world. We're playing badly and are still in with a great chance. As Aidy would say - and I have to say that he does need to produce something to convince the sceptics - Come On!
I'll rephrase this - COME ON!!!!!GET BEHIND THE TEAM! WE ARE NEEDED! THIS IS IMPORTANT! DON'T BE SO F***ING NEGATIVE!!
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