Fans support their players through thick and thin. That’s just how it is. It can be tribal. It can be ugly. But there’s no getting round it.
Liverpool fans supported Luis Suarez throughout the racism/handshake debacle. Manchester United fans stood behind Ashley Young as his dives won them games (though most of them adopted a ‘just don’t do it again’ kind of attitude) and Stoke fans have been staunch in their defence of Ryan Shawcross, even as he almost brought to an end the career of a fellow young professional.
As a result we heard repeatedly that Shawcross ‘isn’t that kind of player’. That his heart is in the right place, his head is screwed on, that he’s got a lovely set of hair, a great vinyl collection and God knows what else. This was all very much expected. What wasn’t expected was for Stoke fans to turn Aaron Ramsey (the player who fell foul of Shawcross’s horror challenge) from victim into villain.
Arsenal played Stoke at the Britannia last Saturday and whenever the little Welshman touched the ball he was met with a chorus of boos from the City faithful. Is there any justification?
Talking to Sky Sports, Arsene Wenger made his position clear: “I don’t think you can be especially proud to boo Aaron Ramsey, I don’t see what he has done wrong.
It’s an old story where the fans of Stoke stand behind their player but it shouldn’t go as far as booing Ramsey.”
It’s not like Aaron Ramsey was particularly disrespectful towards Stoke or the fans. He did his convalescence without too much fuss and has worked extremely hard to find his feet once more in the Premier League. The truth is, however, he hasn’t looked the same player that he was before his injury. It’s Ramsey who lost out as a result of Shawcross’s challenge. Stoke lost nothing. Stoke fans lost nothing. So why do they boo and jeer?
The Stoke fans I’ve heard from seem to justify their treatment of Ramsey by claiming that he failed to accept the apology from Shawcross. This is a similar case to when Reading fans booed Chelsea’ Petr Cech for failing to accept Stephen Hunt’s apology. The headcap that Cech wears to this day is evidence that Hunt’s challenge haunts him to this day.
Ramsey will think about the moment where he was prostrate on the floor of the Britannia his shattered leg lifted above the ground dangling at an absurd angle every day for the rest of his life. It’s he who suffered, so it’s he who has the right to decide whether he should accept Shawcross’s apology or not. Not Stoke fans.
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Agreed. Of all the abuse to dish out to a player this has to be the most disgusting. Ramsey is entirely innocent.
And has Shawcross told the Scum Stoke fans to cut it out, i don’t think so.
Exactly. “oooh lala he didnt accept an apology”
Somehow I think a career left in danger, an unbelievable amount of pain and 6 months in crutches far outweigh an unaccepted apology.
Stoke Fan Brain < Bonobo Brain
I think that the booing was divided amongst the Stoke fans who were specifically booing Ramsey, and those who were booing Arsenal players indiscriminately (some say in response to Arsenal fans booing Shawcross). I find it understandable to respond by booing all arsenal players, if they real feel that Shawcross has been hard done by, but to single out Ramsey is ill-advised to say the least. It’s blaming the victim at it’s most blatant. Ramsey is not obliged to accept Shawcross’ apology, and I’ve no doubt he would have done had shawcross not decided that he’d done nothing wrong (which was also ill-advised). If he’d apologised and actually accepted some wrong-doing, it might have made the apology seem more genuine.
Shawcross is not much more than a kid either, or wasn’t at the time, so I can understand why he reacted that way, when he was getting verbal support from Ferguson, among others, but the fact is that he broke Ramsey’s leg through impact – he did do something wrong, regardless of whether he meant to do it, and he should have re-evaluated his tackling style. You don’t have the right to go flying in like that, endangering other players.
Now I don’t expect you to publish this,but take it from me (I sit by the netting dividing home & away fans). Do you think it is acceptable for a player to continually accept abuse? When Shawcross was alking off from his warm up plenty of Arsenal fans were crowding at the fence to taunt & abuse him.This happened through out the match.I have know doubt some fans responded to this by giving Ramsey some,but for any one in the know,booing the opposition is what Stoke fans do.What has happened previously doesn’t come in to it.
Oh, you forgot to mention the Arsenal supporters singing ‘it should have been you’ to Adebayor a while back…
No surprises to us watching from Africa. Like many other nasty things, we thought the booing of Ramsey was typically English?? After all we have had to put up with the racist chants which never seem to go away no matter what.
All good and agreed but just for reference, Czech wears the skullcap because his insurance company require it. Czech would rather not wear it given a choice….
Don’t make excuses for Shawcross, he has injured 4 players in his short career and has had idiots in the game making excuses for him and even got selected for the England squad.