I’ll talk you through what he shouldn’t have done if we’re expecting every player to be perfect in their reactions... he shouldn’t have told him to **** off and he shouldn’t have grabbed him by the collar.
I would agree we can't expect them to play with passion, energy, so that the blood should be flowing and then have a perfect reaction.
However, where is the line and with discipline you don't cross it regardless. There seems no consequence of overstepping.
I can happily support the players taking a moral lead on some matters, but when they make a public spectacle they need to openly apologise, rather dismiss it as acceptable to deal with behind closed doors. I am not going to get into the merits of kneeling before kick-off, but if you think you are important enough to have a platform to make such a statement you can't ignore that you're on that platform for the next 2 hours.
For me that goes as far as eliminating swearing. It's one thing if you hit your thumb with a hammer, but swearing at refs, team mates, players from the stands is abuse. With people hiding behind masks it will get worse not better.
I think this will be a source of much banter today, wouldn’t get too worried about it. Rookie Sam telling a senior player to F off shows good spirit imho.
After last season’s disappointment with a number of star players, we need a few spikey youngsters to show some fight.
Balderdash!!!
Question - how many other ways might Sam have showed good team spirit without using foul and abuse language.
It's such a hypocrisy at the moment. The players want to be role models for stamping out certain, more than unacceptable, behaviour but happy to be abusive to each, opponents, and refs.
Sam's not the issue. Just one example in the Huddersfield game, despite the fact we are comfortably ahead it's clear at one point our leader S Cook shouts similar abuse from the half way line following the ref's whistle. I won't make up why he said it and who it was directed at, but sad fact is we make excuses for what shouldn't be accepted. Passion for what you are doing doesn't give you right to be abusive, in any way. Next time, you're down the rec, and there's an U11 game on ask yourself if little Johnny can behave the same and excuse it by saying he was playing with spirit and passion.
I also worry that with so many voices hiding behind the mask, it isn't acceptable for every TV match to just apologise for what we might hear. It doesn't surprise me people are brave enough to jeer or boo from behind the mask. If the language TV presenters are apologising for isn't acceptable, stamp it all out. Football can flourish without nastiness, full stop.
The swearing doesn’t bother me obviously, I’ve been guilty of it at football as anyone. But there did come a point when I had to stop using the “authentic” sound option and had to use the fake crowd noise when watching it with my little one as an average episode of Mrs Brown’s boys had less swearing in it.
