Wright the victim of fans who cannot tolerate criticism
TV analyst was lambasted for taking issue with his former club. His only mistake was to forget that trolls do not accept opposing viewpoints
Fans of big football clubs hate being told what to think. Some also reserve the right to tell others what they can and cannot say if it happens to be about the team they follow. And some have gone so far as to join the current assault on truth and reason.
This thought struck me as the Match of the Day team were donning tin hats over their analysis of Arsenal versus Manchester United, in which Ian Wright and Alan Shearer had the nerve to say that 33 Arsenal shots with only one converted was a fairly moderate ratio. Football journalists, who are abused just about every day for activating the hair-trigger of tribalism, will be tempted to say: “Welcome to our world.”
Not that being insulted by a random stranger in Premier League Row H should be placed in the same category as, say, a woman MP receiving rape threats on Twitter. All this is relative, but it remains lamentable that supporting a football club gives some people the idea that adverse comments are there to be trampled on, along with the critic.
If you are one of these social media machine-gunners, ask yourself why you take Shearer or Wright saying you defended poorly or finished badly as a personal affront – directed at you, as if the analyst had impugned your parents or your children. Perhaps you could explain who appointed you the guardian of the team’s right not to be scrutinised.
Wright is an interesting case study. He exemplifies a lost age in Arsenal’s history when the Gunners could fight you or outplay you, whichever you preferred. Manchester United were the same. Since retiring, ‘Wrighty’ has walked the line between Arsenal hero and professional commentator. And he walks it well, never shying from criticising the current players or Arsene Wenger while also not hiding his allegiance.
Wright proves that you can be closely associated with a particular club while also maintaining your distance or objectivity. This is harder than it looks. But for some Arsenal fans around the world it falls short of the necessary obedience, or sycophancy. To them, Wright’s role is to defend the team at all times, even if it means bending the truth and insulating the current players from reality.
The higher you go in football, the bigger the problem this becomes. You would think fans of clubs with billions to spend and stars to parade might be a bit more relaxed about what the rest of the world thinks. Yet it tends to work the other way. Some fans exist in permanent hedgehog mode, waiting for the next ‘attack’ so that they can respond with disproportionate fury. Users of Twitter will be familiar with #agenda – a small mark of paranoia that says: the whole world is out to get us.
Gary Lineker came to the assistance of Wright and Shearer, writing: “I just love the idea that anyone would ever think that a football TV show is biased, against or for, any team. Funny how fans only think the bias is against their team, never another team. Mental.” Later, he added: “Over five million of you watched [Match of the Day] at the weekend. Apologies to every one of you for being biased against ‘your’ team.”
Most supporters are willing to listen to criticism. Many are themselves far more vociferous after a bad performance. As we know, though, supporters of Arsenal or Chelsea or Manchester United will object to an ‘outsider’ pointing out failings they have already pointed out themselves, on the principle that family members will slag