.....am I alone in getting really pissed off about this now?
Yesterday we had Daniel Sturridge scoring a critical equaliser for Liverpool at Man City, it was a terrific goal from distance and one which he must have been overjoyed with and what was his response? He stood there, arms down in the 'I can't celebrate against my old team' bullshit, WTF is all that about?
If someone plays 200 games somewhere and becomes a club legend then scores against that club (like Beckham against Man United for example) then I can see the logic but FFS Sturridge played a grand total of 21 games for Man City and left there four years ago - since when they have become one of the biggest clubs in the world without him, so what's the no celebrating all about?
I remember being pissed of when Hasselbaink refused to celebrate when he scored for us at Stamford Bridge in 2006, for my money once you are wearing a clubs shirt then you should be 100% committed to the cause, not worrying about how a rival teams fans are going to feel if you score against them.
God, I feel better now!
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Am I right in thinking Sturridge came through city's academy?
I'd be mightly p*ssed off if Shelvey scored against us and celebrated
Oh okay.
As for Shelvey, it would not bother me one bit if he celebrated against us, he's a West Ham fan and with all respect to the player is not exactly a CAFC legend anyway, he barely played a full season at the club.
Villa were managed by Billy McNeill (AKA Big Caesar) who had bombed Melrose out of both Celtic AND Manchester City, telling him he wasn't good enough for top-level football.
After Melrose scored a cracking goal he ran right across the pitch and got within about 10 yards of McNeil and gave him an absolute gobful.
Villa were relegated, McNeill got sacked and we stayed up!
Hasslewank showed the sort of respect I'd like all those who left us to do
I know when Parker scored that screamer, for the Toon I think , I'd have preferred a more muted celebration
But I can understand it either way , a personal choice for a player really and I'm sure it depends on how they got on/left a club/or what abuse they are getting
And when one of ours scores for us I'm more interested in celebrating with who's nearby than studying too much of our players reaction
Thought JFH showed some class when not over celebrating his goal for us v Chelsea. He'd done his job by scoring so the lack of ott celebration on his part did us no harm.
I am not asking for the player to do an 'Adebayor' but it doesn't sit right with me that a player is being paid 15K per week (as JFH probably was or thereabouts) to play for us and then when he scores his first goal for the club is more concerned about 'offending' his old team than he is in showing his new team mates and fans that he is thrilled to score for THEM.
At the time the JFH thing happened I was not too bothered as I was a bit 'starstruck' given his reputation and, fair enough, he probably does qualify as a Chelsea 'legend' but when I think about it it actually does stick in my craw that he was more interested in preserving his status with Chelsea fans than showing Charlton fans that he was busting his gut for THEIR team now.
Same thing goes for Sturridge (who did the same thing when he scored for Chelsea against Bolton), if I were a Liverpool fan watching that after my club had given him a lifeline and paid 12 million quid for him, I'd be thinking, "Why is he so worried about offending Man City fans? He should be going mental after scoring a goal like that!"
If I remember rightly, in the most controversial transfer of all Mo Johnston did not hold back on celebrating when he scored for Rangers against Celtic!
I think fat jimmy scored his only other goal against Boro so prolly didn't celebrate that either
of course we'd all love em to be kissing the badge and weeping like it meant the world to them but it means a hell of a lot to some and not so much to others
a bit like us fans ....some would show their passion and distraughtness at losing to a local rival by smashing a seat , some waterpipes or damaging some cars and some would just go home having a tourettes fit inside their head !
Players should be happy to score - Parker's celebration mentioned above was fine to me because he sought out his own fans rather than jump around in front of the Covered End.
Celebrate with your own team, don't rub it in, but generally the Denis Law "I'm not celebrating while United are relegated" look is OTT.
Think it's a bit late to start 'respecting' the club now.
Imagine a Johnny Robinson or Steve Brown scoring against us in the last minute to send us down, I would expect a similar reaction.
And I dont think Graham Stuart celebrated when he scored at Goodison either.
Of course, in an extreme case like a former player sending his old team down a la Law in 1975 then a bit of tact is required as you don't want to start a riot but that is very, very rare.
When Parker scored against us and went mental in that 3-1 game I could not have cared less, to me he was a great player for us but treated us with contempt so he meant nothing to me whatsoever.
With Mark Kinsella, when I heard he had celebrated beating us with Villa up there I did not mind at all, we had sold the bloke and replaced him with Parker so could have no complaints.
I think that's the point though, Law was a club legend, United were going down, it was a great gesture, and in cases like that I agree with it. It's overused now though.
That player may still have a lot of time for the coaching staff, the tea lady, the friends of theirs who are supporters, whatever it might be.
Get off your high horses.