To not understand other football fans sometimes?

[PhilSwagielka]

As my name suggests, I'm an Everton fan. I've not gone to matches for years - long story - so I'm more of an armchair. But at times, I wonder if football is really right for me because I find a lot of fans' attitudes hard to understand. Case in point: Seamus Coleman.

Background: Everton played Spurs last weekend. Andre Gomes, one of the Everton team, was on the receiving end of a nasty tackle by either Heung-Min Son or Serge Aurier, and ended up with a horrible broken leg (pictures are quite graphic). Son was distraught and crying, especially as he got sent off for it, and after the match, Seamus Coleman - Everton's captain, though not for that game - went to Spurs' changing room to have a word with Son. He was also seen talking to him during the match. Apparently either he or Lucas Digne called for medics.

Everton fans are kicking off, saying Coleman should be sold or stripped of his captaincy and all sorts, that he is weak and a coward, that his 'soft as shite' mentality is why Everton are doing so badly, and that he and his team mates should have injured a Spurs player in revenge or beaten Son up. I honestly don't understand what was so terrible about what he did. I don't see how beating Son up is going to heal Gomes' leg.

I honestly feel like I live on a different planet to other football fans sometimes. It's like they want to watch Game Of Thrones rather than people playing a game.

My second team are Sheffield Wednesday - ironic given who the guy I'm named after plays for now, long story - and one of my favourite players is Kevin Pressman, and apparently after Wednesday got hammered 8-0, he was afraid to go out and be seen with his family. And this was before social media was a thing. The abuse Xhaka has been getting is horrific. It's happened with Everton - Morgan Schneiderlin's wife has had abuse off our fans, despite having nothing to do with the club. Some fans seem to think that because a footballer is on a high salary, he should put up with all kinds of abuse, and his family are fair game and he shouldn't react. They forget that footballers are actual people with lives and families. Admittedly I don't know much about Silva, I know he's got a wife and two daughters, but I remember Martinez got dog's abuse when he was leaving the ground with his wife one time in his last season at Everton. Families should be left alone. Mark Hughes' daughter got loads of shit off Stoke fans too..and she plays hockey!

@Auba14 Arsenal Fan TV is so cringey. Plenty of Arsenal fans hate it! I've had mixed experiences with men. My stepdad is cool, as are some of my male friends, but other men I've met in real life have been weird about it.

@StrawberryGoo I didn't know that about Grealish. How disgusting.

Also, I feel unclean admitting this, but I think Klopp is quite hot. He's not my type, but he's aged really well.

I think football is unfairly maligned about racism as well actually.

Yes there are (relatively small) elements with vile views but that only really reflects what seems to be a sickening increase in racism in society. Football has sunk loads of resources into dealing with it, with a genuine desire to "kick it out" while our two main political parties and many of our institutions have their own issues in this regard but will deny everything and want to point the finger at the working classes football.

But phil the teeth the teeth!

He does come across as a very nice man too. Despite the teeth.

John Barnes made an interesting point the other week - he said football is one of the few places where a young black boy from a deprived estate has exactly the same opportunity to succeed as a privileged white lad. It's definitely society that has the racism problem - footballers simply bear the brunt of it.

Older black footballers, such as Kevin Campbell, have repeatedly pointed out how utterly useless Kick It Out is. Campbell was on the receiving end of a lot of racism in Turkey, and no doubt he had to deal with it in England as well, and now he's got an adult son playing for Stoke and racism is still a problem. Everton fans at least aren't singing 'Everton are white', especially now that black players have been playing for us since 1994, but there is still a nasty racist element.

Years ago I was sat front row when Shawcross tacked arsenals Aaron Ramsey. Close enough to hear the snap. Horrific event at the time made worse by the utter Neanderthal who came down ten rows to abuse Ramsey and call him a fucking pussy. Much to DHs embarrassment I let rip at the bloke and he did sheepishly return to whence he’d came.

I do feel a bit for Son. Shawcross has had that tackle follow his career, hopefully the same won’t apply. .

Yeah, like he wouldn't be screaming in agony if his leg got snapped. Gomes was apparently screaming, poor thing.

Have to be honest and admit I shed a tear that day. To see that right in front of you, the emotion in the players faces and the shouts. It was horrific. You go to a game for a bit of banter and hopefully a win. Not that. It unnerved me for a while and I the location of the Gomes challenge was also close to the stands so my thoughts instantly went to those fans as well because I knew how they felt.

I actually walked out of one match because James McCarthy's leg got broken, and it was a genuine accident. Salomon Rondon was really shaken by it. It upset me so much I just thought, "Fuck this," and went home. Luckily I didn't hear the crack, but other people I know did.

Spurs fan here (as you can probably tell from my user name) in a family of Everton fans! I think the Everton players acted implacably. I think what you said about those people is awful; I can’t believe that true football ‘fans’ could think like that. Son is such a genuinely nice character too.
Nastiest fans we’ve come across are Man City; only a minority, I know, but after they played Spurs there were some on the train we were on who were racially abusing others on the train and even their own players. Vile.

I HATE it when fans do that. Abusing the opposition is bad enough, but your own? I remember Romelu Lukaku got called a n*** or compared to a gorilla by United 'fans' on social media. Charming.

Btw to the Liverpool fans in here, thanks for not being arseholes about Gomes. I've seen Liverpool fans on Twitter saying he deserved to have his leg broken because of Funes Mori's tackle on Divock Origi a few years ago. Which had nothing to do with Gomes.

Football fans are weird.