OVER the past few days I have been musing on the nature of collective public hate in football and the strange process by which Boro's legitimate terrace targets are selected for systematic monstering. The Big Picture column in the Gazette this week looks at the demonisation of Nick Barmby - a possible visitor with Hull tonight - and the sustained creative bile he faces from some less cerebral sections of the Riverside crowd. It also riffs on the theme to bring in the gallery of ghoulden greats like Zenden, Merson, Ziege and Beagrie.
All those have become instantly recognised anti-heroes among the Boro crowd with public pledges of unending animosity towards them a rite of passage on the journey to uber-fandom. They are pantomime villains to be booed and vilified on their every appearance. They are the personification of various degrees of foul treachery, unforgiveable disrespect and deep and lasting unanticipated damage to the club. Worse still, they are heretics from the one true club.
No wonder the tunnel visioned defenders of the faith have a religious zeal in hounding them.
We can all reel off the crime sheet of these cartoon cutout badmen because it is part of our socialisation as fans. Barmby - boo! Left and dared to tell his new employers and fans he was glad to have signed for a big club! Merson - boo! Left fearing for his own health and sanity and citing the drink culture at Boro... the very culture that Boro fans were using to beat Bryan Robson with. Zenden - boo! Imagine leaving Boro for the European Champions just because the club wouldn't give him a new deal that matched what he thought he was worth.
All of them are guilty of one thing and one thing alone: seeking to advance their career when the opportunity arose. For one reason or another they moved to what they saw as better jobs. In terms of the football industry that is a routine occurrance devoid of any moral content. Moving to another club is no more "evil" than me going to the Echo or a plumber, accountant or truck driver moving on. It is the dynamic that keeps the machine ticking over. And, it must be said, it is the mechanism by which Boro acquire players.
But for supporters that perspective is anathema. That is the ultimate taboo. Because their motivation is not financial, professional or part of a personal ten year career development plan. Their motivation is an unconditional, binding relationship with an institution that goes beyond economics or even reason. For supporters their club is the ultimate expression of their pride and loyalty and playing for it the highest achievement possible. For them there is no better job.
But the almost mystical selection process that decides who should be cheered and who should be jeered is deeply flawed. Almost every player who leaves voluntarily to a club of equal or higher status is equally guilty of the same knife-through-the-heart betrayal. Yet some are branded Judas and others - Juninho for instance - Jesus.
The Juninho question is one that has always left me frustrated and confused because on paper here is a player who has shown more disrespect to the club and the fans than anyone yet has against all the rules somehow been elevated to a demi-god by a cult that exhibits an almost religious dimension (I can feel the hate mail being scribbled furiously as I write).
Juninho, lest we forget, was the first player to bail out after relegation in 1997 in a deal that must have been agreed before the FA Cup final and felt he owed the fans so little that he opted out of the open-topped bus parade around the town. Two years later he showed the club even more disrespect as he played footsie over a £10m return then pulled the plug leaving Bryan Robson and Keith Lamb sat embarrassed at a pre-arranged press conference for a confirmation phonecall that never came. And in his final signing for the club he spent three weeks threatening to collapse the deal if he did not get more money.
In short he is guilty of crimes far greater than poor Nick Barmby or Peter Beagrie but should he return he would be cheered to the echo and surrounded by acolytes wanting to touch him. Why? The forgiving plea of the Juninhoistas is that in leaving Boro for Madrid in the first place he "was only pursuing his World Cup dream." The underlying assumption is that like the fans "he loves this club." Don't be daft. If he loved it like the fans he would never have left. He just moved jobs because it was financially and professionally advantageous.
And how is that different for any other player moving on? It isn't. It is not that the Little Fella should be vilified too, more that the others should be given a break.
Barmby was squeezed out by the club amid a low level whispering campaign and unsavoury rumours because with Juninho in the team their was one Midget Gem. Merson left because he was ill and his string of delusional statements about the club were an attempt at self justification by a man torment by the demon drink who should be pitied rather than persecuted. Zenden was a free agent who thought over the club's offer but then opted to move to the European Champions. Beagrie was a young man who had been made redundent and like so many other Teessiders in the 80s had to get on his bike. None are great crimes - and certainly not ones that should be still attracting such invective five, ten, 20 years later.
The one person who perhaps deserves any admonishment is Christian Ziege. Moving to another job is fair enough but to use such underhand and unethical methods and breach business norms put him beyond the pail even in an industry full of shysters and sharks, a fact recognised by the Premier League and the High Court. But even he doesn't deserve to be vilified personally for the rest of his life. He moved, we got paid (plus costs), his career disintegrated. Result.
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