Birds, Bread, and Abuse

Birds

The laughing Chickadee. He pips up a tree, hanging upside down from a pine cone, plucks out a nib of something and chuckles at the forest. Or maybe he just laughs at me.

The frenetic Pacific Wren. His song is like a symphony warming up: every instrument playing its own tune, to its own rhythm. He jumps up and down on a branch, barred tail held high, turning himself back and forth, wary of his neighbor. When two of them are near each other they have a sort of epic rap battle, each trying to outdo the other with the complexity of their lyrics.

The tsking Anna’s Hummingbird. Always seems to be berating his neighbors with a call that at worst sounds like nails on chalkboard and at best like an old audio tape in fast forward. Fearless beasts which weigh less than a nickel but will dive-bomb a 6′ tall 200lb man mercilessly if he gets too close. I once saw an Anna’s Hummingbird harass a Barred Owl: chirping in its face until the raptor moved to a new perch.

A pleading blackbird sits high in the trees and produces the loudest call at the lake. It’s a shrill screech with a lightly musical tone but always sounded more like a cry for help than a bird song. The red-winged blackbird cries out PLEEEEEEASE over and over again. And since they are so loud, a marsh with just a few can sound like a chorus of whining old men.

Bread

I will finish up the 40 sandwich challenge this weekend, ending with the lowly cucumber sandwich. It’s been a fun journey. I’ve learned a lot about making bread. I’ve learned that I really love sandwiches and that they are among the most versatile of foods. Making a sandwich great is easy once you understand the components and what makes them taste good together but you don’t need to go down that path. Even a less examined sandwich, something as simple as American cheese on Wonder bread, can be special.

I will write a long article on this journey later this week. Then I will start the 40 sandwiches all over again, this time with better notes.

Abuse

Once again, an Arsenal player has been subjected to abuse online. This time Runnar Runnarson and Eddie Nketiah are the victims. Runnar was abused when the club posted “happy birthday” to him on Twitter and Eddie was abused on Instagram.

I think about these things way too much and worry about my role in all of this. I’ve never racially abused a player but I’ve made it clear that I don’t like certain players. It’s not that I can change people’s minds or that I’m some great leader of Arsenal supporters but more and more these days I see people saying “get out of my club” and I can say for sure that I have fostered that sentiment. I don’t directly say “get out of the club” but I have made it crystal clear that I disliked certain signings.

And it’s unnecessary. I know all the arguments: that I just love the club so much, that I want the club to succeed, that I care so deeply about the shoestring budget, that I want to protect the academy players, or that “he just gets on my pecs.” But so much of this criticism of players these days is divorced from the reality of their play, an understanding of the team dynamic, or, worse, it becomes deeply personal for both the abuser and the abused. And what on earth do we think we are going to accomplish with this behavior? Am I really so egotistical that I think my comments are going to “open Arteta’s eyes” or “speed up his transfer”? Isn’t that absurd?

And this takes on a more sinister pallor when we are talking about racial abuse.

I’m at the point now where I think that the clubs and the players should band together and boycott all comments on social media. Twitter and Instagram have features which can be used to limit replies and these folks should use them, not to “punish” the vast majority of fans who don’t abuse players, but to force the social media companies to do something about the racial abuse.

This isn’t a difficult problem to solve. My very basic web site has a filter and tracks people by MAC address. I can and do ban people for racist abuse. In Europe, that can be taken a step further and MAC address could be given to the police and people can be prosecuted.

But at the very basic level the social media companies could install filters which just immediately delete posts which contain certain phrases and then use the MAC addresses registered with all devices which have logged on to that account to block that computer from logging on to that service again. Actually, they already do some of this: if I use certain words to describe someone, I will get a ban. What they aren’t doing is preemptively filtering certain comments and that’s where I think they need to look at some action.

There are a lot of well meaning folks who suggest that we should register our passport with social media companies and I disagree. I don’t want them having my passport or driver’s license information. Not only would that be me giving away a huge part of my personal information, there is no way that I could trust them to secure that information. The much simpler solution is to ban certain words.

And the thing is that companies like Twitter and Instagram (Facebook) have extraordinary resources available to do something more complicated than simple word filters. Not only do they have some of the world’s best engineers, they have at their disposal a nearly endless supply of information which they could use to build AI which filters intelligently.

But they need to be pushed. Celebrities, sports stars, football clubs, are among the most popular accounts on these platforms. If they shut down comments in protest, I suspect Jack and others will respond.

Qq

39 comments

  1. So glad to “read” you back! Hoped that you’re rejuvenated or at least less jaded from the break. Looking forward to the 40 glorious sandwich post!

  2. Welcome back! I’m sure I’m not thr only one who has been checking here daily to see if you’ve posted. I saw your tweet about birds. No pun intended. Disturbing that we are decimating so many species. I have grown vsr fond of the Black Phoebe and Beewick’s Wrens that I see in my yard. I can’t imagine life without them. I hope you’ve been able to refresh and recharge. Stay well.

    1. Bewick’s Wren is such a powerhouse little singer. I was surprised the first time I heard one! So much voice for such a little puffball. I also have a special fondness for birds that look angry.

    2. You weren’t the only one, LA.

      Welcome back, Tim.

      Players’ social media communities are mostly good places for them, it seems to me. It seems to me that the players have more “stans” than abusers. But even Rashford and Sterling, model professionals, get racist abuse. As long as the skew is positive and there are mechanisms to deal with the extremists, I think that we can live with things as they are. I support tough sanctions for abusers, but passports and all that? No. The thing that creates asymmetry is anonymity. I have a mashup of my grandfathers’ names, but is it fair to criticise Tim Todd who is naked, so to speak? I don’t think so. And that’s true even if Tim can see who I am. The one rule change id like to see is that unless we are in life saving pursuits, we should only engage as ourselves, so that it forces us to be good and responsible citizens.

      And can I just say how special Odegaard looks?

  3. On abuse:

    It’s a deeply baked in part of the human condition to want to take our feelings out on someone or something. Our societies are becoming totally sanitized of aggressive behavior, and of course that’s a good thing. But it doesn’t get rid of the urge, only suppresses and transfigured it. We don’t bully people openly as much anymore, we just exclude and ignore them. That’s the highbrow way. The lowbrow? Anonymous accounts on Social media are one of the last ways we can abuse someone legally. Star athletes and celebrities are some of the last people it’s ok to abuse. You can shut this down but it won’t cure the issue. We ThePeople have to have something to hate. This is not “normal” per se but it is so so very common and it can’t be legislated away.

  4. Welcome back Tim. I had selfishly feared your ‘sabbatical’ might be a little longer, so delighted to see this post this evening!

    And thank you so much for letting my imagination run wild with wondering what American cheese (I feel like it must come out of a tube?) and Wonder bread are [ I confess I googled this one, and turns out it is literally the sliced bread of “best thing since” fame].

    Re the social media companies, I have no clue on the tech side but agree they have infinite amounts of money and expertise they could use to solve the issue if they had any desire to. The reason they don’t is because they don’t want to. Simple. A high profile revolt and/or a credible plan to regulate them (get on it please Joe) would seem to be the only two things that might change that.

  5. Online abuse? The keyword there is “online”. Supporters at every club have always had players who they “love to hate”. It’s a part of fandom. The thing was, you’d go along on a Saturday and vent all your frustrations, feel better for it, and then go home and forget about it. Of course, that doesn’t happen nowadays. Instead you fire up your laptop and get to work on your keyboard, from the comfort and anonymity of your living room. We’re all guilty of that to some extent. These views then get amplified throughout the course of the week, which only add fuel to the fire.
    It’s very much the nature of the medium. I’m sure if we happened to bump into any Arsenal player, good or bad, in a one on one social situation, then we’d be unerringly polite to them.

    1. You’ve a good point: if we all went to an Arsenal match and a fellow fan tried to throw a banana at a black player or shout racist abuse, the crowd would “take care” of him/her. Online, there’s an opposite effect in a sense: first the anonymity (so no one there to “check” them) and then on top of the abuser gets a huge thrill out of being able to generate notoriety and even calumny. Suddenly they go from someone who never gets a response to someone who gets hundreds of responses and I don’t think we can completely rule out this addictive nature of the media from what’s driving this stuff.

      1. Back at the old stadium I used to sit next to a bloke who absolutely “hated” Sylvain Wiltord. I use the term “hated” loosely” of course, but he would bang on about it for 90 minutes. “Useless”. “Couldn’t control a bag of cement”. In Centre Block, Upper East he was famous for it. He got on everyone’s nerves.

        Until, of course, Wiltord scored an absolute blinding goal out of nothing.
        Almost the entire block rose as one. “It’s all gone quiet over there! It’s all gone quiet over there!” To say he took some stick was a minor understatement. To an extent it is self policing. Yes, you can give vent to your frustrations, that’s part of the fun, but there are limits once you put yourself around other people.

        I suppose the thing is anonymity. How many things would we say out loud and in company, which we do regularly online?

    2. yep – and online the subject (player) gets to hear the abuse from every person individually.
      They hear both the roar of the numerical and the individual abuse.

      Online is different in that way.

      I agree for us fans its different, but for the subject its even worse – they get both the incoherent roar and the specific.

      1. An even worse example? I was sitting in another part of the stadium with a mate of mine and an Arsenal player, might have been Lee Dixon, scored one of the most ridiculous own goals I think I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, I was incensed and let rip with what could politely be described as “industrial language”.

        I was teaching at the time. When I got up at half time to get a cup of tea, I discovered that sitting behind me a couple of rows back was one of my 10 year old pupils with his mother.

        It was one of those moments when you wish the ground would swallow you up. I still cringe with the intense embarrassment, all these years later.

    1. Ip address is much simpler to mask, you can do so with just a basic VPN.

      MAC address can be spoofed but far less common, and more importantly, MAC is tied to machine.

  6. When the Xhaka situation happened, I felt like we were in the midst of a big change within football. In the same way that people got used to the offside law and many other subtle changes that seemed big at that time, I thought there would finally be a revolution.

    I have long felt that there was a constant shift in football where the more money players earned, the more emboldened fans and pundits became in treating them like livestock (I hope I used that correctly). Players were always criticized but the criticism became unreasonable and expectations on players went became the same. Analysis started becoming more and more detailed and players started being judged on a game by game basis. A few bad moments in a game were proof of lack of ability, consistency was now whittled down to a few games and players had to live in this unrealistic environment, why? Because they were paid lots of money. So they had to shut up and put up with it. On top of putting up with it, they had put in the performances whilst showing love for clubs that got them via bidding wars.

    Such treatment of players became normalized by the sensationalized news environment we live in and it is pushed even more by social media.

    When the Xhaka thing happened, my expectation was that Xhaka would refuse to apologise and instead criticize social media, the fanbase and the media for not only creating, but also partaking in this toxic environment where players are not only afraid of being themselves, but have to put on an image in every facet of their lives and ignore things that the average man would report to the police. I mean Leno had to ignore a total stranger telling him to commit suicide because of a mistake. I thought there would be a stance by players everywhere along with FIFPRO, where they would demand to be treated far better than they are treated right now. I thought other players would rally behind Xhaka and force supporters to take a deep look at their own role in what happened.

    Sadly the revolution didn’t happen and mostly because pundits and media jumped straight on it and lambasted Xhaka for being a human being with feelings. Former players, who should have known better, called him out and lambasted his behaviour, forgetting that they didn’t have to deal with anything close to what players are encountering now. I dont know if they feel like the fame and money that these current players have is price enough to pay for this mistreatment or if it is just jealousy but its too much. I have seen first hand what it does to players at far lower levels, I can just imagine what Arsenal players have to deal with.

    For me, I could say that this is why I don’t have social media, but I am not that smart. I had a speech impediment from a young age and when I finally learned how to speak properly (as properly as a guy who had a very bad stutter can), everyone was communicating through social media. I was annoyed that all my hard work had gone to waste, so I boycotted social media. In doing so, I realised the many positives that came with that action and promised myself that I would stay away from spaces that allowed just about anybody to interact with me.

    So Tim, I never got to say anything on the last post but I just want to say thank you. Thank you for giving someone like me a platform on the net to interact with such nice and sociable people. I don’t do twitter, Facebook, or etc. For me, its just 7amkickoff and nothing else. I feel like this space is what the internet was supposed to be like and its all because of everyone here, but most importantly you Tim. And to everyone on here, don’t be afraid to take time off of Arsenal or anything that pushes stress onto you or makes you less of the person you would like to be.

    Take some time to dream
    Peace of mind is a delightful thing
    This is the life of kings
    (Phonte, 2011, The Life of Kings)

    1. …pundits and media jumped straight on it and lambasted Xhaka for being a human being with feelings.”

      Xhaka’s behaviour was a disgrace, and he deserved the criticism heaped on him. Not the vile personal abuse… the pundit and media criticism that you reference. Left up to me, he would have never played for Arsenal again.

      1. The thing is that I could and expected a player to finally snap at the fans. I still believe that we will see it again, maybe not at Arsenal and maybe once fans start attending games more regularly, but it will happen again somewhere because it was something based on how humans take abuse than on the individual themselves. How long it takes for someone to snap is what differentiates the players, but they are all human beings and will snap at some point. In the same way that a referee finally broke in the championship and retaliated to how players behave towards them in recent times. With Xhaka, it was built up over years, and I respect him for holding out for so long.

        That it was Xhaka who finally broke is a bit irrelevant and kind of unfair to him I believe. In knowing that such an event would happen, you would then have to look at what type of player would eventually break first. It would have to be a player whom the fanbase already considers to be useless, bad, a liability, holding us back and all the other phrases used for players that are not to the liking of fans (and also lack a fanbase large enough like Ozil’s to keep motivating him).

        Arsenal had two players who fit that mould at that period and that was Xhaka and Mustafi (who endured all sorts of comments for years proir). During that period the team was also doing badly and Xhaka was the player who was an ever present between the two. That it was Xhaka was inevitable, if it was Mustafi I wouldn’t have been surprised.

        On top of all of that, we cant separate the vile personal attacks and abuse from non-constructive criticism. its the same individual who is receiving both and it piles up in the same place. Your mind doesn’t have a separate storage space for different types of pain. What we had was a player who was pushed on all sides and somehow his behaviour is a disgrace when he has had enough? Its like the police complaining that they are good whilst they looked the other way as other cops abused their power. They did no wrong but they let those other cops degrade the badge they wear, in the same way that its Arsenal fans who dragged the name of the club low enough for Xhaka finally not give a damn. That event wasn’t in isolation and was built up by views like this…

        “Xhaka’s behaviour was a disgrace, and he deserved the criticism heaped on him….”Left up to me, he would have never played for Arsenal again.”

        Why? why this view? is it backed up by anything to do with what he actually brings to a team that is in 10th? or do you believe that he is the reason we are in 10th?

        Tim notices this and that is why he is taking a good look at himself. He doesn’t have to hate a player, but small narratives build up to very damaging opinions and comments about players.

        My question is, if Viera had constantly received the same kind of abuse, and rhetoric from the Arsenal fans, would he have not finally done the same? What about Henry? I picked those two because they are loved by fans but had strong personalities where they would bite back at whatever they considered to be unfair. Would you have considered them a disgrace?

        Yes Xhaka did what he did, but it was inevitable as an action and in who performed the action. Any of those players would have done the same if they were subjected to what Xhaka has had to endure. Its not even about how good he is, its about how far can a person be pushed until they snap. You can be mad at the response all you want, but if you belittle the ingredients that led up to his actions, you will be surprised by who is next.

        Its the same as the Ozil situation and the big wage. When it happens to your favourite player like Aubameyang, will you be repeating the same line of thinking and criticize accordingly?

        1. People were happy to abuse Xhaka for years, either anonymously online, or as part of a mob at games.

          And as soon as he snapped ONCE, lost the rag and gave some back loads of these hard men, who talk about it being a man’s game and sucking it up, turned into delicate, highly offended snowflakes and started clutching their pearls about ‘respect’ and ‘etiquette.’

          You can think what he did was wrong but i’ve no time for hypocrites like that.

      2. I wholeheartedly agree. Name calling, racist remarks, death threats, etc. are completely unacceptable, and should be punished with fines and/or bans. However, Xhaka’s behavior should’ve resulted not only in him losing the captain’s armband but also in him never putting an Arsenal shirt on again. If Inter could do it to Icardi (arguably the best player in Serie A at the time), then I’m sure Arsenal could (and should) have done it to Xhaka. The fans in the stadium were rightfully booing him in that game for not only playing bad (even below his norm) but also for taking his sweet time to walk off the pitch when we were a goal down and trying to get something going. He did no favors to himself by flipping them off, and telling them to go F themselves. We (the fans) are the reason all of these guys are multi millionaires. We, yes WE are the ones paying their salaries, and they should be thankful of that. I don’t care if his feelings got hurt. He’s a professional football player, and he should’ve behaved like one. He didn’t. It’s not just grown-ups who are watching the games but also kids who are looking up to these players. He should’ve known better, and he should’ve apologized. He never did. So personally, I’m extremely annoyed by the fact that he’s still an Arsenal player, and I’m extremely annoyed with Arteta for picking him week in and week out.

        1. Plus –let’s not forget, Upstate Gooner — he tossed away the captain’s armband, tore off and tossed his shirt on the way down the tunnel (not the bench), and shrugged off the coach when he tried to approach him. We were drawing with Palace 2-2 after taking the 2-0 lead and he was dawdling on his way off… wasting time with game we were chasing. Thinking about himself rather than the team. Many players in that situation practically jog off the pitch. Players who go straight down the tunnel had either seen red or got injured. The captain should have taken his place on the bench, and cheered on our efforts to win the game. Ironic cheers from fans is no excuse to behave otherwise.

          I said at the time here on 7amkickoff that any one of those actions was bad enough… the combination of those actions were a step too far. On top of all of that, he felt that he was too big to publicly apologise to the club, his teammates and the fans.

          In my favourite game, you tuck your bat under your arm and you leave the field when you get a bad decision. You can take it out on your bat or any inanimate object in the dressing room out of sight of the fans and cameras. Xhaka went far too far. If he had only given the middle finger to the fans, fine. If he said only f-you to them, ok. If he had torn off his shirt, fine. I don’t like tossing away the armband, but that by itself I can live with. Disrespectful to the club, but not terminal. Flipping off Emery? Dont like that either but that by itself, I can live with. It is the sum total of those things. We’ve shown players the door for far less.

          Devlin tries to frame this as my having some personal disdain for the player himself, rather than his actions. That’s not correct. In fact (as I’ve been saying of late) Xhaka is playing really well at the moment, and even though he was a player I had written off, I can see his good play in Arteta’s midfield, and give him the credit he deserves for that.

          But if there was a Groundhog Day, I’d drop everything Im doing and chauffeur him to Heathrow myself.

          1. Its not about hate man, I just don’t agree with the view that he acted that way because that is how he is. Its not the first time he has been booed, subbed or walked off slowly. His actions on that occasion are not a reflection of Xhaka as an individual because we have seen hin for many years put up with all of that.

            My point is that his actions were him finally snapping instead of him being a guy who is disrespectful.

            I do however feel that you are using that one action as proof of your already existing view on him as a player. In the same way that people used Ozil’s declining of a pay cut to label him as a bad person. Ignoring that the summer prior he used his wedding as a fund raising event to pay for surgeries for kids, which he regularly does with his own money. Xhaka has been exemplary for many years at this club and somehow that action defines him? Why do we ignore everything else? Why do we ignore what he has been enduring? I have always tried to judge a person based on what they have consistently shown throughout than what proves my narrative.

            If you think Xhaka is defined as a person and player by that moment, then I have to say that you already had a negative view of him. Because if you have seen what he has been enduring, you wouldn’t view that moment in isolation.

            Upstate gooner, I have no idea how you get to that view. I don’t even know what to say to that.

          2. I agree with you.think some expects xhaka to be like ebuoe,just cry and walk off,take your medicine like a man.cantona would do the same as xhaka every second of a decade,viera won’t take it same as henry.abuse was directed to his wife,death wishes upon his newborn and all you that’s mentioned is his behaviour.sad.

          3. Let me throw this question out in the open. I’m a software engineer working for a very large company which is under contract to deliver a certain product not only on time but also free of major defects (and it’s not even a hypothetical situation for me that I’m describing). Things didn’t go as planned and now we’re under increased pressure from the customer. We’re sitting in a meeting and rightfully getting criticized. Now this is where I (hypothetically) lose it, and tell everyone in the room including the customer to F off, and storm out of the door. Will I be expecting to lose my job over this incident? My answer is Absolutely… especially so if I refuse to apologize and still proclaim my innocence. I’m an employee of the company getting paid for my services. If I don’t perform up to required standards AND being disrespectful towards not only my employer but the customer as well, I should be aware of the consequences. Now please explain to me how Xhaka’s situation is any different.

          4. it’s different because when you go home, you get to decompress. you don’t have people lambasting you or disrespecting your family on social media because of a misstep YOU made at work. the difference is you get to have a human moment to decompress and reflect. xhaka was being attacked continually.

            i’m not at all condoning xhaka’s actions on the day. however, being also human, i understand.

          5. I can gladlfully explain how Xhaka’s situation is different.

            1. Imagine having the client watch you at work and throw insults at every action that they do not find to be appropriate. And mind you, most of them are not in your field, they just expect you to give them what they want to see. This is the fans in the stands.

            2. As a software engineer, your role in the project has you in charge of building computer hardware for the client as well as creating software. This is the role that Xhaka is performing which isn’t his specialty.

            3. Your client constantly sends you emails telling you how shit you are at your job and some vile things about your family. This is the vitriol and abuse he has received for years from the media and social media.

            That is where the difference comes in. You missed everything that went into the build up to the situation, its called context. Even rightful criticism could cause someone to snap if most of what they have heard or seen was unjust and unconstructive.

            If you lose it and create a storm in the office, you should rightfully face the punishment. But as a shareholder or manager in the company, I would need to know what led to you snapping, so that I can ensure that it does not happen again, but also to take care of the mental wellbeing of my employees.

            1. Customer (fans in the stands) paid good money for the product/game ticket. So they have all the right in the world to be asking questions and criticize when what they are being served is of subpar quality. Also, keep in mind that just like the customer is not watching me work 40 hours a week and only interact with me once or twice a month for an hour or so, the fans don’t observe Xhaka in training and only get to see him on the pitch for 90 minutes a week. My assumption is that he’s a model professional when he’s getting ready ahead of any given match (otherwise I suspect the manager wouldn’t be picking him week in and week out), so I fully expect him to be the same professional football player and role model for the kids for an hour and a half that he’s playing in front of thousands in the stands and millions of people watching him on TV.
            2. Your second point got lost on me a little. I’m a software guy. No one in my company has asked me to do anything different. Xhaka is a central midfielder. That’s where he plays and earns millions doing so. I chose my profession, Xhaka chose his. There’s always a choice. If he doesn’t like his job, he can quit. If he doesn’t like the club, manager, or the fans, he can always ask for a transfer…. which he did but Arteta foolishly convinced him to stay.
            3. It’s Xhaka’s personal choice to be on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or anything else. He can delete the accounts at any time and move on. He’s in the spotlight because he’s an internationally recognized “celebrity”. But with fame comes responsibility, and one needs to accept it.

            So I didn’t really miss anything… I got a job to do, and so does Xhaka. Criticism is part of everybody’s life and it’s up to an individual on how they handle it.

            Your last point I somewhat agree with. Here’s the thing though. My employer provides me with excellent benefits. Part of those benefits is ability to get help (when needed) from psychologists, psychiatrists, life coaches, etc… Xhaka, as an employee of an Arsenal Football Club, has access to best of the best in all those fields. So if he himself or the manager felt like he wasn’t in the right state of mind because apparently it’s been brewing for some time and the person can’t just snap like that all of a sudden, then it should’ve been recognized and take care of. It wasn’t. And both coaching staff AND Xhaka himself are to blame. The latter even more so…

      3. Calling a human being a deadwood is a way of encouraging abuse.read Tim’s post and understand what he really means.

        1. Marcos,

          Deadwood, you say.

          At no point did I ever refer to Xhaka as “deadwood.” In fact, regular readers here know that I hate the term as a description of paid employees of Arsenal football club. I made some regular and none-too-popular defences of Mesut Ozil when he was deep-sixed by Arteta. You’d never hear me, directly or indirectly, calling a player deadwood. I clearly said that Xhaka has been playing well of late. So you can destroy that strawman now.

          Devlin, bro, address my point — which is that Xhaka by the sum total of his actions, crossed a line that I believe warranted his removed from the club. Fine that you disagree. Just stop making this a dissertation on me or my subconscious mind.

          You too raise a strawman. I never said that the incident defines Xhaka. I said that it warranted his removal. There’s a huge difference between those things. Engage with it. I agree that good men can snap. Someone can go the Principal’s office and trash it, because another child bloodied his son’s nose on the playground. He may still be a good man, but there are consequences he’d have to face for his reaction. Xhaka’s personal story is one I admire. But if I had been calling the shots for AFC, he’d have never put on the shirt again. That seems to me to be fairly straightforward statement of principle. I’m also going to defend the actions of fans in the ground. He got a bit of a heckling for walking off slowly… it’s what fans do. He’s a big boy. I do think that one of your theories is correct. Maybe in his head he couldnt separate that from the vile internet abuse that he (and all players) also get. But he had a responsibility to keep his control. You should see the crap that Raheem Sterling has to put up with online. But the main point is this — that is not what Xhaka was subjected to by he fans in the ground, when he lost his sheet.

          Marcos and Devlin (whose posts I really admire, but whose POV here I disagree with) illustrate one of the biggest problems of internet engagement, and why it often degenerates… you made these critiques personal. That I arrive at my POV because of some shortcoming that I have. And from there the conversation — to the extent that it was — goes into the kind of territory that nobody wants it to. It is not about me.

          Play the ball.

          1. I think I now get your point on his actions warranting punishment. I wouldn’t stand in the way of holding people accountable for their actions, especially if those actions are harmful to others, desecrate what others hold dear or just plainly break the rules. If that is where it ends, then I misunderstood and apologise.

            I do however disagree with the notion that a footballer should put up with abuse or whatever he gets from fans just because that is what fans do. When becoming a football fan, humanity shouldnt be checked at the door in the same way that people who get to use social media should not check their decency at the door when interacting online.

            We can’t say that online abuse is bad, and still find it normal that we can be vile towards players in the stadium. Why be like that? Because they earn their money from fans pockets? If that is cause for anyone to abuse another, its a slippery slope we are on. What’s next, waiters and chefs at restaurants? Its a shame that this behaviour has become normalised and is even justified.

            I also do not think the comparison with Sterling is justified because we are now jumping into what kind of abuse is worse, its all bad, especially for Xhaka who as I noted does not have the support that players like Sterling and Ozil have. This is also not an assumption of what number of stans, fans and critics they have, their socials reflect it all.

            That is why I do not subscribe to Xhaka apologising to fans, that just reeks of entitlement. Apologising to the people who are the cause of your reaction is unreasonable, belittling and I believe, soul crushing. I do however agree that he should face punishment for his actions. If it means being kicked out of the club, which is your preference ,then so be it and he would have deserved it.

            My main point though is that the player reacted, and if we do not take a deep look at the initial action by our own fans on social media and the media in general, we risk this or much worse happening again. I am sure you agree with me that what he did was bad for the club and what he has had to regularly endure is bad for any human being. We should be truthful with all that happened and try to stop it from happening to any other player and at any other club.

            So claudeivan, clean tackle?

          2. Yes, mate. Fair tackle 🙂

            Some fair points, especially on Sterling. You’re right… we shouldn’t be getting into who faces worse abuse. We cant know. Like you, I hate fans in the stadium heckling their own players, irrespective of the circumstances. I’ve said many times that our only job in the stadium is to cheer our team… be the 12th man. Make it as an intimidating an atmosphere for the opposition. That is the approach I have taken when attending Arsenal games. In my living room I cuss Pepe or whomever for crap play, but I’d never do that at a game that I have the privilege of attending. I hate heckling your own, but it has happening throughout the history of football. It can get much worse. Ask the family of poor Andres Escobar.

            You’re going to get fan jeers. Your human reaction is up to you. But know that you can and should face consequences. Upstate Gooner is right… Xhaka’s behaviour was grossly unprofessional. I’ve no issues with his currently being in the team, and can even acknowledge that generally he’s been playing well of late. All Im saying is that if it was my decision to make, I’d have shown him the door over that outburst. As it was, Emery had no choice but to strip him of the captaincy. Im not going to lose any sleep over it.

            When he grabbed a Burnley player by the throat last December and got sent off, Arsenal went on to lose a game in which they were dominant, and might have got something from. The team was in a bad slump. We needed every man to fight for points. But Xhaka undermined that. And again refused to apologise. Arteta was livid, saying it was unacceptable and even worse than Pepe’s foul in a previous game.

            There seems to be a pattern of hot-headedness on the field, and obduracy off it when it comes to repairing the damage. What caused him to “snap” on that occasion? A foul on a teammate. Not abuse of him, or even a foul on him. A foul on a teammate. Did he not know that that reaction was a red card? You can see the alarm on Auba’s face, as he and others try, too late, to pull Xhaka away.

            Sorry, I cant summon the sympathy for him — for THAT incident — that you do.

          3. I thought maybe someone would have noticed, but I rarely criticise a player unless they put the wellbeing of another in danger.

            Its not sympathy, or at least I don’t think so. It has more to do with the fact that I interact with athletes regularly and speaking to them in person helps you understand how they are just simple human beings.

            Its the same reason I had an issue with the Ozil thing. I have met players who have been through that and one almost committed suicide.

            Whether its Xhaka, Ozil, Auba, Ramsey, Santi or even RVP, I find it hard to go beyond the football on the pitch in discussing players. Anything beyond that is dangerous to me.

  7. Thanks for the post Tim. Welcome back Yesterday’s game was a useful away draw. Hopefully we can close the deal and save our season with a deep run in the Europa league.

    Myself and I am sure everyone who reads your blog agree completely with your concern regarding racial or profane personal abuse of players. For the most part on line sports blogging is good and but Its unfortunate that some use the anonymity to spout profanity, personal abuse and toxic gibberish. However, I strongly believe that any concerns that this blog might be adding to the problem are unfounded. I have been following 7amkickoff for a while now and you have never written anything abusive or even overly harsh. Like almost every sports fan you have opinions about players managers and team ownership but whatever your opinion you always back it with reasonable “footballistic” discussion to explain why you believe what you believe. Debating the merits of players, field managers or front office management has been part of being a sports fan for as long as their has been sports. I am sure the same things happened in the days of the ancient Greek olympics. Additionally the regular commenters you attract have differing opinions which I think is good and they are all respectful and debate is civil and well mannered. You run a fantastic blog and the idea that this blog might somehow be contributing to anything negative is off base in my opinion.

  8. I have a pair of Christmas card robins living in my garden who I am pleased to see survived the freezing weather last week. It’s unimaginable to me when it’s ten below zero Celcius and my fingertips are aching hard in my gloves how wee burdies survive the night out there, but they do.

    I love the blackbirds who come to visit, bright and active, the plainest of birds but somehow because of that, the epitome of small to mid-sized birdness.

    I love to hate the fat wood pigeons, massive, dull, idiot creatures with that annoying 5/4 time coo and the noisy eruption of slapping wings every time they startle into the air.

    I think it’s great to be self reflective about the online abuse stuff. I don’t think for a moment we’re a hotbed of hate on this blog. I think we generally afford players the respect they deserve, even when we don’t warm to them. We don’t have to like them and we don’t have to hide that fact, we can have fun, as long as we afford them some basic dignity. Talking about what they have or haven’t done, instead of who they are or are not, often helps.

    I was just reading the Guardian interview with Sacha Baron Cohen where he talks a lot about his activism with the social media companies in the run up to the US election. It seems he was one of the people who were instrumental in getting facebook and twitter to take the steps that they finally took to curb the worst of the conspiracy theories, not least those coming from Trump himself.

    Abuse is another thing. I’ll confess I’m bewildered as to why people with any kind of public profile would allow strangers to send messages directly to them on their phones by being on twitter or insta. I deleted twitter last year, noticed a significant improvement in my quality of life, and I’m not going back. I barely even think about it, let alone miss it. It was a massive, largely pointless distraction that allowed me to avoid dealing with important things in my life. I never got any real validation from it.

  9. Tim, thank you for returning after only a very brief break. I was saddened by your implication in ‘Focaccia’ that you might have been taking a long break from blogging or even permanently ceasing. You were missed even for those few days of silence. You probably have no idea how much your stimulating and sensible blogs on topics from the Arsenal to focaccia via Moby Dick mean to people and how many people that represents.

    The birds that visit my garden are Goldfinches (quite the most beautiful small British bird IMO), Robins (a perennial favourite), Dunnocks (LBJs), Blue Tits, Greenfinches, Long Tailed Tits, Blackbirds, Great Tits and an occasional Wren (another midget with a loud voice) and very occasional Black Spotted Woodpecker. Overhead we have Seagulls, Crows, Jackdaws and soaring Buzzards.

    I am no baker, but I do admire your commitment to the cause and envy you your expertise. I’m very good at eating nice bread and good pizzas though. So, if you ever overproduce and want to ship samples, I’m your man.

    No player should have to put up with online abuse. The point is well made by several of your correspondents that this is an extension of the terracing abuse that used to be so common in British football grounds but was often laced with humour. There is no defence for online abuse as there isn’t for face to face abuse and like others, I am astonished that so many high profile individuals have Twitter accounts that are open to it. I agree that those who indulge in online abuse should be identified and have their access to sites closed down.

    Keep up the good work, sir.

      1. I’m unashamed to confess I haven’t a clue how to bake a Bath bun. I know where you could buy a good one prior to the pandemic lockdowns. Who knows if that bakery will reopen? My favourite rolls are the ‘softie’ and the ‘buttery’ found in the north-east of Scotland. Very different from rolls elsewhere in Scotland let alone elsewhere in the UK.

Comments are closed.

Related articles