No-one’s yet addressed the point I made about the knock on effect this could have on other players
And look there we have the first evidence of it with Torreira. The players like Xhaka, they, or some of them, enough so to back him as captain in a vote.
I’m not naive enough to believe that players + fans have any special bond at Premier League level, I suspect the majority of non-local players at most tolerate their fanbase. But, it’s not good to have a young team as we do potentially playing within themselves due to being worried about getting the treatment from the fanbase
I saw Stuart’s post as well. I really doubt Torreira was crying because Xhaka was mistreated specifically.
I would imagine it was more because the fans are turning on the team in general. Lucas comes out from a football-passionate continent. He should know that fans don’t just hate you for no reason. They behave this way because they’re consistently hurt by what they witness.
They are getting paid very well and if it’s getting too hot for them maybe been a professional footballer isn’t for them. They would get it worse if they were playing in Europe especially Italy or Spain. We need to stop acting like they need mothering, it’s a tough sport and it’s a result and performance driven business. You put in the performances and show heart, the fan’s will adore you.
Players crying on the touch line and shit, just goes to show how weak willed our club is right now. They are playing for ARSENAL not for Xhaka.
I fucking hate this view! I think it’s ridiculous to suggest that just because you get paid well you should be OK with being abused! Not talking about the Xhaka case specifically, but in general, I’ve heard this said often “oh he is a millionaire, it’s ok to send death threats”. Money or not, footballers are still bloody human.
If you’re Granit Xhaka walking down the street with your wife and you don’t know whether that group of men crossing the street towards you are Arsenal fans about to abuse you or just general members of the populace.
They can keep the money, I’ll keep my anonymity. The $$$$ means nothing
It’s a public job, it comes with public scrutiny. If he doesn’t like it, he is free to resign, just as any person employed in a public position is if they can’t handle the good as well as the bad that comes with it. It’s the publicity of the job that makes it so well paid, if you’ve agreed to do it, you’ve accepted that it can get ugly.
That’s it I think in a nutshell. It’s not like we’re playing that well anyway, but any short term positive of booing Xhaka is going to be at the detriment of the wider team over the coming games.
Xhaka’s a mainstay of the team anyway and won’t be leaving the club for months at the earliest. It’s such an awkward situation now and taken us barely a year from the Big Weng boo boys to start up again.
It’s not like he’s being booed after 2 or 3 mediocre performances.
Denilson, Gervinho, Bendtner, Chamakh etc. never got this treatment.
This is a solid 3 years of game losing mistakes that he is solely responsible for as well as bad post-game comments that call his quality and attitude into question.
The fact that it’s taken this long for the fans to get on his back is impressive in itself to be honest, because he’s been atrocious for a long time.
There’s a huge difference, but I suppose you may be right in that Saka and Willock in their youth won’t be able to recognise that difference.
Maybe. But overall point still stands. I think the money is irrelevant. Obviously public scrutiny comes with the job, but that doesn’t mean he has to just be OK with it. It’s not only booing with Xhaka either, he and the likes of Mustafi have received a lot of personal abuse too, including stuff aimed at their family. “Sorry about the abuse, love, but hey, at least you can buy a new handbag”.
It’s not as easy as “just quit” either You wouldn’t tell a black player who was receiving racist abuse to “just quit if you don’t like it”.
Knock on effect of fans not appreciating mediocre performance from someone for multiple seasons?
If they can’t handle that, they should demote themselves away from professional football.
What are we gonna do with his attitude & commitment?
He is not showing any desire to improve as a player, does he?
The thing is his social media and his wifes by extension are the only method fans can communicate the displeasure.
That doesn’t make it okay to be abusive but if anyone sent a message expressing their displeasure with his level of performance then that’s fair enough.
Much the same fans should be able to ironic cheers when his performances aren’t good enough.
The issue is he has no self awareness and this is obvious when he deflected criticism when asked about the penalty he gave away earlier in the season.
As a footballer, he deserves criticism and we need stop white knighting these players cause they get criticism. Did I say it was alright for him getting abuse or death threats, no I didn’t. So don’t put words into my mouth.
But you’re making unfair comparisons. Xhaka isn’t racially abused, and race has nothing to do with the game, hence it wouldn’t be right. There are lines that shouldn’t be crossed, I don’t think that telling him he is shit, booing him or telling his missus to go shove it are one of them. He is verbally abused as an outlet of the fan base’s dissatisfaction with him. Fans, some of which have long-standing family association with this club shouldn’t be driven away from it because they cannot express their dissatisfaction with a mercenary who’d not be in this club if someone was willing to pay higher for his services. If you can come up with a better system for the public to express their opinion in an influential way that can make a difference, I am all for it. But these are the rules of the game and I am not going to stand here and stand up for poor Granit when he can freely walk away and sign up with another club if he doesn’t like how he and his family are treated by our fans. In what other job are you protected from the public opinion or it’s wrath? He has been well aware that he is disliked for quite some time, yet he chooses to wear the armband of the club and get out on the pitch matchday after matchday, failing to improve whatsoever. There has been growing discontent with him, yet he has chosen to ignore it and claw into the paycheck.
He isn’t liked here. He knows it. I have no sympathy for that he chooses to ignore that. Of course money isn’t irrelevant. The people who watch him are basically his employer, although they don’t have the power to hire or fire him directly and the only way they can engage their power is to boo him and call him names long enough to make it untenable and force the hand of the decision makers. But he wouldn’t be collecting a paycheck if there weren’t millions of people willing to get invested with the club and spend their money to watch it.
Tbf… I don’t like Xhaka at all… as a player… but I really can’t say there’s much wrong with his attitude. He works hard, he fights, he tries etc… He’s just not a very good player. That’s why I think deserve this at all.
One thing is to perform mad, but it’s another thing to deserve such treatment… I’ll just say the crowd was shit. No other way to describe it.
