In the midst of this “booing discourse”, rival fans and pundits alike have been keen to remark on their disbelief that Liverpool fans would boo their own player.
Well, thankfully, the Internet never forgets, so let’s take a short trip down memory lane and revisit some incidents where rival fans have definitely gone overboard in their treatment of one of their own.
And disclaimer, like what Mari mentioned in her piece, I know these are the actions of individual fans and not an entire fanbase. But hey, tit for tat, this is an entire article about being petty, so here goes.
Arsenal FC
This is in alphabetical order, so we start with Excuses FC. Then-captain Granit Xhaka, often a target of online abuse at the time, was booed by the habitual song stealers at Emirates Stadium when he was substituted, and seemingly taking his time to come off the pitch. In response, Xhaka appeared to swear at his supporters, waving his arms and cupping his ear to taunt fans into booing louder. He was subsequently stripped of his captaincy. Xhaka would later admit in a Player’s Tribune article that he almost left the club due to the (and I quote) “pure hate” from the fans, staying after Mikel Arteta persuaded him to. He would go on to have a great last season at the club, before moving on to complete an invincible season under Bayer Leverkusen last season, whilst Arsenal are waiting to win their first trophy since the 2020 FA Cup.
Going back further in time, Arsenal booed defender Emmanuel Eboue simply because he had been having bad performances. In December 2008, Eboue came off the bench as a 32nd-minute substitute in a 1-0 win against Wigan Athletic. He was subbed off to boos in the 89th minute.
Let’s not forget, Arsenal fans also spent years hounding their legendary manager out of a job! Cricket matches, Coldplay concerts, Wrestlemania, the chance of you seeing a #WENGEROUT sign on a night out was probably significantly higher than the chance of a sexual encounter in several highly-developed countries.
Hypocrisy Rating: you gotta be joking me lol
2.Borussia Dortmund
Not a rival, but since I’m also a BVB fan, I had to break out this classic image of Borussia Dortmund fans removing the tires off Robert Lewandowski’s Porsche after it was announced that he was leaving on a free to Bayern Munich.
Rating: Illegal, but actually kinda awesome? Would not mind seeing this again
3. Chelsea
If there’s any fanbase that should keep quiet about booing their own players, it’s probably Chelsea.
In match week one of this season, all it took was 30 minutes for their supporters to start jeering Enzo Maresca. The video may be scrubbed, but the medium formerly known as Tweets has it immortalised.
ONE GAME.
That’s all it took for these pathetic match-going brats — “guise of proper Chels” — to boo and berate their “Chels”.
Enzo Maresca already visibly upset by this “support”. You can also tell that he’s holding himself back.
Good luck with this lot. Honestly.. https://t.co/GqUsX8m0kc pic.twitter.com/xmurJDvEMC
— alarcón (@Juanin1Oi) August 19, 2024
Going a few seasons back, beloved former Red Raheem Sterling missed a penalty against Leicester, then had an all-timer of a free-kick jeered by the Stamford Bridge crowd.
And in 2015, with Jose Mourinho fired after accusing his players of a “betrayal”, Guus Hiddink in charge as interim manager again, Chelsea was booed in a 3-0 win against Sunderland. The team was booed rather collectively, but Diego Costa came in for some particular stick as he was subbed late in the game. Brilliant.
Hypocrisy Rating: Booing bad! But at least it’s not racism or jeering the national anthem!
4.Everton
If you (unfortunately) have an Everton fan in your life, you’ve likely already heard some grumbling about “kopite behaviour” or something along those lines. The truth is, Everton fans love booing. It’s the life force of the club. They boo everything. They boo so much I have to keep the section on them small so it doesn’t turn into a comprehensive history of Everton booing.
We go to week 2 of this season. After a 4-0 thumping at Spurs, Everton fans wait at a train station to boo their own players.
Hypocrisy Rating: Match Week Two means they can’t even beat Chelsea at booing the earliest in the season game. Forever in the shadows.
5.Manchester United
Oh boy, here we go.
The fanbase that not only booed Joshua Zirkzee earlier this season for the cardinal sin of... just not being very good at football in general but in recent seasons has also booed Harry Maguire and Paul Pogba. The latter, when subbed off in the 74th minute during an April 2022 home game against Norwich City, cupped his hands by his ears to goad the Prawn Sandwich Brigade. He also dropped this gem of a line, and one of my favourite football memes, in his ill-fated and terribly named The Pogmentary.
But in perhaps the worst and most offensive incident on this list, in the wake of a transfer request in an ill-fated attempt to go Manchester City, 40 or so United supporters, clad in balaclavas and hooded tops, trotted their dorky butts down to Rooney’s home in Prestbury, Cheshire with a banner reading “If you join City you’re dead”.
In that same Guardian article, another incident in 2005 involving Rio Ferdinand is discussed:
In 2005 Rio Ferdinand faced a similar visit from a mob of balaclava-wearing men dressed predominantly in black, because of a 16-month contract dispute during which he had been photographed with the then Chelsea chief executive, Peter Kenyon.
Ferdinand went to his front door to confront the fans and answer their questions during a tense standoff, the defender admitting in his autobiography that he had feared for his own safety. The same people are believed to have been involved last night in what seems to amount to a determined attempt to intimidate Rooney out of a move to Eastlands.
Rio, the moral authority of modern society, has been all over his social channels lately professing his utter bewilderment at Scousers booing Trent. It would seem that hooded men going up to his house is his preferred way of being harassed.
Hypocrisy Rating: THE SECRET INGREDIENT IS CRIME dot GIF
6.Real Madrid
The list of people this club has booed is endless. Kylian Mbappe, Gareth Bale, Cristiano Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo Nazario... hell, they even booed Alfredo di Stefano after he appeared in a print ad for ladies' stockings in 1962. Yes, you read that correctly. Di Stefano was booed and jeered at every turn in their next home game against Athletic Club, but still scored two goals anyway.
Hell, at the same time that some of the booing towards Trent is going on, Victor Munoz Munoz, a 21-year-old forward, made his debut for Real in El Clasico, finding himself in a one-on-one with Wojciech Szczesny with his first touch of the game. He fumbled the opportunity. He was then forced to disable comments on Instagram after receiving abuse for a costly miss late into the game.
I’ve also read some theories after Trent’s video that perhaps he found the weight of carrying LFC and the city on his back too much, thus his decision to leave... for Real Madrid. Because when I think to myself, I really need a less-pressurised working environment, I go, “Yeah, I need to go Real Madrid.” If you truly believe this, you need to stick to writing celebrity smut on Archive of Our Own.
Uh... so yeah. If anything, the booing Liverpool fans were helping Trent prepare for his next job. Best fans in the world.
Hypocrisy Rating: Truly the best club in the world. Most European cups. Booed everyone. Gonna avenge me by booing Trent too. I take my hat off. Hala Madrid or whatever.
Now we’ve had our fun laughing at some of these incidents, let’s get to the crux of this exercise. Football is an emotional game. That’s why we love it. And as detailed above, it can get out of control.
Me? I found the whole thing rather amusing. The boos before the start of the game. The pointed shade with the Conor Bradley and Steven Gerrard songs. Brilliant. Would I have booed his every touch? Probably not. Poor Ibou Konaté looked like his brain was going to explode trying not to pass to Trent.
At the same time, I’m trying to understand why the booing happened. Maybe this really was the tipping point. The local hero turning his back on his past declared ambitions and allegiance. The evasiveness. The seemingly deliberate length of the contracts, and the endless flirting with Jude Bellingham. So you know, what? I’m not going to judge those same fans who wave the flags, write and sing those songs, and travel to away games across the country and the continent. They’re entitled to feel that way.
It is ironic to me that Jamie Carragher, less than a week after saying on TV that rival supporters shouldn’t be telling Liverpool fans how to feel, then goes off about the booing, like Liverpool fans are supposed to be some kind of hive mind. (I’m not blaming him, sometimes things come across more blunt than they really are.) It’s not a big deal. If you don’t like the booing, fine. Clap him. Glaze him on social media. Go make a TAA highlight reel that will get inevitably downvoted to death. But have fun trying to silence an entire stand or more of supporters who feel that way, which certainly suggests this isn’t a rogue minority of fans acting out.
At the end of the day, it’s just booing. Trent’s a big boy. He knew his decision would turn his bed of roses into a bed of nails. It’s now time for him to sleep in the bed that he made.
Me? I’d prefer to celebrate this title win way into June. But in the larger picture, booing is nothing. His feelings got hurt. That’s really it. That’s what the money and free flow of jamon is for. No one slashed his tires or decided to dress up like a bad extra in The Dark Knight. We dropped points in a meaningless game, bookended by trips to beaches across Europe, Dubai, and Ibiza for the staff and players. Hopefully, the Kop got it out of the system and we can have a big old party against Crystal Palace at the end of the season.