Booing returning players

[aaron bond]

After just reading on the article on the BBC website with Owen saying he was disappointed he was booed by Newcastle fans last night, it just had me thinking that I think we must be the only club that doesn't boo players we have sold but then meet again when they're at their new clubs just for the sake of it.

Admittedly, if a player performed badly regularly, misbehaved or just let the club down, e.g. Joey Barton for us, then they might deserve a boo or two, but for the most part City fans applaud players we meet again, even those who weren't particularly amazing. I think it's great that we can just accept the job a player does for us and that he's not going to spend the rest of his career with us. As long as he put the effort in during his time with us, there is no problem.

However, pretty much all other clubs' fans seem to boo returning players for no apparent reason, e.g. Villa fans booing Milner and Barry despite them both being honest professionals who worked their socks for the club and only moved to further their careers.

Regarding Owen though, he did score a quite a few goals when he played, he was just injured ALL of the time, something that can't really be helped unfortunately. Does that mean he deserves booing? Obviously as he's now a United player he deserves to be booed but hopefully you get my point :-)

[Im_Spartacus]

I think the likes of Owen, who bled the club dry (maybe through no fault of his own) are bound to get stick.

I can't remember ever booing a returning player either, I think Anelka got a bit of stick when he rocked up at Bolton, but I couldn't fault him whilst at the club so couldn't ever boo him.

Not sure about Ireland though......have a feeling the little shit would have a dig in the papers the week before so I would be tempted to give the rag cunt the big un if he ever makes it back to play against us.

[BlueinBosnia]

For me, he didn't do anything boo-able, but when you look at it from a Newcastle fan's perspective:

Club record signing
79 games in 4 years
Continually put his international career ahead of the club, playing when injured for his country, but not wanting to 'risk it' for the Barcodes, and having various clauses inserted into his contract.
Left on a Bosman

Then maybe things are different.

In my opinion, with his injury-proneness, if he was a serious professional he'd have retired internationally a few years earlier than he did.

[Chinners]

Distin was booed to fuck (disgraceful imo as he was a great player for us) when he came back so yeah we do do it just like any other club

[Dameerto]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

[Chinners]

I believe that to be the case, he was a fantastic player for us thou. We are no different to other fans in the booing stakes

[Mase]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

For that he got a bit of stick. Nothing much and most people didn't boo. But when he kissed his Pompey badge in front of the City fans, that's when he got booed!

[BlueinBosnia]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

Who wouldn't do that, though?

I've yet to see a player say "I want to be sold now, and the club to cash in on me, even though I'll earn less wages than I would if I left on a free at the end of next season". Silva did come close, I suppose, but I doubt we'd have paid him more than we do now, and he had a fair bit longer left on his contract, I think.

[Dameerto]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

For that he got a bit of stick. Nothing much and most people didn't boo. But when he kissed his Pompey badge in front of the City fans, that's when he got booed!

Ouch

[JonnyAsh]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

For that he got a bit of stick. Nothing much and most people didn't boo. But when he kissed his Pompey badge in front of the City fans, that's when he got booed!

And when he kissed his badge in front of the City fans, didn't it start a riot on the pitch, especially when he winked at someone!

[Avalon]

So what if Balotelli signs for Man Utd?

Mostly when people boo for a player, it is either because:

A: the player slagged off the club/manager whilst he was there, or after he had left, or did something else to antagonise the club (i.e. Adebayor/Tevez)
B: left for a better club when the club he was already at was going for trophies, or already had a rich history (i.e. Torres)
C: went to the club's bitter rivals (i.e. Tevez)

[sandman]

Distin was booed to fuck (disgraceful imo as he was a great player for us) when he came back so yeah we do do it just like any other club

Distin received a pretty big cheer when his name was read out on the team sheet for Pompey, he they got applauded a good few times before he kissed his badge and celebrated in front of the south stand... from then on it was game on to go to town on him... and we did.

[Mase]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

For that he got a bit of stick. Nothing much and most people didn't boo. But when he kissed his Pompey badge in front of the City fans, that's when he got booed!

And when he kissed his badge in front of the City fans, didn't it start a riot on the pitch, especially when he winked at someone!

You're thinking of Scott Hiley.

[ronk]

Owen was massively disrespectful towards Newcastle. He viewed them as a temporary measure and was always angling for a move away or an attempt to activate one of his release clauses.

He wasn't stuck in terms of going there, Liverpool had tried to buy him back, he went to maximise every penny of money he could extract from them but wasn't even interested in pretending that he wanted to play for them. He wasn't even ambivalent about it, he didn't want to be there. He joined them in bad faith.

[s1ty m]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

Who wouldn't do that, though?

I've yet to see a player say "I want to be sold now, and the club to cash in on me, even though I'll earn less wages than I would if I left on a free at the end of next season". Silva did come close, I suppose, but I doubt we'd have paid him more than we do now, and he had a fair bit longer left on his contract, I think.

SWP, slightly differently, did well by us. He signed a new longer deal and then left, thus we got a bigger transfer fee for him. This was kind of cool, although he probably was hardly counting the pennies.

[Dameerto]

Didnt he run his contract down so he could move for free and get bigger wages? (thereby screwing the club out of a transfer fee) Or am I mistaken?

Who wouldn't do that, though?

I've yet to see a player say "I want to be sold now, and the club to cash in on me, even though I'll earn less wages than I would if I left on a free at the end of next season". Silva did come close, I suppose, but I doubt we'd have paid him more than we do now, and he had a fair bit longer left on his contract, I think.

SWP, slightly differently, did well by us. He signed a new longer deal and then left, thus we got a bigger transfer fee for him. This was kind of cool, although he probably was hardly counting the pennies.

It's the RAG modus operandi, if one of their first team wants to go (and he's in demand) he gets signed up to a phat new contract (coincidentally increasing his resale value) then beggers off in the summer.

[CityDub]

It's silly to even suggest our fans are above booing ex players,some fans booed Richard Dunne when he first played against us for Villa,some applauded but a lot booed ,he was our player of the year what was it 3 or 4 years running and the rock of the team for nearly 5 of the 9 years he was with us,the lad was a season away from earning a testimonial game and by no fault of his own the club wanted to go in a different direction and turfed him out.
Anyway You'll always get someone who wants to boo , but obviously players who didn't cut the mustard like Owen at Newcastle(not his own fault to be fair) will get a greater amount boo's.
He should be big enough to know how fickle fans are anyway.Newcastle was supposed to be a stepping stone to somewhere bigger for him but he could never get fit enough ,he then moves to Scum which is a great move for a crocked footballer like him ,but proves he doesn't give a toss about football fans and the legacy he had with previous clubs .
It's guaranteed in 10 years you wont be seeing him on Bindipper TV but he'll be a regular guest on SCUMTV even though all he's ever done is come of the bench and pissed on our cornflakes once.

[Dazzacity]

I was at the Villa/City game and everyone sang Dunne's name like he was still a City player !! Villa fans gave Barry a real hard time, which goes to show the difference in class between the two sets of fans.

[aaron bond]

I was at the Villa/City game and everyone sang Dunne's name like he was still a City player !! Villa fans gave Barry a real hard time, which goes to show the difference in class between the two sets of fans.

I was just about to post the same thing. People were still chanting his name even after he scored against us!

[patrickblue]

Barry and Milner are always going to get stick from Villa fans, in their eyes they sold out, money over loyalty. Same with scouse 2 and Lescott.
The only parallel that springs to mind with City is Sturrage. SWP wasn't the same, he saved the clubs ass financially.
And Barton did a good job for us when he was here, and didn't (in my eyes) let the club down, just himself.