Manchester City's new signing is currently the most-hated man in football, and it will be the making of the former Liverpool player Raheem Sterling, as it was for David Beckham, John Terry and Ashley Cole
Hate will make Raheem Sterling a great player
Fan abuse will be the making of Raheem Sterling. The Hate will commence in earnest on Monday night, at West Bromwich Albion, because he transferred away from Liverpool for £49million this summer. Should he care? Only in that it will help him become the player he was born to be.
Firstly, no footballer worth his stupidly large headphones gives a monkey’s if the fans boo them.
We supporters who “pay their wages” are nothing more than a walking wallet to Premier League footballers. And why should they think any different? Most people in most lines of work wouldn’t mind their job if it wasn’t for the customers, and footballers are no different. The opinions of people who know nothing about what it means to be a professional footballer mean nothing to the players.
Fans talk about loyalty and betrayal. Grow up. The concept of loyalty to a football club is the sort of thing that children believe in. As in any other job, footballers are used by their employer and when their usefulness expires, they are discarded. Only a mug would be loyal to a football club who will buy and sell them like cattle when it suits.
First class travel: Raheem Sterling was on the move this summer Photo: EPA
Sterling will walk a line that many have before in the Premier League, the role of public enemy number one for the adult babies on the terraces. He takes his place in a pantheon of pantomime villains that has run from David Beckham to John Terry. Most of the most significant players of the last couple of decades have been hated at some point, and Sterling will become a better footballer for it.
In 1998, Beckham was hung in effigy in the streets for getting sent off against Argentina; within four years he was the most popular footballer in the country, and is now nearly universally liked.
Hanged: Fans in Norwood expressed their hatred of David Beckham after the 1998 World Cup Photo: COLLECT
The man who inherited his number seven shirt at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, went from derided, pouting show pony to the best footballer on the planet.
Ashley Cole nearly crashed his car when he was only offered a five grand pay-rise, left Arsenal in protest at the outrageous slur, and became a European champion and probably the best left-back in the world.
Ashley Cole rarely seemed bothered by the mountain of hatred he attracted Photo: ACTION IMAGES
Sol Campbell left Tottenham to become an Invincible, the vile taunts of Tottenham fans spurring him on to becoming one of the great political thinkers of his time. Well, perhaps not.
Spurs fans make their point to Sol Campbell via the always enjoyable medium of the A4 printout Photo: AFP/GETTY
Being pilloried in the press as a racist as a racist (even though he was found not guilty in court of a racially aggravated public order offence against Anton Ferdinand) and as a love rat made John Terry only more determined to carry on playing and put it up to the knockers and the boo boys.
The sheer bloody-mindedness of elite sportspeople should never be underestimated. Only the second-raters are ever lessened by abuse from the peanut gallery.
Leaving the warm bath of modest expectation and Brentdon’s arm-around-the-shoulder style will propel Sterling on to the next level. Hatred from the terraces will galvanize him, add a hardness to his already exceptional talent.
A further cautionary tale for fans looking to boo Sterling should be the case of Robbie Savage. Savage absolutely gloried in his pariah status and managed to parlay it into an ubiquitous post-playing media career.
Ask yourself if you want to be watching Raheem Sterling on Match Of The Day in 15 years’ time.
If the answer is “God, no thanks” then keep your mouth shut. These people do not need any encouragement.
