The sad truth is taking flak is part of the job
ONE dispiriting part of society, especially when it comes to football, is the number of idiots who feel they can say whatever they want with no comeback. Another is the army of absolute twonks who seem incapable of enjoying life, the most wonderful thing to immerse yourself in, without recording every aspect of it through the camera of a mobile telephone.
Put the two together and you’ve got a match made in hell. As Rangers players Jack Butland and Borna Barisic will testify after the week just gone.
Football players often get a bad press. Most are good with fans. Most give their time when asked. It must get under your skin when some geezer starts shouting through a metal fence outside a stadium, when you don’t do as he desires, that he pays your wages and effectively owns you.
That does not excuse Butland getting into verbals with a punter after last weekend’s home win against
Kilmarnock, though. And it certainly doesn’t excuse Barisic having to be restrained after appearing, on footage from one of said mobile phone owners, to react badly to a comment from another.
Former Celtic manager Gordon Strachan called it right years ago when pointing out that you get paid the big bucks at the Old Firm as much for what comes at you off the field as on it. Even during the week, he stated in an interview that he rarely went out socially during his time at Parkhead because of the fear of getting dragged into things.
Over and above everything else, the reactions of Butland and Barisic fed into a narrative this week. That Rangers were rattled ahead of going to Parkhead. That the place was heading for the buffers. Another thing Strachan always used to point out is that, no matter how anxious he was feeling, he always felt he had to show in public that he was in control — because every element of your body language is measured to the nth degree at Rangers and Celtic.
It is, of course, yet another reflection of our society that all kind of workers in front-facing positions — nurses, doctors, police, bus drivers, ticket-collectors — have to deal with abuse.
They are expected to deal with it calmly and professionally. With good grace. And not bite back. They also get paid a heck of a lot less than Butland and Barisic. Hard as it is, and wrong as it seems, players just need to learn to keep the head down, let it wash over them and not get suckered into the kind of spats that are never going to do them — or their clubs — any favours.