Shirt-begging crew add insult to injury
OAsking a Liverpool player for his kit as they dismantle your team somewhat damages the concept of loyalty
n Sunday, I was in the Stretford End at Old Trafford, stationed just above the players’ tunnel, ideally positioned to mainline on gloom, doom and misery as the home side were dismantled and humiliated by Liverpool.
All around me, as the game reached its conclusion, stood the shell-shocked. Many had left for home long before the final whistle, reckoning they had suffered enough. But others stayed on, just staring into space, traumatised. While some – like the estimable Peter Boyle, the longtime cheerleader of the Manchester United faithful who was standing nearby – sought to show defiance by chanting their love for the club, even in face of the overwhelming evidence of decline and embarrassment.
But down at the bottom of the stand, gathered around the tunnel entrance, there were dozens of fans who seemed untouched by any emotional swirl. These were the “Can I have your shirt?” crew, the growing gaggle of hucksters hoping a player might hand them a piece of their kit as they leave the field.
Almost every game now, the cameras find a youngster looking overwhelmed when clutching his trophy. But these were by no means all children. The overwhelming majority were adults, arriving at the ground with their homemade sign pleading for a donation.
Old Trafford is by no means the only place this new phenomenon can be witnessed. It happens everywhere these days. A whole cottage industry has bloomed since lockdown ended. In ever-greater numbers there are supporters for whom grabbing a handful of polyester has become the principal ambition of heading to the match. Were they to be lucky – and in most games at least one of the players will be kind-hearted enough to hand theirs over – some will doubtless cherish such reward for the rest of their days. Though most, you suspect, will head straight to ebay.
And what makes the new fashion all the more teeth-grinding, is this: these beggars appear to have no instinct for what is going on at a game. Never mind on Sunday the sizeable number who yelled for his shirt at a disconsolate-looking Cristiano Ronaldo as he departed the field immediately after the whistle sounded, wearing a look that suggested he had just been chewing on a wasp. It was when
Paul Pogba made his way to the dressing room, having been shown the red card for a woeful assault on Naby Keita, that it became clear quite how tin-eared this trend is. Several shirt-grabbers saw this as the perfect opportunity to demand he strip off and hand over.
“Paul, Paul, can I have your shirt?” they yelled, apparently untouched by the significance of what he had just done.
Asking for a gift post-match to share the joy of a fine victory is one thing. But trying to get the shirt off a dismissed player’s back was ridiculous. In Italy he would have been booed to the middle of next week for so recklessly jeopardising his team’s chances. Here he was being begged for bounty.
And that was not even the most egregious transgression on Sunday. Earlier in the game, as Liverpool’s magnificent centre-forward, Roberto Firmino, leaned down to collect the ball from in front of a section of United fans ahead of a throw-in, someone wafted a sign in his direction asking if they might have his shirt.
Now I am all for detoxifying one of the most brutal football rivalries around. But a United fan asking a Liverpool player to hand over his kit even as he is in the process of dismantling their team somewhat undermines the concept of loyalty.
Some might see all this as a harmless adjunct of hero worship. But the financial possibilities of securing a match-worn shirt from a household name are clearly driving increasing numbers to join the begging crew. And the fact is, clubs could easily put a stop to it by announcing that all kit is donated to charity after the game. In truth, they should use the power of their shirt solely to benefit good causes, not buff up an ebay account. It is time they acted.