Online ‘experts’ undermine revival

IT’S always amusing and irritating in equal measure, to see social media posts from keyboard warriors who think they have the analytical footballing intelligence of Arsene Wenger or Jose Mourinho.

Bob* from Tadley, who played occasional low level Sunday league football 30 years ago to make up the numbers for his pub team, lambasts an ex professional player who has managed for a decade. Inevitably Bob doesn’t have a full grasp of the facts, because he’s never been to training and last went to a game three years ago. No matter. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, right?

I’ve noticed recently truly knowledgeable folk often trot out the “everyone’s entitled to an opinion” line. Meanwhile, Bob and his mates on social media hammer away with such assured confidence about team selection, tactics, game plans and the worth of players, there’s a danger they’re taken as some sort of footballing oracle. Bob from Tadley is the fount of all football knowledge, possessing the sort of insight a manager who has spent years studying the game, surrounds themselves with similarly intelligent people and has enjoyed success as a player and coach, can only dream of.

This attitude has become particularly detectable in the last couple of weeks following Reading FC. Despite Reading only losing once in their last six games, taking 10 points from their last five games and charging up to within spitting distance of the play offs, some fans on social media are bemoaning the style. They say games aren’t entertaining enough, the players need to adopt different tactics and the approach is all wrong. Reading some of the comments on social media, you’d have thought manager Leam Richardson was getting it all wrong, guiding the club towards relegation and League 2, not masterminding an extraordinary rise up the table to become serious promotion contenders.

It’s football snobbery and intellectualising a simple game on the part of these moaning fans. It’s only a relatively small, noisy band but it’s in danger of becoming less amusing and more irritating. Reading v Bolton on a cold Tuesday evening in February will not be like a barmy evening in Budapest at the end of May when the Champions League final kicks off. It’ll probably be more like Bob’s debut for the pub team on a Sunday morning back in 1979.

When I began my sports science degree I was told by an extremely wise professor “the more you know, the more you realise you don’t know”. I’m a big fan of Donald Rumsfold’s infamous “known knowns and known unknowns” quote. It perfectly sums up highly intelligent professionals and ill informed amateurs when it comes to football nowadays.

Shouldn’t fans just enjoy the run of games, and the shift up the table, rather than over-analyse? Jack Marriott’s on fire. Leam Richardson’s statistically one of the most successful managers Reading have ever had. There’s a chance they could crash the play offs. Let’s leave the rest of it to the people who really know, Bob.

*Bob is a fictional character. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.