Boooooo!

The issue of fans booing their own players has reared its ugly head again recently - ugly being the operative word in the case of Emmanuel Eboue, a perpetrator of many heinous fouls and a generally arrogant so-and-so. The last high-profile case of booing was directed at Ashley Cole after his error against Kazakhstan at Wembley, a similarly unpopular individual (to say the least).

One of the Sky pundits yesterday, possibly Phil Thompson, was asked about the Eboue situation and launched into the usual pundit diatribe, angrily asserting that booing your own player was never justified, only harms their confidence, is detrimental to the team as a whole, and so forth. Ironically enough this had me booing very loudly at the screen (booing in this case being a euphemism for swearing like a Tourette's patient who just hit his thumb with a hammer).

This is not a black-and-white issue. Categorically saying that you should never boo your own team is stupid. The fact is, Eboue and Cole are not popular players. In the former case, Monsieur Wenger must take some of the blame for throwing a player into the fray who clearly wasn't fully match-fit. Even so, you would not expect a professional player to give away the ball so often and in such silly ways. Couple this with his obvious unpopularity and you get a recipe for discontent, and what do we go to matches for if not to express our discontent at deserving targets?

In Cole's case, the error that led to the booing was a direct result of an arrogant floated backpass that totally failed to take the Kazakh forward who was lurking around the area into account. The error wasn't crucial and England won the match - Cole would probably have never tried such a pass against better opposition, which is precisely the point. He was thinking "it's only Kazakhstan, I can afford to be a bit casual." Despite this, had it been another player he may have only received a smattering or abuse and mild catcalls. But Cole's mistake came on top of his ludicrous autobiography and frequently despicable on-pitch behaviour, and thus the boos rang out.

Certain Wolves players have become proverbial "targets for the boo-boys" lately. We are doing incredibly well this season, but last season we underachieved compared to the season before, and players such as Neill Collins, Stephen Ward and Andy Keogh who played regularly and were perceived as Mick McCarthy's favourites were getting, and still get, more than their fair share of stick. However I wouldn't ever condone the booing of these players because they never give less than 100% on the pitch, and while it's true they are all guilty of mistakes and poor patches of form (Collins has given away a number of daft penalties for instance) they are clearly confidence players for whom the booing just makes matters worse. Pockets of fans, most of whom are McCarthy haterz, will continue to boo them, but the majority recognise that these guys are trying their best and will give them encouragement for as long as they wear the old gold and black.

Booing is a natural reaction when things are going wrong. As a fan, you pays your money and as far as I'm concerned that entitles you to boo and shout anything you like that doesn't contravene the boundaries of the law. And contrary to what many ex-pros and journos seem to think, most of us are perfectly capable of differentiating between players who are trying hard but just being a bit rubbish and arrogant pricks who deserve all the abuse they get.