Good morning.
Before the the aftermath the math – and a few moments of your invaluable time in relation to Kyle Walker. Today’s sermon is entitled, ‘Abuse, When Is Good Time For You And Will There Be Light Refreshments?’
Let me kick off by saying I didn’t send Kyle a nasty Tweet yesterday. Or at any other time. To the best of my knowledge I’ve only had a pop at two footballers on Twitter. I definitely expressed a belief to ***** that he was a wage thief. That prompted about a dozen or so 15 year olds to tell me I was a very, very mean type. A rotter. The other was aimed at Rio Ferdinand who was re-Tweeted by someone else and I think I said, ‘Get off my TL you Jar Jar Binks looky-likey.’
The fallacy is of course that we should all be nice and tolerant to each other. Apologies if I’m the first person to shatter your illusion but there isn’t a place in the world where that actually happens. So if you think you can get a billion strangers together online and achieve that utopia, good luck.
‘Walker was abused.’ He must have been. It says so in this morning’s papers. I can’t find any examples but one can imagine the type of thing he was sent. ‘You’re ___’ and variations upon that theme. I really expensive barrister would have trouble defending him from such allegations. I’ve not been alone in gently trying to break to people for months he’s not very good at playing football.
Now, ‘You’re a black ___’ isn’t on. You see that is your common or garden racism. It’s not up for debate. Mindless, not nice. Against the law.
So what level of ‘abuse’ is acceptable? Well, that’s down to the individual I guess. My argument is that it isn’t unreasonable that people can express an opinion. And therefore it doesn’t have to be pleasant. In the instance of footballers we invest emotionally and financially and when we are disappointed it’s not unreasonable to express that. Not unreasonable at all*.
*Now, at a live game it is insane to do this. Nobody was ever motivated by booing to perform better. A moot point with a number of girlfriends over the years.
So after the game, it’s open season? Well, pretty much as long as you aren’t shouting through the poor bloke’s letterbox or sending him excrement on a daily basis in the post. So no racism and no poo poo.
Right. The final whistle goes and the donkeys that have ruined your afternoon are leaving the field. ‘You’re ___’ is about what they deserve. You don’t gush thank yous and say a long goodbye in a restaurant where you’ve been served inedible muck. Well unless you’re English. Even if you don’t send a stiff letter to the owner it’s quite normal you at least glare a bit.
So what about Tweeting your displeasure?
Well as it’s a written thing let’s think of it as a letter. Who knows Kyle Walker’s address? Me neither. I guess you could send him something via the club (remembering of course the no poo poo ruling). But it’s not very immediate. By the time you’ve found something to write on, a pen that works and tried to work out who actually sells stamps these days the moment will have passed.
That’s why increasingly you get in places like pizza chains little cards with your bill. To score your experience. Because otherwise the opportunities for the pizza company to victimize their staff would be quite limited. It’s all about the immediacy. ‘Let us know how you feel!’
So players set up Twitter accounts. Most footballers are a bit thin skinned. They are actively encouraging customers thoughts to reach them. This is their ‘little card with the bill. ‘Hey guess what? Not everyone will always enjoy their meal!
Now I don’t know what the ratio of good to bad comments people receive on Twitter but the block function is there for a reason. It’s for people who want to take part – and by default take their chances – yet still exercise some degree of control.There is another option. Don’t have an account.
Self control is a two way street.
Kyle Walker closed his Twitter account that he opened because people were saying nasty things to him. Will any of those nasty Tweets encouraged him to improve as a footballer? It’s difficult to believe they will.
Is it sad that people felt the need to tell him how furious they were? Of course, but not shocking. You leave a card with your bill, it’s beyond naive to think everyone will score you a ten.
*Now, at a live game it is insane to do this. Nobody was ever motivated by booing to perform better
Whereas getting loads of abuse from morons is really tip-top for motivation?
What is the difference between booing at full time which you condemn, and personally telling someone they are fucking shit at their job, which you seem to think is ‘ok’?
Theres a time and a place for all things. Booing your own club in your own stadium basically reflects on us all, the team, the club and the fans.
Popping on twitter and giving Kyle some abuse is not the same thing.
If I didn’t appreciate your work, would you think it was fairer for me to yell at you in-front of your colleagues and competition,
or drop you a text afterwards expressing my discontent?
The people sending abuse to other people on Twitter aren’t their boss. They are just mean-spirited, small-minded spectators delivering cowardly poison pen letters for the personal thrill of it.
I think both booing and abusing people on the internet are both bad, but if I had to choose one or the other I would plumb for booing, which is not personal but instead a collective chorus of generalized disapproval from a paying audience, over twitter abuse, which is cowardly and vindictive petty-minded nastiness from semi-anonymous juvenile trolls.
LLL, have to agree.
If you have a Twitter account it is the same as a suggestions box. If you don’t want suggestions then don’t put the bloody box out.
Self control is a two way street.
Is it sad that people felt the need to tell him how furious they were? Of course, but not shocking. You leave a card with your bill, it’s beyond naive to think everyone will score you a ten.
I’m not saying it’s ‘ok’- I’m saying it’s inevitable and the man is fuckwit if he thinks he won’t get any negative comments.
Did he say he didn’t expect to get negative comments? Perhaps he just closed his account because he was tired of reading them? Is that not a fair and reasonable response? I don’t really know what point you are trying to make here really.
I didn’t think twitter was a ‘suggestions box’ as such. It’s a “social media tool” isn’t it? The fact that so many people choose to use it for anti-social purposes, to say things and abuse people in a way that they would be too cowardly to do in real life reflects badly on them, not the recipients. Doesn’t it?
Did he say he didn’t expect to get negative comments?
Well he didn’t close it because he was blushing with pride.
I didn’t think twitter was a ‘suggestions box’ as such. It’s a “social media tool” isn’t it?
Yes. A two way street with no guarantees that people are going to consistently tell you how wonderful you are.
to say things and abuse people in a way that they would be too cowardly to do in real life
Look, offence is taken, not given. If I call you ‘a big girl’ online (I’m not, it;s just for the discussion) you can either ignore me – like a grown up, or you can threaten to kick my head in.
I don’t like lots of people/things online and yet I manage to live in absolute harmony with them by not inviting them into my ‘online life’.
You seem to have a belief based upon the the word ‘should’ and I’m suggesting to you this is naive and simply cannot police trivial name calling online nor ought you.
I find lots of banal stuff online extremely anti-social. It’s not a society I want to be a part of.
So I use my brain and try to avoid the banality.
If people plagued me on Twitter or on here with abuse I’d use my brain and evaluate if I should jack it in.
So when some berk says, ‘Oi Harry kill yourself’ I use my brain. One berk out what, 5,000 readers that day? I don’t care
Whining ‘I’ve been abused’ is pathetic. It’s like those signs you see in places, ‘Staff will not tolerate threats or abusive language.’
My first reaction is what the hell are they saying to customers to make people lose reason in the first place?! Why is their business making people so angry they have to put signs up?!
I don’t think, ‘Isn’t it terrible.’
Was that MP out of order to swear at the police in Downing St? My first question is why didn’t they just open the fucking gate?!
You seem to have a belief based upon the the word ‘should’ and I’m suggesting to you this is naive and simply cannot police trivial name calling online nor ought you.
:hae:
If people plagued me on Twitter or on here with abuse I’d use my brain and evaluate if I should jack it in
Erm. Isn’t that exactly what he’s done? :ermm:
Whining ‘I’ve been abused’ is pathetic.
Is he doing this in real life or just your imagination? :blink:
Walker is young. He rashly made a decision. Maybe it also means he took the defeat personally and he’s not in it just for the money. We should not judge either way.
There is only and ONLY one way to get back at Chelsea. Beat them at Stamford Bridge.
And someone for f***’s sake figure out this Lloris, Ade crap.
Friedel has to be dropped now. Its all speculation, but I reckon Hugo would have done better with the Cahill goal and Mata’s first. Brad has done us proud up to now, thank him and drop him. He’s 42 in May, it’s not unusual to have a player of that age in your first team premier league squad, it’s un-fcuking-heard of!
:daumen:
Not unheard of. Pat Jennings played until he was 40, in fact still playing International football at 40. He played a world cup game for NI on his 40th birthday. Stanley Matthews played first division (the old equivalent of PL)football until he was 50!! And he wasn’t a goalkeeper.
Unheard of in first team PREMIER LEAGUE squad. I was talking modern day football…
Kyle may or may not deserve abuse I honestly don’t know. It’s not like he doesn’t bother, I actually believe he doesn’t know how to perform as a RB. I base this purely on observations where I see him trying to push us on and ends up getting caught out by far more skilled opponents.
The thing with social networks is that it brings out the worst in society as it facilitates the urge to deal abuse with very little consequence. Even the most cowardly of people can say whats on their mind so potentially the volume of hate mail can be astronomical.
Back to Kyle, he wasn’t the only one making mistakes yesterday but he has been consistently dodgy all season. I think that the mistake in the 90th minute might be the nail in the coffin. I will be very suprised if he plays in the next prem game when Naughton is fit.
Kyle may or may not deserve abuse I honestly don’t know.
I do. Of course he doesn’t deserve abuse. He made a mistake, a visually embarrassing one, in front of thousands of people and more watching around the world. He will be feeling pretty low already. So what is the purpose of the abuse? It’s nothing less than bullying. It doesn’t make him a better player, it doesn’t erase the mistake. It isn’t like he meant for that to happen.
It also isn’t his fault that he’s been picked consistently through a patchy run of form, when perhaps a better coach would have taken him out of the team and worked with him more for a little while.
I agree, doesn’t help at all. He knows he screwed up, when the 4th goal went in he stood for ages, bent over with his head hanging down. He had plenty of time to clear the ball before he got into trouble, he knows that. No point in rubbing it in. However, he was also at fault for one of the previous goals. He does need to be dropped and sorted out. Don’t agree with you “better coach” comment though, with the injury situation of defenders, the coach hasn’t had much choice. When Naughton, BAE, and Kaboul are back we will be much better in defence. Even one of those would have allowed more scope to replace Walker.
Totally, absolutely 100% with you on this on El. Having a twitter account isn’t open season for abuse… That’s the same argument as saying ‘If you sell your pics to Hello, we have every right to tap your phone’.
The guy messed up, he feels bad, support him.
Just imagine. If Mabbutt had a twitter account back in the day against Coventry, we would all have been c**ting off a legend on twitter. And don’t say ‘Walker isn’t Mabbutt’ we don’t know yet, he’s too young to make anything like that kind of judgement.
I really hate this ‘Satisfy IMMEDIATELY or I call you s**t’ mentality that’s running through Spurs fans at the moment. We really are behaving like spoiled little kids.
Well done to all the guys yesterday for putting the wind up a £2bn football ‘project’.
I think that will be it for brad, not that he was awful- but the excuse needed. Gylfi is well short of quality required- was crap and left jan exposed and never offered an outlet for him. Kyle needs a rest and a cuddle. I think we gave a good account really and with all players available would have troubled them more- they looked good going forward but dodge at back. Not a million miles away we aint . Keep the faith and we may be knocking at the top fours door