A "jolly" good read:
Among the fans' chants in and around Old Trafford on Saturday there was the one about Rio Ferdinand being a "smackhead" and another about Fernando Torres wearing a "frock" (the rest is unprintable, even given The Independent's liberal editorial policy).
Wayne Rooney got the "fat granny shagger" abuse and Steven Gerrard was the "Chelsea rent boy".
When Rooney says he hates Liverpool – or in his exact words, "I grew up hating Liverpool and that hasn't changed" – we know what he means when he says it. He has been conditioned that way, brought up in the lingua franca of football fans. Hatred? The whole act of supporting a team these days is defined by hatred.
Then, on top of that, Rooney is a professional footballer and has had to endure a gutful of abuse — from Liverpool fans and others – since his football career began. For football supporters, their hatred is a common cause, a way of defining themselves. For the players it is something else. If you think Rooney should behave differently because he is a footballer, maybe you should imagine what it is like to stand in a stadium full of people singing about the single biggest mistake that you have ever made.
As well as the aforementioned song about Rooney, Liverpool fans also sing "Once a Blue, always a Manc" in reference to that occasion of youthful exuberance when, as an Everton youth team player in May 2002, Rooney prematurely pledged his loyalty to his childhood club. It is little wonder that Rooney hates Liverpool. It would be much more of a surprise if he was to say that he didn't. It is not like they have not given him cause over the years.
Rooney is not the only one to have expressed strong opinions about opposing clubs. In his autobiography, Steven Gerrard wrote: "I was taught to loathe Manchester United, their fans, players, manager, kit-man, mascot, megastore-workers – everyone associated with Old Trafford." He too was conditioned as a young fan and then, as he became a player, it was reinforced by the abuse he gets from the stands.
For Gerrard, the worst is not what he gets from United fans but the Everton fans who sing that unspeakable song about his family. Joleon Lescott probably feels the same way about the Liverpool fans who sing that he is "the elephant man", given that the scar on his forehead is from a car accident that almost killed him when he was five.
Heaven only knows what goes through Sir Bobby Charlton's mind when Leeds United fans sing their unmentionable songs about the Munich air disaster. If any of those figures were to express the contempt for their abusers – the same that Rooney talked about last week – it would be completely understandable.
Yet some people actually believe the nonsense that footballers should exist in this environment of loathing without complaint. That they should take it all on the chin and never complain about the level of abuse directed at them or even have an opinion on it themselves.
Nowadays, any response from a player is regarded as beyond the pale by fans. A lot of supporters are enraged by anything as innocuous as a sarcastic smile from an opposing player or a cheeky goal celebration in front of the home end. Earlier this season, Frank Lampard responded to some "fat bastard" taunts at Fulham by puffing out his cheeks and rubbing his belly. Quite witty, I thought. But there were actually some Fulham supporters in the stand around the press box who were enraged by his actions. They seemed to be saying: how dare that fat bastard behave like, well, a fat bastard?
For most fans their "hatred" of opposing clubs is something they dip into at the weekend. It is a bit of a laugh, a prejudice they dust off once a week and then put away until the next home game. For the players themselves it is a living, breathing thing, which can catch up with them if they bump into the wrong person when they are out shopping or on a garage forecourt or picking their kids up from school. They have to keep one eye open for it at all times. No wonder they don't think it is all a bit of a joke.
Manchester United removed Rooney's comments from their website, which tells you everything you need to know about the gutless, sanitised world view that official club websites and their lickspittle cousins, the club television channels, would like to promote. Why should they be afraid of the honesty of feelings? They claim to be worried about it being provocative. Have they not noticed that United v Liverpool games tend not to end with both sets of fans giving one another three cheers and all the best for a safe journey home?
Sir Alex Ferguson got it right when he acknowledged that, while hatred was a strong word, in the circumstances, Rooney's choice of words was hardly surprising.
"He's had a lot of stick from their fans over the years, so it is understandable," he said. Take a walk in Rooney's or Gerrard's shoes for a day and you might begin to understand the strength of their feelings too.
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for the record, i may be passionate, i dun agree with abuses...esp. when they get personal.
Our 4-1 win is specially dedicated to Wayne Rooney .