To boo or not to boo that is the question?
On Radio Suffolk recently, the presenter of Final Whistle Graeme Mac said that he thought that booing your own team was not conducive to improvements on the field and I am inclined to agree.
More to the point I to think it is a very bad idea. In all the years of watching Ipswich I have never felt the urge to boo, no matter how badly the team has played and I find it difficult to countenance this sort of behavior quite frankly.
Sadly, the bigger the gate at Portman Road and elsewhere, the greater percentage of moaners coming through the turnstiles so the question is, are we better off with smaller crowds and a smaller proportion of whingers?
When you look at the fantastic away following the club gets, you can see that the thousand or so supporters who travel up and down the country to follow their team are completely dedicated to the cause, come rain or shine and regardless of the result.
You will never hear boos coming from our much travelled fans – not even when we lost 9-0 away to Manchester United in the Premier League so why I ask, should the players have to suffer it so much at home?
I can understand to some extent the argument that some supporters make that players are overpaid and overrated but to boo your own team – or worse still perhaps, an individual player, really does take the biscuit!
Against Huddersfield at the weekend they were at it again. Now the point is how on earth is it supposed to help? I have never known a player in more than forty years of following Town who has deliberately not tried.
They are professionals and even if it is with a view to finding another club, players will always try in my view so what is the purpose of this sustained barracking?
Booing only serves one purpose in my opinion and that is to undermine the efforts of the team as a whole.
Bill Shankly once said that the Kop were the twelfth man at Anfield because of their vociferous support and if we want to turn Portman Road into the fortress it once was then booing is a very bad idea.
