Football and schadenfreude are frequent bedfellows. The ability to derive pleasure from the misery of others is a genuine component of supporting a football club. You get a kick seeing your rivals doing poorly and when a player you find particularly distasteful encounters misfortune you take pleasure from it. Nothing worthy of getting concerned about; it’s simply human nature.
Its healthy having a team you loathe, or several teams should you be that way inclined. It becomes more difficult to explain when somebody extends those feelings towards their own side. You’d think all supporters want their team to do well all of the time. They want their players to perform to best of their ability and improve. The clue is in the word ‘support’.
Over the past few weeks we’ve learned of the Sunderland bid for three players, including Darron Gibson, and the loan move of Bebe to Besiktas. This has raked up a lot of the usual comments associated with these two players, and others for that matter. Indeed, players including Nani, Carrick, Evans, Smalling and even Ronaldo have been subjected to rash and often permanent judgments.
Absolutely nothing wrong with having an opinion on a player. It’s an individual’s right to believe what they want and express that how they see fit. However, when proving you were right becomes more important than supporting your club it baffles me.
Some can have an opinion on a player and become anxious when that player appears to be making them eat their words. The majority admit they were wrong, we all make incorrect assessments of players, but an increasing section refuse to move from their viewpoint. They’ll act with an enthusiastic glee when a player they don’t rate has a bad game and provide excuses when the same player has a cracker.
Success for the player would mean failure for them and many see this as a last resort. The opportunity to say I-told-you-so must be such a pull that they refuse to let it go. I do not doubt for one minute there are Manchester United supporters out there who are disappointed when a player they have grown to loathe has a good game, and to hide this disappointment they come out fighting and deride the good aspects of the player’s game.
When Berbatov went on his scoring spree, there were United supporters eager to dismiss his achievements. You couldn’t count that goal because of this reason, that hat-trick was invalid because of that reason. Any straw available was grasped at to avoid having to climb down from an increasingly unsteady soapbox.
It doesn’t just extend to players. The rainclouds of doom who were predicting a league win would be impossible due to our incredibly weak squad and how strong other teams had become then took to qualifying number nineteen by saying how poor those other teams actually were. Whilst celebrating an historic title they remained conscious of the need to not admit they were totally wrong. We’ve all seen it and we’ll all see it again.
I’m bringing this up now as we’re in signing season and it’s interesting to see these seeds planted in people. They’ll be supporters who are against signings we have already made and ones we’re going to make; they’ll doubt them from the start. The player is “Not Manchester United class”, “Not world class”, “Overrated because he’s English”, “Fill in your own rolled out cliché here”. Like I said earlier, these are all fair if they represent someone’s opinion.
Perhaps one or two of the new signings shall suffer a shaky start to their United careers and as such a section of these people will be lightening quick to explain to anyone who’ll listen how they predicted exactly this would happen, they’ll be chuffed to have the opportunity. Happy it’s happened and that there’s mileage to be gained from it. Then, if the player should go on to great things, the same people will have to qualify that to make sure it’s widely understood that they weren’t totally rash and incorrect.
They can find a thousand ways to say I-told-you-so and yet struggle for just a single expression of I-was-wrong. For these people football is as much about proving they’re right, and executing schadenfreude wherever possible, as it is about supporting a team and the players within.
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You really should be following Annie Eaves on Twitter.
Man Utd News 24/7
Well I was praying we would sign Cole on a free as I was certain it was win win,boy was I proved spectacularly wrong.
You mean Joe Cole???
I know a lot of these people but they’ll read this and not recognise themselves. Good read.
Enjoyed reading that. And it’s completley true.
Around this time last year, I posted on RoM whining about the Glazer situation and how it was forcing us to sign some obscure striker from Mexico, when there were ‘world class’ alternatives available.
Hindsight makes the best of us look like twunts, dunnit?
were is sir shag he needs to read this the negative twat,on a follow up which is ironic newcastle are trying to highjack the gibson move so a bidding war for his services could happen.sir shag and his horde of abusers should take note of this thread its directly aimed at all the negative cunts and slag merchants who don’t do the players or club any good by not getting behind players who sir alex selects and who wears the red shirt.
Wise words. A LOT of people on here should read this and take it on board. There’s far too much negativity directed at our own and each other.
Excellent scott, I (like many united fans) feel it is both inappropriate and counterproductive to attack and boo our own players. who are we? scousers?
We’re called united for a reason, so lets show some unity and welcome all into the fold
None of us are in a position to be criticising the signings and vision of Sir Alex Ferguson
Yeah, this article will fly over some fans heads. Opinions, will always vary on players, who play for your club, or players, your club is interested in signing. That’s the nature of the beast sadly.
People tend to forget to a team or a club doesn’t need 11 Ronaldos, one is suffice. It’d be hard for a team if all 11 players _want_ to dribble and to score.
Well thankfully we have a manger who doesn’t buy his players by searching through the back pages of the Sunday Morning Tabloids. 30+ million pounds does not necessarily a good player make. Without running the risk of patting myself on the back I remember arguing with my many football friends when they were telling me we hadn’t signed “anyone” and I kept saying, we have signed someone, we signed this Mexican lad for 6 or 7m, and how does anyone know how good he’s going to be until we see him play. Of course they dismissed me as being a blinded Man United fan and they are loathe to now recollect my arguement that they so easily dismissed as biased. Some of the greatest players to ever play for us cost half nothing, Schmeichel, Irwin, Cantona, Ole, not to mention the youngsters that break through. Trust the manager and support the players, it’s a very small ask for what they give us in return.
Lol, Top Article Annie! and not a moment too late!
I think Nani deserves his own song now FFS !!!
Scored the Most Goals from Midfield, Most Assists and Tackles in the Team.
Should’ve been POTY but a lot “still wouldn’t mind seeing him leave” ?
WTF? Schadenfreude Indeed! Lol
and zero comments on this post…just goes to show. this is why i seldom comment on any football forum or blog. i’ll just support United in my own way, leave the opinionated to themselves
edit: ok a few comments since i started writing mine
I’ve always had doubts to certain players, none other than Berba and Nani, but I was really pleased for them when they made me eat my words and performed excellently the past season
I fucking told you so. I told you we would win the 19th title this season. I am telling you we will win the 20th next season. I am fucking tell you right now.
Does that make me one of them?
More seriously, I completely agree with Annie and reading her articles about United always confuses me about one thing – How did she land up working for one of England’s major dailies?
Doesn’t being a United supporter automatically disqualify you for all such positions?
@Paul Parker (Fuck your new name), I still criticize Nani but only constructively of course. There are still some aspects of his game that if he fixes, then he will become one of the most complete footballers we’ve had in a long time.
IMO, the best thing fans can do is offer constructive criticism. We can voice our opinions on a few matters and maybe the powers that be will take note. As Annie suggested, when the same turns to personal vendetta against certain players, then there is something seriously wrong with that person’s notion of support.
oh dear …started reading this and got bored……not much of an argument….Annie is just commenting on human nature….
is she a Utd fan ….. nah ….doesn’t sound like it …..just someone with a long winded way of stating the fucking obvious
Agree and disagree.
Seriously, if you couldn’t see that Bebe was fucking shit the first time you saw him then you need to watch more football. Others such as Nani, many (including me) are forced to accept that our judgements were wrong and they improve. But it isn’t always bad wanting your team to have only good players while getting rid of shit ones/
It doesn’t matter what opinions we have on players as long as we can admit that we
were wrong if form changes. Nani, Ronaldo, Vidic , Evra..etc. are prime examples!! A twat is a twat
whether it be linked to footbal or otherwise.. If you can’t admit you were wrong then your a tawt!!!!
@ Annie Eaves spot fucking on!!! Can an Annie be a mate? Cheers mate. Fucking stubborn bull headed donkey cunts. I was wrong to say I wanted more then Young, what an insult to him a English National. I should have said I would love additional players to Young. And for those who have to bash others to build their opinion Fuck Off !!! To bash Lil Pea for a Berba man love? Why? To kill Rooney for being one of the worlds best players and finding a home and a partner in the hole. Fuck off please in the best possible way. Instead of tearing down other Man Utd players to make your point, build up your position another way. I have been in marketing for a long time anyone who tears apart there competitors, don’t sell much.
Best article this summer Annie love. Come on Scott Annie is eclipsing you pal!
Agree with Scott here, every club has that element of supporters. I will criticize players occasionally if they’re not putting in a shift, or have a less than favourable attitude, but generally I support any player, good or bad, just because they’ve got the red shirt on. I Support Manchester United, players come and go, Utd will go on forever.
Can an Annie be a mate? Lol. Sort of agree with TonyBee. It’s nothing new, is it? We know how football works these days. Fickle fans, will always be part of the fabric. Get used to it lads, it will never change.
Sorry, I agree with Annie.
Anyone who just wants the big-names (rather than trust Fergie to get it right most of the time), can just congratulate themselves on sharing the same mentality as Alan Hansen: ‘ya won’t win with kids’. Do you wanna be like Alan Hansen kids? Do you?
Here’s Johnny !!!! it will never change because true crazies don’t think they are. Like a true ass drunk, I have no drinking problem. I put the pint to my mouth and it goes right in and don’t spill much.
in the absence of smartalex, hey read the whole article please Scot did not write this one.
I have been waiting for this article for a long time, I have been saying this for quit some time. I told all you Donkey cunts so. Bite me ! heheheheheheheheheeheheheheeheheheh
Tony Bee always like your points, water is wet mate.
Personally I find the whole “cheering at your rivals losing as much as your own team winning” thing a bit sad in all honesty.
Obviously I like to see you lot lose, just like you lot enjoy it when we lose, that’s natural for a rivalry. Both sets of fans derive humour from the situation. But for example, this season gone by you lost to Wolves on the same day we beat Coventry. I logged onto Facebook and all my Leeds supporting mates were talking about the Wolves match, and not one of them mentioned our 1-0 win.
I laughed at Barcelona tearing your defence a new one. I laughed when Nani dived in spectacular fashion before you took a 3-0 hiding off the scousers. I gave Man City credit for beating you on their way to ending their trophy drought, ironically something you’ve mocked them for over the past “35 years” – and I don’t even like your neighbours. But was it as big of a deal as when we beat the likes of Burnley, Bristol City and Doncaster this past season? Not even close.
Can’t argue with that, especially since I’ve been a little guilty of it when frustrated with Nani at times – I was all for him leaving last summer but damn he came good. Gibson I’m currently the same with and won’t be sad to see him go if the rumours are true about Sundlund and Brown Ale. Perhaps he’ll come good in a while but I’d rather give someone else a chance now as he’s had long enough in my holier-than-thou opinion! This is what football’s about though, waiting for those moments, hating other teams and players and loving the game.
@Balaji – Paul Parkers fine Pal, wasn’t thinking of you when I mentioned Nani btw, but no I think about it, I think this Season will cure the last of your Nani-skeptisim. I mean, minus the GBH (which he’ll be stronger for), if Nani puts in another performance like last Season, and dare I say, if he improves on it, then anybody still dragging their feet on hailing Nani as a “complete” player for the Club will just end up sounding like a bit of a… well you can imagine mate!
Seriously, most goals out of the midfield, most assists and tackles out of the whole team? Ask me Nani was “complete” as a mother fucker last Season. Who was more “complete” in a United Shirt? As for Schadenfreude, some fans are actually WAITING for Nani not to produce just so they can say “I knew he wasn’t good enough for United”. You don’t strike me as disliking Nani that bad but theres many that do, like they know better than Alex Ferguson! Personally, if the players who play for the Club vote for Nani I’ll take their word for it – they vote for who they want, and they’re closer to the truth than Journo’s, spectators and bloggers. If your still not 100% convinced Nani is a complete player fair enough, but you just wait till next Season mate. Nani for POTY 2011/12? If not, why not?
*Clap Clap Clap* Wow That was seriously, one of the best articles I’ve ever read, that pretty much summed up how I feel whenever I hear bullshit being said about United on talkSPORT, The daily mail and everything else anti-united.
I wish more journalist were like her, all you read nowadays is who slept with who, who wants a transfer request and who’s feigning happiness but secretly angling for a move to another club, not enough journalist address the real issues, like what Annie just did with this brilliant article.
Again well done, fantastic read. I think I will start reading her articles in the mirror more often if their always as good as these.
appropriate article indeed. there are quite a few of such fans here. but they will probably be the first to explain they are not what was describe, how they are different from what was describe lol. be a simple fan. once the red jersey is on, keep ur opinion to urself. get behind the lads & team- end of.
LUFC – I remember Nani scoring when we beat the Scousers 3-0, it was a lovely goal.
Don’t remember him diving tho, don’t remember him being in a side that lost 3-0 to the Scousers either, so what are you on about exactly?
WHAT??? takes the 1st swipe at Richard Cranium.
Women’s WC is on.
All people named Ron More, never get they are Moore, Ron.. Paging a Moore, a Moore Ron please come to the lost and found we have your common sense. That’s Moore Ron.
De-Nile is a River in Egypt.
Zibbe @ bloody Germans look like they’ll win this as well.
Who delivered that ball for the goal? Sign her up Fergie!
Ah, the scum is back.
“…was it as big of a deal as when we beat the likes of Burnley, Bristol City and Doncaster this past season?”
Have fun celebrating your massive victories over mighty Burnley, Bristol City and Doncaster. Oh, Leeds are a massive club.
Jeet.
Either him or Nat.
Great article Annie!
Great article, but this trend will never stop, because at it’s core it’s peoples immaturity. NO insult and disrespect intended. I was immature ones and still have my moments and unfortunately this will always be the case. There will always be young supporters (ones more, no insult intended, I wish I was young and immature
) whose pride will get on the way of doing the right thing and eating the “humble pie” and by young I don’t mean just age, I mean the life experiences.
Old King Cole was a merry old soul.
immature not me, no way, you stink. You smell like poppy pants. I’m going home and tell my mum on you….
i’ll admit to not being able to stand Berbatov until this season but I’ve always liked Nani ever since he joined us. Bebe and Obertan arent even that bad IMO. The problem is that whenever they’ve played they have had a completely inexperienced team (in terms of playing with each other) around them – i.e when we lost 4-0 to west ham or Nevilles testimonial. However when they played against Bursaspor with a decent team around them, they managed to get a goal each. They also tend to put in good shifts for the reserve side.
Gibson has a good eye for a ball, and a powerfull shot, but atm is wayy too inconsistent, I could see him doing well at sunderland though although i’d hate for him to become a Guiseppe Rossi/Gerrad Pique. I also like wes brown but if its true that he fell out with SAF he is wasting away the end of his footballing career at united – anyway the da silvas are more exciting to watch
My problem with Obertan is his attitude more than anything else. He seems overwhelmed when he gets a chance and from comments in interviews and such it doesn’t seem like he has the mentality to cut it as an Utd player.
Is he going on loan next season? He’s been in England long enough, if he hasn’t improved enough already it’s probably best to let him go rather than keep him in the fringes of our squad.
Sorry, I meant 3-1. Either way, Nani’s play acting was hilarious. T
“Have fun celebrating your massive victories over mighty Burnley, Bristol City and Doncaster. Oh, Leeds are a massive club”
As long as we’re in the same league as teams like these every win against them is more important to me than whoever wins between Barca or Man Utd.
Sorry, I meant 3-1. But whatever. Nani’s play acting was hilarious. The way he dropped to the floor after Gerrard tapped him on the shoulder was worthy of an Oscar nomination!
“Have fun celebrating your massive victories over mighty Burnley, Bristol City and Doncaster. Oh, Leeds are a massive club”
As long as we’re in the same league as clubs like those three then every win against them is important. Of course you won’t understand this, as it’s easy to support a team who win trophies on an annual basis…
Some fans seem to put the blinkers on once they’ve decided a player’s not good enough. I’ve heard Carrick being slated numerous times even when he’s been playing really well. It seems being right is more important than the evidence of your own eyes.
I’d love Bebe to go on to be a great United player.
trying something new….
didn’t work
(.v.)
@LUFCWhite – ‘As long as we’re in the same league as clubs like those three then every win against them is important. Of course you won’t understand this, as it’s easy to support a team who win trophies on an annual basis… ‘ You bet your sweet bippy it’s easy! But then you wouldn’t understand what its like winning major honours every season either
That is why i am commenting here less and less. Too many fickle fans. Too much negativity. From people who claim they love the club with all of their life, but wouldn’t spend a single second reading non-football news about our club. Who only care about Ozil, Modric, Van der Vaart..
LUFCWhite – Please don’t come on here and insult us with comments like “it’s easy to support a team who win trophies on an annual basis”. I don’t doubt for a second that you love your club but do you really believe for one second that we would have any less love for our club if we failed to win trophies or even (horror of all horrors) if we were relegated. There was a time in my life when I didn’t know what it was like to celebrate a league title and in fact had to sit back and watch your club celebrate one in our stead. If anything it made me more of a fan, if that’s even possible. So try and at least not sound like a schmuck if that’s within your capacity to do, otherwise piss off.
This Leeds fan who keeps coming on here is quite similar to a wasp. You see, you could be enjoying a meal or a day outside with friends or family then a wasp appears, trying to annoy the fuck out of you…
Sanity is usually resumed when you swat the fuck out of it….. A little giggle follows then you move on
interesting read every club has these kind of supporters though some whoill rather voice it out publically and some whoi cause a twiiter account to be closed in 2 or 3 hours..as per my experience ive never seen a utd player being booed off the pitch..specially by the ppl who r simply not willing to give a player a chance!remeber fletcher from a few years back or vidic or evera the recnt ones? u cant get rid of these idiots cuz they have some sorta u know inferiority complex and tring hard to b proven right on the internet ofcourse thts where it cuts out for them..looking forward to anderson not much worried about midfield!
CedarsDevil – Hello my friend. He needs to be swatted across the face with a baseball bat.
Spot on article from Annie. This is the reason some of us have remained avid readers but hardly ever post. The kinds of ‘fans’ that come on here can drive a sane man beserk. However we are thankful for Red Guardians like Cedars, Willie, Balaji, Costas, Tonybee, Goat et al, who help keep ROM scum free.
A baseball ball would indeed make it much sweeter
united daft
Cheers for the mention mate
LUFC – You what? When Nani’s bone was showing through his skin? And that Cunt Gerrard pushed him down, your calling Nani a diver because he couldn’t stay on his feet? What the fuck are you stupid?
Yeah, yeah, great point mate, now fuck off.
United daft – Cheers mate.
This article is spot on. Theres a lot of cunts (and thats exactly what they are) who come on here with a hard on when players have a bad game, or a certain player shouldn’t start as “he doesn’t suit our style of play” which is my personal favourite. These guys piss me off and I for one wish they would all fuck off.
Banish, or bash all trolls/cunts.
@ Willirednut – hear hear!
I understand that a fair number of MUFC fans supported the club through the trophy drought. However, when my club gets berated for never winning trophies or not being in the top flight, it smacks of ignorance because there’s more to supporting a football team than how how well your club is doing, as any genuine football fan is aware.
PS – Gerrard tapped Nani on the shoulder, he fell over. This was after he got up and SPRINTED to the ref…
lufc white you complete and utter idiot. Carragher nearly snapped his leg in half and you have the guts to blame nani for ANYTHING? i’d like to ACTUALLY snap your leg in half and then you’ll see how it feels now won’t you.
this is astonishing…. no berba bashing, as Annie Eaves shows some fans The Mirror.
Your welcome smartalex.
Laughing at my self for yet another typo! Baseball ball!!!! hahaha stupid idiot
Zibbie – How are you buddy?
@LUFCwhite
There’s more to supporting a football team than how how well your club is doing, of course, but entertaining anyone-but-United trolls like yourself is the price we pay for success.
And Gerrard tapped Nani’s shoulder after this: http://www.epltalk.com/nanis-horrific-injury-from-jamie-carraghers-tackle-photos-29893
Do yourself a favour and stop parading your ignorance, will you?
dela – Hope you are well buddy…. They cannot help it, its in their genes
Hello, Cedars.
I know. I don’t mind it though. United fans everywhere seem to be discussing Thiago/Sanchez/Henriquez/insert-random-exotic-sounding-name here and I know sod all about those players.
I like talking to the scum every now and then- he makes me feel intelligent.
dela
That post put a smile on my face buddy! Exotic sounding name….hahaha brilliant
im so over hearing this bullshit about players “not being good enough for manchester united”. im sick of the carrick/evans/gibson/fletcher bashing..these supposed “supporters” have no fucking clue.
support the team, support the club or fuck off.
Excellent piece by Annie Eaves, whose stuff is always top quality.Just think, if she’d married me, she could have have become ‘Annie Oakley’.
Generally I don’t believe in criticising United players as it’s usually best to get behind the team. The only exceptions would be when a player is showing the wrong attitude or is letting down his team-mates in some way, or being disloyal. There are also times when fan criticism gets through in a positive way, as I believe happened in the mid-2000s with Ryan Giggs when he seemed to lose his way a bit (or maybe he was having his way…) and was even booed by Reds. He got his game back on track and became a major factor in United winning 4 titles in 5 years. What I can’t understand is the mentality where, as Annie says, being proved ‘right’ is more important than United doing well or an individual player having a good game.
Anyone here hope to see certain United players fail just to have their opinions proved right?
No, didn’t think so.