BfB

There is an article to be written but we all know what it is so I’m not sure there is any point in writing it.

It is the article that starts off talking about how Stuart McCall is offended by the booing of Barry Conlon on Saturday. It talks about how McCall mentions his childhood as a Leeds fan when referencing Terry Yorath getting booed at Elland Road and notes that some damage must be done if the City manager is starting to reveal that side of his past.

It talks about how McCall should be supported in bringing on the players he wants to. It asks what support is if it is not cheering for the team at nil-nil on a Saturday with ten minutes to go? You could ask what is the point of having a manager if the fan’s want to veto who gets to play and who doesn’t. If you wanted to link that to Kevin Keegan resigning you could.

This article – if you want to write it – can talk about a comment on the T&A website that tries to justify the booing of Conlon by saying that McCall should have been bringing on Willy Topp or Rory Boulding ignoring the fact that Conlon scored. It could mock that person or insult him. Both would be appropriate.

The article that needs writing will talk about what some fans hope to gain by booing a player who gives everything he can to the cause. It will say that Barry is not the most talented player but no one puts in more effort and that booing the players who put in effort is counter-productive. It could then say that booing plays who try causes players not to try.

This article would expand to ask about the nature of support and ask if it is important to the modern footballer? If booing has become so common that players now ignore it or expect it? If fans are now considered to be mindless and not worthy of paying attention to because of this sort of booing.

If you want to write the article you could try expand it into talking about a football culture that is so sick that the expectations set are unachievable at every level or a society that is so self obsessed that people believe that they can get into a large enough mob then they should be allowed to make every single decision there is to make and who demand that their voice be heard no matter what they are saying.

You could try appeal to reason and construct arguments why the negativity around Conlon and the mis-judged comments about McCall and his staff and their abilities are bad for the club and thus bad for the people saying them as well as the one’s listening but they have never listened to that kind of argument in the past and write it off as spin or as naivety without the shame of admitting that the previous times they have had their say has lead us to this point.

When you do write the article prepare for people suggesting that you are trying to paper over the cracks of McCall and Conlon’s lack of abilities and try not to laugh at them when they say this despite the fact that a few weeks ago we were top of the division because they really do mean it. You could mention the way that Championship Manager has made everyone think that being a football manager is as easy as looking at numbers and picking the highest but again do not expect to be believed should you counter that point dispite the blindingly obvious nature of your claim.

After that you could point out the logic of that or you could conclude you are wasting your time in doing so and that these people are concerned with themselves first and the attention they can get and Bradford City second.

Or you could take another tack and say that you thought that the people who booed Barry Conlon on Saturday, City in general and who use message boards and forums to agitate are beneath contempt. You could rail against them in the name of good sense and site the work done to keep the club going over two administrations and you could ignore the ad hominim attacks you would get for it and the lies that they would say about you and carry on screaming to anyone who would listen about how obviously damaging the actions of these people were.

You could do any of these things – and God knows at BfB we have made all these comments over the past nine and a half years – and probably it would do no good at all. Good people like Wayne, Steve and the people who sang Barry’s name and cheer City on would listen to what you said and be heartened but the people who you wanted to reach would not care.

You would have to conclude your article and you could issue a rallying cry to those who find the booing as destructive and pointless as you do but what is the point?

Our legend, our manager, the guy that is here to turn our club around is saying clearly that booing is achieves nothing apart from attacking our club. If Stuart McCall cannot get stop some people from ripping this club apart then what chance has anyone else got?