To Boo, Or Not To Boo?
By: Jim | August 4th, 2008I can put my hand on my heart and say, with all truthfulness, that I have never booed an Argyle player, or an Argyle team either during a match or at the end of a game. I don’t dispute the right of the paying customer to vent their feelings – and, let’s be honest, given the current cost of going to watch football, fans deserve if nothing else eleven players busting a gut for the cause. I just don’t choose to boo them myself. The closest I have ever got was at the end of the abject, abject Carling Cup defeat at home to Walsall a couple of seasons ago, when on departing, and within his earshot, yelled at the directors’ box – “That’s a disgrace, Stapleton – get your wallet out!”.
I also have mixed feelings about booing ex-players. David Norris was apparently appalled at the treatment meted out to Tony Capaldi when he returned to HP with Cardiff – so much so that it is rumoured to have been part of the reason he chose to up sticks in January (though I imagine tripling his wages was probably the decisive factor). There’s no doubt, though, that sustained booing puts a player off his game – and if its an influential player then every advantage available ought to be used.
Argyle have several ex-player confrontations coming up: Norris at Ipswich; Paul Connolly at Derby; Ebanks-Blake at Wolves; Wotton at Southampton. Each of these present slightly different scenarios to those debating whether or not to boo. No-one – surely, no-one – could contemplate booing Paul Wotton, could contemplate anything other than sustained and sincere applause. Fans may disagree about his ability, about the extent to which he was or still might have been worth a place in the starting XI, but we all agree, don’t we, that as a servant of the club, as an Argyle hero, he deserves a place in the front rank. Norris too, although he ultimately left for the money and for a play-off rival at the worst possible time, will surely be the recipient of the Green Army’s generosity, rather than its wrath or derision. He gave us five solid years, never flinching a tackle, always offering over and above the 110% habitually required by football managers. Paul Connolly, too, deserves warm applause. Despite leaving on a Bosman (he apparently offered to leave earlier for a fee), he offered six years of service and deserved his chance to improve his financial position, if not necessarily his rack of appearances.
Ebanks-Blake is a different kettle of fish. Having had a flagging career rescued by Argyle; after a season of slow starts, he finally came good at the beginning of last term, only to jump ship at the first available opportunity for a club that only finished above Argyle thanks to a last-day meaningless victory at Molineux. Had he chosen to stay, even if only until the end of the season, I am convinced we would have made the top six. It was his departure, far more than Norris’ or even Holloway’s that killed us – and even if we had failed in May, the offers would surely have been there. SEB treated the club and its fans with contempt – and no amount of knocking on Cambridgeshire kids’ doors can make up for that. Besides, he’s their most important player, and if we can somehow put him off his stroke, so much the better. I urge all you Pilgrims out there to give him beans: to boo him at the earliest opportunity on Saturday. And lets rub his face in it by coming home with the points.
Category: Team News
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