The 'memefication' of footballers

[Trequarista10]

I agree with the promise of the thread. He's lacking confidence and stuck in a rut as a figure of ridicule.

It's also worsened by several factors. The price tag, which everyone agrees was too much for his ability. Being made captain after a few months, when his profile and experience didn't match the status of the role. The the shenanigans that happened in Greece as well.

If he had been bought for £50m, wasn't captain, he wouldn't have taken so much flack, and he'd probably be making less mistakes. Instead he looks like a nervous wreck who is equally likely to slip up or burst in tears at any moment.

 

[Dave Smith]

Social media in general is just a cesspool, with every moron who desires to be 'heard' trying to shout the loudest. I am not on any channel and have no desire to join either.

Personally, if I were a player I would have SM accounts for the coin, but have it handed over to a handler I trusted (ideally a family member) and tell them not to be too glib with it or rise to the bait.

After that, I would just go about my day an try and avoid the sports pages/searches unless specific to other teams for research.

The day to day stuff however, I would really struggle with. Feck having people randomly videoing you/wanting pictures of you all the time. That would feck me right off.

 

[Gums]

Anyway, just some thoughts. Go at it and I'll see you on page 11 where two people will for some reason be arguing about Pochettino or racism or something.

Spot on, made me laugh.

In general, it‘s a bad situation. The middle class is dead, also in opinions. It‘s either end of the spectrum.

The quality of the protective love or the ridiculing hatred is the same across leagues and clubs, but the impact is relative to the size of the fanbase. That‘s magnified for everything Utd because we have such a large following. And that is amplified even more through the media, which keeps the flame burning. We‘re in a vicious cycle from which there is no escape.

Too big to fail in a negative sense.

 

[Sky1981]

This is not happening at any other team though. Only us. Maybe it's united DNA?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

How much of a problem is this and can it actually have a severe impact on a player/team in today's constantly connected society?

I was just thinking about how this has happened to Harry Maguire recently.

Totally agree. I've said this multiple times here that while I think Maguire's performances are an issue for us, this memeification of him is a little pathetic. Every frickin youtube you watch has some brainless unfunny joke about him. Its tiresome and frankly, unhealthy.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

I mean, you’re not wrong. And obviously the whole notion of targetted abuse of individuals on social media is vile.

It’s just that sometimes you take a step back and think how can this person go through hell by looking at apps they could so easily choose not to look at? I know I’m always banging on about this but I dip in and out of Twitter intermittently and it always sours my mood, just a little bit. Not because I’m being abused. It’s just a pretty miserable place. During the spells when I delete the app of my phone I don’t miss it at all. And my life is improved.

I’m as bad as the footballers really. Such a simple step to better mental health. So weird that people are so reluctant to take it.

While that's a good idea I do think the whole social media pile on flows into real life too. Maguire will be getting a lot more abuse and mocking from fans / public due to his broken image on social media.

 

[Bebestation]

Is there "memefication" of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City players?

 

[tenpoless]

I think live booing from your own fans is still the worst for the players. As for the memefication, it depends on the players character. You have to remember players like Ronaldo and Messi also has their memes whenever they feck up, even more because their fans seem to dislike each other but they seem to be unaffected by it. Others like Lukaku for example would take it personally and try to defend himself. The thing about memes is that you cant control it and as with other meme figures, not only footballers the best way to deal it with is to join the laugh as some of them are indeed funny, then you just try to do your job as usual. You cant put internet as your enemy, its a battle you will never win. Remember Fellaini? he was made a meme, hated by his own fans, made fun out of because of his pshyical appearance and yet he tried his best, granted his best is not World Class level but he seemed to be unaffected negatively by it. He did his best and didnt try to point his finger on the memes or the haters to blame them for his performances. By the end of the day its the persons character. Some of our players have a personality of wet noodles.

 

[Andersonson]

Thats the way its become, even for me. Sad.

 

[RedBanker]

Maguire is not helping his cause by running his mouth like an utter fool. For the millions he is being paid he should be professional enough to flip the bird to his detractors through his performances. Not by publicly spewing his delusions of grandeur. Or just kung fu kicking an abusive fan, maybe? But knowing Maguire he will probably just fail to jump over the ad boards.

 

[RussellWilson]

I think when it gets really bad, players just need to move on. A change of scenery and change of fortunes and you certainly unmeme yourself.

Recent examples being Lukaku at Inter, certainly was a meme at United. David Moyes, West ham fans were furious he got the full time gig and now the man is worshipped. Shaw through his England performances. And I think Fred is beginning too, especially if pundits start giving him more credit.

But it's possible, takes a strong character however, and I think the likes of Maguire and Rashford don't have it to overcome it and need to move on.

 

[RussellWilson]

The Maguire one is odd because even my non United mates where singing his song all summer with England. Proper hated United but singing a United players name like that, granted its a good chant.

Within 6 months he's the most hated player in the country, very odd. But that's playing for United.

 

[ROFLUTION]

It's not just memes. Its threads on this forum too.

To begin with, every sane/funny man used RedCafe and internetforums/facebook and posted there. Now the threads are mostly sensationalist users looking for a special opinion and a thing/view/thread that has not been picked up by others. Or sometimes its just loons with an absurd opinion that hasn't been contradicted because the radical loon has no normal friends in real life to contradict the extreme opinion. This isolates the loon, making the look believe that his threads are great.

These threads and people make more noise than normal threads, and it makes the normal users want not to post/debate. The loons just gets backed up by more loons on the internet.

A small example of this is that a thread like the McTominay thread now gets traction after one game where he doesn't pass well. It magnifies the faults in one game, and makes McT look like a bad passer- He's usually one of the most safe passers in our team

 

[JeffFromHK]

I think when it gets really bad, players just need to move on. A change of scenery and change of fortunes and you certainly unmeme yourself.

Recent examples being Lukaku at Inter, certainly was a meme at United. David Moyes, West ham fans were furious he got the full time gig and now the man is worshipped. Shaw through his England performances. And I think Fred is beginning too, especially if pundits start giving him more credit.

But it's possible, takes a strong character however, and I think the likes of Maguire and Rashford don't have it to overcome it and need to move on.

mental strength is a prerequisite for elite footballers.

Beckham was an enemy of England after WC98 and he was frozen on the bench by Capello but he overcame the odds himself.

Brazilian ronaldo could barely play football for 3 seasons and he scored lots in WC 2002.

Benzema had all legal troubles for years and his performance is not much affected.

Messi and Ronaldo has been jeered, mocked, and ridiculed by haters for more than a decade.

If your performance gets affected tremendously by those memes, then don't wear Man Utd shirt

 

[Zetrio2002]

They are paid so much as footballers. They ought to know how to control their mindset. If they can't, they can always hire a counsellor or personal coach. LeBron James also hired personal coaches for himself during the off-season.

 

[Lord SInister]

Memes= joke which shouldn't be taken seriously. It is just for laugh.

Problem in today's world is social media is no longer accessible to just like minded people who can understand the difference between jokes and reality. So it creates an image of people who are the subject of that meme.

 

[Lord SInister]

mental strength is a prerequisite for elite footballers.

Beckham was an enemy of England after WC98 and he was frozen on the bench by Capello but he overcame the odds himself.

Brazilian ronaldo could barely play football for 3 seasons and he scored lots in WC 2002.

Benzema had all legal troubles for years and his performance is not much affected.

Messi and Ronaldo has been jeered, mocked, and ridiculed by haters for more than a decade.

If your performance gets affected tremendously by those memes, then don't wear Man Utd shirt

My man spitting facts.

 

[Lord SInister]

Is there "memefication" of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City players?

Yes.
Werner is the biggest meme out there. Lukaku is another one.
Kante is also a meme material.

Pep is the arguably the biggest meme material out there after Harry.

But Pep and Kante aren't memed for their performance but their certain moments.

Liverpool players, Karius was one. But they are a bunch of boring stale personalities. So yeah the biggest meme material they have is Jurgen himself.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

mental strength is a prerequisite for elite footballers.

Beckham was an enemy of England after WC98 and he was frozen on the bench by Capello but he overcame the odds himself.

Brazilian ronaldo could barely play football for 3 seasons and he scored lots in WC 2002.

Benzema had all legal troubles for years and his performance is not much affected.

Messi and Ronaldo has been jeered, mocked, and ridiculed by haters for more than a decade.

If your performance gets affected tremendously by those memes, then don't wear Man Utd shirt

Responds to thread about persecution on social media with examples from before social media was invented…

 

[duffer]

Is there "memefication" of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City players?

No. Nobody has ever joked about Werner or Lukaku for example.

 

[SilentWitness]

It doesn’t help at all. What’s worse now is the YouTube and twitch channels that do watchalongs and talk absolute guff. True Geordie abs his mob were trying to claim Maguire was a Championship footballer.
they usually don’t support lesser teams/lower league tables teams so talk nonsense when it comes to most of the league and younger fans suck it all in.

 

[roonster09]

It doesn’t help at all. What’s worse now is the YouTube and twitch channels that do watchalongs and talk absolute guff. True Geordie abs his mob were trying to claim Maguire was a Championship footballer.
they usually don’t support lesser teams/lower league tables teams so talk nonsense when it comes to most of the league and younger fans suck it all in.

Forget Twitter numpties, I saw posts on caf which supported VdV's point that you can easily find 3-4 better CBs playing in Netherlands parks than Maguire.

 

[JeffFromHK]

Responds to thread about persecution on social media with examples from before social media was invented…

getting trolled on twitter and ig really hurts you more than being booed every where in your own country after WC 98?

and how Benzema, Messi and ronaldo not live in the social media age?
you should know how much ronaldo is mocked every single day?

 

[Pogue Mahone]

getting trolled on twitter and ig really hurts you more than being booed every where in your own country after WC 98?

Yes. Plus Beckham was shown nothing but love from United fans. Which obviously made a huge difference.

and how Benzema, Messi and ronaldo not live in the social media age?
you should know how much ronaldo is mocked every single day?

The thread is about footballers dealing with being hated/mocked by everyone (including fans of the club they play for) online. Not players who divide opinions.

 

[Conor]

Maguire has done nothing to help himself, the general footballing public wouldn't give a shit about what he's doing if he wasn't knee sliding goals in friendlies and other silly stuff like that. Utd fans are always going to give out about their players, but when you have someone as oblivious as him in the public eye, things will be picked up on and blown up by everyone.

 

[Solius]

No. Nobody has ever joked about Werner or Lukaku for example.

I mentioned them in my OP tbf.

 

[duffer]

I mentioned them in my OP tbf.

I aint got time to read all that.

I see a headline and I reply with the first thing which enters my brain.

 

[Daydreamer]

I think the OP is generally correct… just not in the case of Maguire.

When you are the:

• Captain of Man United
• First choice for England
• Most expensive defender of all time

and you serve up the performances he has over almost an entire season - you are going to get hammered in any period of history. The only difference is that fans may have had to send him hate mail by carrier-pigeon instead.

 

[padr81]

I think the OP is generally correct… just not in the case of Maguire.

When you are the:

• Captain of Man United
• First choice for England
• Most expensive defender of all time

and you serve up the performances he has over almost an entire season - you are going to get hammered in any period of history. The only difference is that fans may have had to send him hate mail by carrier-pigeon instead.

I wonder though if the blowback wasn't so hard and the abuse so bad would he be playing quite as bad? Would he have got over this bad patch quickly.
Reminds me of how the media led a fan revolt vs Sterling and nearly ruined him

 

[manutddjw]

Beckham thing proves how rare a sustained campaign against someone was really since it stands out. Plus it was about one incident. There weren’t many others like that. Now it’s constant and purely based on poor form, over the course of seasons or even years. Phil Jones has been ridiculed for about 6 years now. Maguire the whole season. Werner all of last season and most of this season. Obviously the abuse Saka, Rashford and Sancho got in the summer.

The Beckham hate was more than the World Cup. Either he was subject to homophonic chants or he’d hear what 45% of the stadium would do to his wife or what they thought his wife did. Again Beckham rose above it. Abuse is no excuse for Rashford being lazy

 

[AFC NimbleThumb]

It’s far easier for a player to regain form when said form was there to begin with. Maguires issue is certainly exacerbated by the attention but a truly elongated period of good form has never existed in his United career. If anything the overreaction this season is a balance to the excuses made as far back as Project Restart.

It funny you mention Phil Jones as a ‘joke figure’ when if anything the treatment of Phil Jones has been far less warranted [bomb threat excluded] as one has unfortunately been injured whereas the other simply has not been good enough.

Memefication doesn’t seem to impact good teams, todays meme is yesterdays banter club, is yesterdays joke of a club, it’s simply our turn.

 

[WeePat]

I mean, you’re not wrong. And obviously the whole notion of targetted abuse of individuals on social media is vile.

It’s just that sometimes you take a step back and think how can this person go through hell by looking at apps they could so easily choose not to look at? I know I’m always banging on about this but I dip in and out of Twitter intermittently and it always sours my mood, just a little bit. Not because I’m being abused. It’s just a pretty miserable place. During the spells when I delete the app of my phone I don’t miss it at all. And my life is improved.

I’m as bad as the footballers really. Such a simple step to better mental health. So weird that people are so reluctant to take it.

Fans will target whatever they can find. Footballer's family members, especially partners, are usually very visible on social media and often become the prime target for abuse themselves.

Yeah, it seems like a simple solution to the problem, but unless everyone close to the player also does the same, you are just moving the target of abuse over to a different person.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

The Beckham hate was more than the World Cup. Either he was subject to homophonic chants or he’d hear what 45% of the stadium would do to his wife or what they thought his wife did. Again Beckham rose above it. Abuse is no excuse for Rashford being lazy

Beckham was never shown anything but unconditional love from Manchester United fans, on or off the pitch. The situations then and now aren’t comparable.

 

[padr81]

It doesn’t help at all. What’s worse now is the YouTube and twitch channels that do watchalongs and talk absolute guff. True Geordie abs his mob were trying to claim Maguire was a Championship footballer.
they usually don’t support lesser teams/lower league tables teams so talk nonsense when it comes to most of the league and younger fans suck it all in.

True Geordie is a massive pos, That Chelsea guy that pops up everywhere with the blonde hair who's been on his show is a great example of a guy who's not so bad but constantly calls people like Maguire shit and riles people up. He's like one of us but a perfect example of how this spreads and becomes worse.

 

[Blood Mage]

I'd argue that some of our players are spending too much time on social media, and that if they mentally can't handle being mocked on the internet then they can't handle the pressure of playing for Manchester United and shouldn't be here.

 

[studs]

If you are willing to step into the fire, you have to be ready to take the burns.

 

[padr81]

mental strength is a prerequisite for elite footballers.

Beckham was an enemy of England after WC98 and he was frozen on the bench by Capello but he overcame the odds himself.

Brazilian ronaldo could barely play football for 3 seasons and he scored lots in WC 2002.

Benzema had all legal troubles for years and his performance is not much affected.

Messi and Ronaldo has been jeered, mocked, and ridiculed by haters for more than a decade.

If your performance gets affected tremendously by those memes, then don't wear Man Utd shirt

Nonsense. Pure and utter shit actually as are all the posts following this line of thinking.

Lets apply that logic elsewhere.

You're wife works in a bank. Other people come into the bank and consistently talk shit about her, post things about her, call her names and run her into the ground. She can't escape it when she goes home, finds it on social media etc.. Its affecting her mental health and performance at work?
She's not fit to wear the shirt of HSBC right?

Maybe she should try and get a transfer to a smaller bank.

Essentially victim blaming.

 

[JeffFromHK]

Nonsense. Pure and utter shit actually as are all the posts following this line of thinking.

Lets apply that logic elsewhere.

You're wife works in a bank. Other people come into the bank and consistently talk shit about her, post things about her, call her names and run her into the ground. She can't escape it when she goes home, finds it on social media etc.. Its affecting her mental health and performance at work?
She's not fit to wear the shirt of HSBC right?

Maybe she should try and get a transfer to a smaller bank.

Essentially victim blaming.

You honestly think that it's a good analogy comparing ordinary bank staff members with a CELEBRITY who is considered to be top 0.001% of his kind (footballer) earning 100k+ a week?

Applying your logic, all politicians (particularly in democracies) shall get a great excuse of doing their job poorly. Politicians have been "meme-ized" for decades if not centuries, they are constantly mocked and harassed, turned into villains or jokers in comics, sometimes hated by their entire nation or even the entire world. But no one is gonna say "Hey, stop mocking Biden/Trump/Johnson/Imran Khan/[insert any other names]", don't hurt his mental health or he will do his job poorly", since we all know the mental stress and tortures of their jobs ,and dealing with such stresses and tortures are PART of their job. Similarly, elite footballers, especially those playing for Man Utd, are expected to deal with the pressure of mockery since it is almost a certainty that you will be mocked and hated by fans of other clubs. Hundreds of millions of people you do not know will CHEER for your failure as a Man Utd player. They are also expected to deal with the immense pressure that a single miskick or silly foul or lapse of concentration will make his club lose tens of millions pounds and dismay hundreds of millions fans worldwide.

There is NO WAY you can ban random fans from America, Asia or Africa, be it Man Utd fan or not, calling "Maguire is a fridge" "Slabhead" "Maguire is the biggest enemy of De Gea" "Maguire is the best player of 19 clubs", etc (neither is it right and feasible from public administration's point of view banning such comments or even criminalizing such comments on the social media). Thus, there are only two possible responses to "memefication" of our footballers: (1) finding players who can withstand pressure of mockey and getting "memefized"; (2) train our players psychologically to withstand those things. These are what I asked for.

P.S. Well, you are a City fans, so you would surely love Man Utd players be as snowflake as possible so that they will collapse mentally at key and stressful moments

P.P.S. I wonder if the moderator can ban you for your improper language used. I am a snowflake and am offended by your language. I am not expected to be called s**t on this forum being a little member, my mental health is affected by your post.

 

[Someone]

The current content currently about Maguire on social made me feel really bad for him. I think modern footballers must avoid social media at all costs. It's a challenge that didn't exist in the past but now I'm worried it could dive some of them to a dark path. They can't control social media but they can try to avoid it.

 

[padr81]

You honestly think that it's a good analogy comparing ordinary bank staff members with a CELEBRITY who is considered to be top 0.001% of his kind (footballer) earning 100k+ a week?

Applying your logic, all politicians (particularly in democracies) shall get a great excuse of doing their job poorly. Politicians have been "meme-ized" for decades if not centuries, they are constantly mocked and harassed, turned into villains or jokers in comics, sometimes hated by their entire nation or even the entire world. But no one is gonna say "Hey, stop mocking Biden/Trump/Johnson/Imran Khan/[insert any other names]", don't hurt his mental health or he will do his job poorly", since we all know the mental stress and tortures of their jobs ,and dealing with such stresses and tortures are PART of their job. Similarly, elite footballers, especially those playing for Man Utd, are expected to deal with the pressure of mockery since it is almost a certainty that you will be mocked and hated by fans of other clubs. Hundreds of millions of people you do not know will CHEER for your failure as a Man Utd player. They are also expected to deal with the immense pressure that a single miskick or silly foul or lapse of concentration will make his club lose tens of millions pounds and dismay hundreds of millions fans worldwide.

There is NO WAY you can ban random fans from America, Asia or Africa, be it Man Utd fan or not, calling "Maguire is a fridge" "Slabhead" "Maguire is the biggest enemy of De Gea" "Maguire is the best player of 19 clubs", etc (neither is it right and feasible from public administration's point of view banning such comments or even criminalizing such comments on the social media). Thus, there are only two possible responses to "memefication" of our footballers: (1) finding players who can withstand pressure of mockey and getting "memefized"; (2) train our players psychologically to withstand those things. These are what I asked for.

P.S. Well, you are a City fans, so you would surely love Man Utd players be as snowflake as possible so that they will collapse mentally at key and stressful moments

P.P.S. I wonder if the moderator can ban you for your improper language used. I am a snowflake and am offended by your language. I am not expected to be called s**t on this forum being a little member, my mental health is affected by your post.

Its good to see you think people on high wages and being a celebrities are immune to mental health and bullying. The rest is just excusing you feeling you're/others are entitled to insult people.
If you can't see the difference between legit criticism and the crappy pictures you posted, I feel sorry.

I didn't call you shit, I called your post shit. Its an easy distinction to make and within the forum rules. You should grow up.