For a man as seemingly intelligent as Gareth Southgate, he showed something of a blind spot when it came to his selection of Jordan Henderson as England captain.
Southgate expressed surprise that England fans booed Henderson, but he can’t be that stupid, can he?
Football fans can sometimes be misled and feel entitled, but you can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time. Fans know the world and they know that footballers are prone to observations without any substance.
The simplest thing would be for footballers to do what their raison d’etre is, keep playing football and stop being such damn hypocrites.
If players kept their traps closed to all possible causes, perhaps they wouldn’t find themselves in situations like the one where Henderson left no doubt whatsoever about how his move to Saudi Arabia is perceived.
Gareth Southgate couldn’t have been surprised that Jordan Henderson was subjected to boos
Mail Sport’s Simon Jordan argues that footballers should get on with their playing duties and stop being hypocritical
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When it suited him, Henderson was happy to portray himself as a key advocate and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, but the reaction from the Wembley crowd was simply a result of his actions.
So when Southgate starts whining and complaining about why players are being booed, maybe they would if they focused on the business of football and realised, with the greatest respect in the world, that there aren’t many people who are influenced by the opinions of football players. I should not face these accusations of hypocrisy. If there was real content there might be a little more respect.
If you were to ask the average footballer about the plight and issues of a particular cause he is supposedly advocating, apart from a few platitudes, most of them have only superficial knowledge or interest. That’s not a crime, but somehow they are convinced that their statements have real meaning. That does not mean that they are ignorant, but young, impressionable footballers. What they certainly are not are campaigners or politicians.
The images of footballers can often be used for valuable purposes, but in this very complicated and very complex world, sport should not feel obliged to be the antidote to it all. Football is about escapism. It should be the place where people go for a few hours, where they don’t have to think about politics, war or the ills of society. Football or sports don’t really have anything to do with these issues, especially when it’s really a veneer to show that sports have the answers or the seriousness.
Southgate must take some of the blame with the current attitude towards the England star
Listen to FIFA’s self-righteous Gianni Infantino calling for peace in the Middle East, as if he were in charge of some sort of Vatican state and commanding a Swiss guard. You’re a football administrator for God’s sake Gianni, and not some peace envoy! Is he advocating a ceasefire football match on Christmas Day in the Gaza Strip? I suspect not – and I assume FIFA will not make any significant financial donations to the victims of the atrocities.
Our FA was attacked from all sides for their decision not to light the arch in the colors of Israel. But again, that is the result of their own actions. If they hadn’t spent so much time in recent years virtue signaling on a variety of issues, they wouldn’t have been so open to criticism. Unsurprisingly, the FA have announced that they will be reviewing their arch lighting guidelines.
Despite often being uninformed, the FA has aligned itself with easy causes such as Black Lives Matter – an organization that now supports Hamas terrorists – because it believes it needs to be part of a movement to promote messages.
But football – and sports – has nothing to do with this. The sport wants to be at the front of the line to impart wisdom, but doesn’t seem to understand that it lacks the courage of its convictions to see it through. Sports must simply be absolutely, unequivocally and unmistakably about sports. We are in danger of becoming a virtue signal, a virtue signal, a virtue signal and a side dish of sport.
The FA was criticized after failing to light the Wembley arch in blue and white on Friday
Maybe a little less noise and a little more football would be better for everyone. If I want to hear political views I can tune into news channels and find out, but I want my footballers, athletes and women to be exactly that when I pay to see them. When I see someone throw a javelin, jump over a bar, kick a football or hit a tennis ball, that’s all I’m interested in.
With Henderson, Southgate must take the blame. He is the one who opened this door, he is the one who took the lead on how players should be able to express themselves in the run-up to the World Cup, when recently they suffered from amnesia when he complained that footballers are not politicians.
Now Southgate will no doubt say that in the absence of Harry Kane, Henderson is his captain because of the value he brings to the dressing room, the confidence he has in him and the quality of his football. Okay dokey, so our leaders are made up of hypocritical double standards, right? What a shameful turn of events.
Henderson is playing in a sub-par league in a country with the kind of culture he vocally and publicly opposed. Until they came calling with bags of cash. So Southgate has to accept that there will be some form of fan reaction to him being captain, and if you don’t like the reaction then don’t put Henderson in that position.
Don’t create a culture where players think they can stand on a moral soapbox, telling people how things should be done in a utopian world, while they are chauffeured to games and private planes travel the world without any involvement in the game , apart from a few people. meaningless words.
Let’s not forget how much football appreciated and missed the fans during Covid, and yet now when they express their views it is seen as unwelcome.
Henderson embraced the world of his views, was then employed by the very people his supposed principles objected to, and was still rewarded with the captaincy. And Southgate wonders why people are booing? I know people in football live in a bubble, but this is one as big as bloody Center Parcs.
Historically in the Premier League, players have taken the knee before kick-off
FIFA president Gianni Infantino (right) calls for peace in the Middle East
Van Dijk talks nonsense about too many matches
Virgil van Dijk came up with a self-indulgent tosh this week.
Liverpool’s Dutch defender complained that players had to play too many games and believed they should have a say in a ‘solution’. They don’t want a say in the solution, they want to tell everyone what they are not going to do.
The problem for players like Van Dijk – and he is certainly not the only one spouting such nonsense – is that footballers have been the main beneficiaries of the revenue that top clubs generate as a result of the number of matches played. They are the ones who have lined their pockets thanks to the ridiculous inflation of salaries.
When it was put to Van Dijk that fewer games would mean less money, he was baffled as the football economy is such that less means more in the minds of some of the key players.
The fact is that the current selections, especially at the top, have never been so large. Managers can now make five substitutions during a match from a seemingly endless series of substitutions. The medical science and nutrition are better than ever before in football history. Tackle is virtually forbidden. The players have never had it so good.
Virgil van Dijk has struggled to replicate his best form for Liverpool since a long-term knee injury
The Dutch captain claimed that footballers are forced to play in too many matches
So if Van Dijk really feels like things are that bad, ask for rotation, get a move to Burnley and don’t play that many games instead of biting the hand that feeds you.
Why do only the top players make this argument? They are the ones who only want to play for Champions League clubs and all the extra games that come with that.
Modern players have been wrongly led to believe that they have some authority over the game, and this is where we end up.
Sorry Virgil, but sit down, count your money – pinch yourself and maybe pipe down. Oh, and make sure you get your form back!