I took part in an exercise a few years back, when I was sent on a course by my employers. I knew some of the people I was with, but not all.
Three people were chosen at random and were blindfolded. One at a time, they had to enter a large room and pick up a bottle from a table. Chairs and other obstacles were scattered round the room to obstruct and confuse them.
The rest of us had to stand around the edges of the room giving ‘feedback’.
For one of the blindfolded guinea pigs we ONLY had to tell them when they were going the wrong way, or doing something badly; basically giving them nothing but abuse.
For another, we could ONLY be positive – tell them when they were going well, giving them nothing but encouragement.
For the third, we could do both.
The person who received 100% praise completed the task far more quickly than the other two. The one who got nothing but pelters did the worst. We were told that this is infinitely predictable and repeatable, no matter the order the participants do it in. Encouragement makes people perform better, criticism makes them worse. It just does.
It makes me wonder what some supporters hope to achieve by groaning when a pass is misplaced, throwing their hands up in the air when a player passes back rather than forward, or howling when someone doesn’t take a shot on. Those actions – to me – are classic signs of a lack of confidence, and I would argue that confidence can be affected by the mood of the crowd. If I thought the crowd would be on my back if I tried something creative and failed, I might play it safe too.
Every single footballer at Newcastle United knows how good they are, and what they can and can’t do. They have spent every day since they were kids playing, training, watching, winning and losing. They know when they have done something good and they know when they have messed up. And I am sure that they always want to do their very best whenever they pull the shirt on. They don’t need the crowd to tell them.
Of course it’s frustrating when the team underperforms. Of course we could and should have played better against Brentford. I’m sure every player in black and white and everyone on the coaching staff knows that.
But if there are Newcastle United fans who think they will improve the team by complaining, shouting abuse or booing them off the pitch, then I’m afraid to say that they will do no such thing. In fact they will almost certainly do the opposite.
There is an adage – Eddie Howe repeated it after the Brentford game – that the fans are entitled to do what they want. Quite right. If you’ve paid your money, you are free to moan about every player, criticise the coaches and boo them off the park. And you are at liberty to go on social media and tell players they just aren’t good enough to play for Newcastle.
If you are one of those Newcastle United fans – and there are a good number sitting near me at SJP – tell me how you think that helps the team. In the history of the beautiful game, when has a team felt good about it?
When I’m not watching Newcastle, I will sometimes go and watch Gateshead play. They currently sit rock-bottom of the National League after a few seasons of punching above their weight. But their fans hardly ever get on their backs – they know the club is skint, they know players go out and come in every week (that is not an exaggeration), and they know that the players are trying their best. So they encourage them.
Newcastle’s players are trying their best too, unless you know something different. So are Eddie and his staff. They are going through a rough patch now, and they need support, not criticism. They call us supporters. Let us support them.