DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
maybe but a player should be able to rely on support from his own fans. He did not determine his price tag but the distaste has been there for him before he even kicked a ball. I didn't think he was dreadful at all. Neither was he a world beater. I totally agree his confidence looks shattered.
Spot on. We talked some big f*cking stuff at the start of our season about backing our players, giving new signings time, showing faith, etcetera. We'd learned from Bobby Soldier's heartfelt appreciation for our support that sometimes the players really do care about the backing they get from the fans. We'd learned from Rose's gentle reminders about the abuse he got when he signed his new deal that sometimes giving players a lot of stick really does hurt them quite a bit, and that what they are isn't always an indicator of what they will become. We'd learned. We'd changed. We'd be more understanding.
Didn't last three weeks once we'd signed Sissoko.
The butt of all the jokes, because he came with a pricetag he could do nothing about and struggled to transition from a playing style pieced together playing for a perpetually sh*te side to one suitable for a team playing at the top of their game, at the top of the Prem, blasting aside every other side with consummate ease and looking immaculate while doing it. The har-har man, brought out for a laugh and a scratch of the head in terms of wondering just how we'd ended up buying him. And constant belittling of the things he did do right, because that's less amusing or dramatic than calling him a failure off the bat.
We are absolute c*nts sometimes. No two ways about it, we definitely are. And at times it makes me cringe, thinking about the 'One of Our Own' chants we lovingly throw at Harry - would they last if he regressed, if he struggled, if he didn't perform to his high level?
Because that's when support counts. That's when giving someone time counts. Not when everything's peachy - then, it's nearly worthless by comparison.
This is not just about Sissoko, incidentally - it was also building up for Janssen, but he finally got that scoring monkey off his back last month and it eased off a bit.