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Respect or over sentimentality in football?

Hello,

Just wanted to get people's views on this.

This weekend Wolfsburg's shirts are going to include a green heart for Junior Malanda who passed away earlier this season, nice touch by the club.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2477663-wolfsburgs-cup-final-shirt-has-a-no-19-green-heart-on-it-for-junior-malanda

But over the last couple of weeks, and over the course of the season, has respect given way to over sentimentality?

I couldn't have been the only person who thought that Drogba's last game for Chelsea was a bit bizarre?

Sunderland players high fiving an opponent before the game, being carried off the pitch on his team mates shoulders DURING the game, the ref was even applauding as well as the opposition manager.

There's some debate about this, but did Stoke players allow Gerrard to score in his last game? Could they not have made more of an attempt to close him down, any defender, not just the one that pulled up.

We all know the rhetoric that Sky and the BBC were trotting out in the build up to his final Anfield match, if you didn't follow football you'd have thought he had died, not switching team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7fwI_1_oSI

This might be a bit contentious but the Newcastle supporters applauding in the 17th minute of EVERY game for the two fans (John Alder & Liam Sweeney) who died on MH17.

Applause is usually reserved for a club legend who has passed away, a minutes silence is held for a far reaching tragedy like Hillsborough, Bradford, Ibrox or Munich, once a year, but every match? isn't that a tad excessive?

Also, wearing black armbands because a former players wife has died? If it was Rio who had passed away then yes, of course, but his wife? If Nemanja Vidic's mum passes away next season are all the players going to wear arm bands again?

So are these thing,and incidents like them a good, healthy show of respect? or is over-sentimentality gone to far in football? Is it even possible for it to go to far?

Admins, multi-board?

posted on 28/5/15

I'm all for a bit of respect and compassion in the game. When I started going they were still making monkey noises at black players and knocking lumps out of each other on the terraces, neither of which adds anything to the sport we love.

posted on 28/5/15

the Drogba one was a bit pathetic, its not like it was the first time he'd left the club.

theres a woman where i work who left, we had a collection for her.

she came back and 3 months later left again... no collection this time bítch

thats how i feel about the drogba situation

posted on 28/5/15

The game's gone soft.

Dave Whelan ....broken leg........gets carried off

Bert Trautmann........broken neck .............played on


The game gone soft.........................

posted on 28/5/15

comment by United Art (U20528)
posted 15 minutes ago
The game's gone soft.

Twenty years ago if Fabrice Muamba had collapsed with heart failure many a ground would have given him a chorus of "Let him die, let him die, let him die".

Education, education, education!
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Erm...

Anyhow, it is symptomatic of the world we live in. Personally, i find the mawskish scenes ala Gerrard and Drogba too cloying but some level of respect needs to be accorded. The happy medium? I don't know.

These days, you have to tell your wife/significant other or kid i love you every day less they turn into sociopaths when they grow up. As a kid, the words 'i love you' never came from my parent's mouths, no matter however excellent i was.

It is just the way of the world these days, a blancmage of saccharine sentimentality is served up in spades in all walks of life.

posted on 28/5/15

Its the way the world is getting, because of the media and especially social media, the public now miss absolutely nothing, and once there is a little noise on a certain subject its gonna get blown up.

20 years ago, if a certain players wife had died, who would have known, no one until it was reported later that night on the news (thats if it made the news). Now as soon as news gets out at all the world knows within minutes.

posted on 28/5/15

BruceandPally (U8201) 28 May 2015


Applause is usually reserved for a club legend who has passed away, a minutes silence is held for a far reaching tragedy like Hillsborough, Bradford, Ibrox or Munich, once a year, but every match? isn't that a tad excessive?
---------------------------------
There is the sense now that during these silences the concentration is on who is going to dare abuse the respect rather than the actual significance of the minute.

posted on 28/5/15

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

comment by Jay. (U16498)

posted on 28/5/15

to be fair, i don't think Stoke have ever scored that many goals, nor goals of that quality. They were probably all shell shocked... As opposed to the Liverpool fans who were shellsuit shocked

posted on 28/5/15

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

posted on 28/5/15

comment by RedDevil7 (U5029)
posted 1 hour, 2 minutes ago
Its the way the world is getting, because of the media and especially social media, the public now miss absolutely nothing, and once there is a little noise on a certain subject its gonna get blown up.

20 years ago, if a certain players wife had died, who would have known, no one until it was reported later that night on the news (thats if it made the news). Now as soon as news gets out at all the world knows within minutes.
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This is the point, if any club doesn't show a certain amount of respect for a player/past player/player's pet hamster they know that some moron on social media will start screaming that the men in charge should be hung from the nearest lampost.

So it becomes easier and safer to do something than not to.

The Drogba one was bizarre though, I think I read that he had planned it all in advance, to fake an injury after half an hour just so he could get cheered off. And it is even odder given that he left a few years ago and has, let's be honest, done fa this season.

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