Saints are top of the league, but certain sections of our support seem to have a vendetta against Guly Du Prado, the big question is why ?
Back in November I put up a story on this site saying how appalled I was at some so called Saints fans at Doncaster openly singing anti Guly songs, I hoped that it was an isolated incident, however it is still simmering below the surface and as Saints struggled at Millwall and appeared likely to lose the game, a sizable number of Saints fans were giving Guly pelters again.
regular poster on the message board and myself stood there and couldnt believe our ears at some of the comments directed at the man, let me say first of all though that I dont believe that any of it was racist, I didnt hear any comments of that nature, but for some reason some supporters have taken a dislike against Guly.
But why ? yes on Saturday Guly wasnt great, but to be blunt he was no worse than any of the players around him and putting himself around a lot more than Rickie Lambert who again being blunt was annonymous for most of the second half, but when Lambert or De Ridder gave away the ball cheaply they werent barracked, but if Guly did whether it was his fault or not he was abused loudly by some.
Of course there have always been whipping boys at Saints as in any other football club, but what is different now is that the younger Saints fans seem to have different ideals than those slightly older, when we were at the Dell the players that we idolised where not neccessarily those that ran about a lot, they were the flare players, Mick Channon, Matt Le Tissier, Peter Osgood to name but three, now though the younger generation dont seem to appreciate that, they see speed as being the sign of a great player and someone who runs about a lot gets cheered to the rafters, hence we had Bradley Wright Phillips idolised by the Northam, whilst Kenwynne Jones was often castigated, Mikail Antonio was seen as a great player because he had speed and every now and again had a decent game amongst a host of indifferent ones and now we have Steve De Ridder virtually a cult hero whilst Guly is openly abused.
hose with any kind of memory will recall that neither of that trio of idols from yesteryear put themselves about a lot.
But as they say in Yorkshire "there is nowt as queer as folk" and I cant see why these fans have such a hatred of Guly, he has scored a decent amount of goals this season and a good number of assists on top, although he hasnt scored for a while, he is still up there in the goalscoring charts, if he took our penalties then he would be the top scorer in the Championship, Im not saying he is as good as Lambert, he isnt, but he is stiill a decent player whose game has suffered due to his versatility and so he has been used in a number of positions.
The irony of the situiation is that usually after the abuse of Guly, praise of Nigel Adkins is forthcomin g from the same lips, it doesnt seem to occur to the Guly abusers that the reason that Guly is in the team is because the manager is picking him, if Guly is that bad then the manager isnt doing a good job, i hear the phrase In Adkins We Trust from time to time, thats true we have to trust him and if we do so and back him 100% then that includes supporting every player that he puts out on the pitch.
I like all supporters have players I rate and those that I dont, but those i dont like get my total support when they are picked to play, I dont blame them for playing, I question why they are picked and the place to do that is on supporter websites like this and not at the match.
So time for the Guly haters to put their prejudices to one side, the important thing now is to win promotion, the time is here to be positive, support the team 100% and that means each and every player, whoever they are, if it is Guly who scores the goal that wins us promotion then so be it, I for one will have a wry smile