last year, mid-October
Barryboogate just leaves me confused
I’m not normally the level headed one but as all the dust settles on the weekend and BarryBooGate I find myself with the calm voice for once.
I loathe the people who boo Barry. They are miserable people and I’d rather push my face over a cheese grater than knock about with someone that quick to criticise a bloke who seems so bloody likeable but that is them.
I guess you can see their point in booing Barry cause if they want to find the guy who is least able to kick a football in she squad they have probably got it bang on. Me, if I was the type who got his porks letting it out at the football, I’d probably be more likely to boo someone like Michael Standing who could play well if he could be bothered.
I guess I’d think that no matter how much you shout at Barry he is never going to be able to kick a ball better but shouting at Standing might have made him get his finger out. Personally I’d like shouting at people who shout at players to try get them to close their mouths. I get really tired of people wanting to defend their right to spout garbage. Have you noticed that people who talk sense never bleat on about freedom of speech? They just speak.
But that is not the point the point is this.
Booing Barry is nothing compared to the grumbling and the booing that we got against Exeter and Bournemouth as well as Luton. I’m a big one for saying that everyone should get behind the boys and all and most of the time I get that people are not going to go crazy when the team is not winning but we got booed off at half time against Exeter and at full time we were top of the league.
I mean it might just be me but there is something wrong with this picture.
I hate booing at football. I don’t think it makes players play any better and if anything it makes them play worse but I’m proper puzzled at the trend to boo players when they are doing well.
Forty five minutes from the top of the league is doing well. In the play off places is doing well. To be honest in terms of this club over the last ten years not being relegated is doing well. I just don’t understand.
I guess if you were the type that thought a good boo made people play better then you might be thinking you were doing everyone a favour but I don’t think if you talked to any of the players they would agree. In fact I think if you went up to Barry Conlon and said “I booed you cause I thought you would play better” he would say “Well I guess it did cause I scored” but be thinking about how good it would feel to smack you about the head.
I hate booking at football cause I think it is kicking guys when they are down but this kicking of the guys when they are up is beyond hating and is just confusing.
October 9th, 2008 at 22:25
Good article again and bring back memories of the one I wrote a couple of years ago for you - Let’s boo the boo boys. Does nothing change with city? Are fans really that frustrated with life to scream and shout and boo on a saturday afternoon?
Dont know if you can dig out the old article?
Regards,
David.
October 9th, 2008 at 23:55
I totally agree with you Roland. I post regularly on the T&A website and have spent all week trying to defend the big guy. Any other striker at any other club scoring his 100th career goal would have been rejoiced. Not at City, the boy gets booed instead! UNBELIEVABLE!!
What I don’t get is that his record isn’t that bad. Admittedly, he doesn’t suit playing as a target man up front on his own (as seen in the games against Huddersfield & Shrewsbury). However, if chances are made, he will score some goals. He isn’t prolific, but neither is Heskey and how many games does he get booed in?
For the record, here are some stats I posted on the T&A website to back up my argument that Conlon isn’t a poor striker:
“This week, Bazza scored his 100th career goal. He has just gone 30 years old. Whilst, Michael Boulding has only scored 85 career goals (and 22 of them came last season). He is 32 years old.”
CONLON’s record (this season)
League - Played 2(4) Goals 1
Cup - Played 2(0) Goals 1
Totals - Played 4(4) Goals 2
Goals per appearance ratio 0.25
BOULDING’s record (this season)
League - Played 7(2) Goals 3
Cup - Played 1(1) Goals 0
Total - Played 8(3) Goals 3
Goals per appearance ratio 0.27
October 10th, 2008 at 10:58
Barry Conlons record for City is 1 in 6. If you feel that is what a club aiming for promotion needs then he is the right player for us.
This includes the penalties he took.
October 10th, 2008 at 13:37
What Barry brings to the team may not be goals, but he brings a ball winner, someone to get the croud going, someone who is seen to give 110%. Look at the games when Conlon has played and who he’s played with? Against Shrewsbury he was a loan Striker, up front on his own. If he had the ability to win the ball in the air, keep the ball, beat the defence and score, he would not be playing in League 2!
Emile Heskey has scored 1 goal this season yet by having a good work ethic and winning balls in the air and providing support to another Striker who is scoring goals, he’s earned himself an England call up!
October 10th, 2008 at 14:53
I don’t know how many Barry has set up but it is not a lot I am pretty sure. Ths is my issue with Barry. He does not score the goals but he does not hold the ball up either. I understand the comments that he is not in the team for goals/assists but we get to the point of what is he in the team for. I am yet to see a really good performance from him (Just to put wayne straight, I have missed 4 games in 5 years so hopefully that allows me an opinion!).
Again this is only my opinion but I genuinely do not see where people have this 100% effort view from either. The amount of times per game the ball is lost by Barry appealing to the ref or rolling round on the floor is obscene.
I do not, or would not boo any City player but I feel some people go overboard trying to defend poor performances by Barry when say, Omar last year, was not afforded the same support.
The comparison to Heskey is a telling one. You are right that Emile does not score a lot of goals however, that is part of the reason he is playing for a club at the bottom end of the division. City are aiming to get to the top and I am not sure a 2nd striker who is likely to score 7 or 8 goals per season is what we need.
October 10th, 2008 at 23:41
An interesting article which for me does as much harm than good. I was sickened by the booing on Saturday just like most others, just as I have been every home game where Barry Conlon has come on as sub. I think Stuart McCall articulated the situation very well after the game with his comments on the ‘logic’ these people employ. Anyway, back to the matter in hand and this article: It more or less implies that Barry is crap but is too nice to be given a rough ride by the fans! The Barry haters could have a field day using this as the defence for their actions - ‘We shouldn’t boo the man because he is a nice chap?’
How about looking at the stats that Wayne so kindly provided. They show that Barry’s scoring record isn’t as bad as some would have you believe. They show that the very players that the boo boys would have us believe have sun shining from their proverbials have not in fact done any better. On the messageboards these contradictory folk will say in response to comments regarding Barry’s excellent holding play and good ball skills (Yes, my eyes weren’t deceiving me last season in every game I saw him play - He did actually ping around defence splitting pin point passes over 30 yards on a regular basis), ‘that’s all very well but the guy can’t score and that’s what a striker is there to do isn’t it?’ Then in the next breath they suggest that the man should be replaced by Willy Topp - A player not just searching for his first goal in Claret and Amber, but the first of his 5 year career.
To summise I would say that Barry is more than just a ‘nice bloke.’ He’s a man who’s always given 100% in a Bradford shirt, a man who snubbed an offer for regular first team football in the January transfer window of last season, despite being dropped from the firsts, because he wanted to fight for his place back here. A man who’s loyalty and willingness were confirmed further as again despite offers from elsewhere he stayed to prove his worth on a contract which could see him out of a job come January, where he might well have been safe elsewhere. A man who was ‘told’ to slim down and get fitter and did exactly that. A man who is actually a much better footballer than some would have you believe. Then after all that, and given the countless mercenary footballers we have had at this club in the last 7 years who have been and gone during this time, this man who has proven his loyalty and willingness to the cause of Bradford City gets routinely booed every home game as he enters the field of play before he’s even kicked a ball. Quite frankly I find it embarrassing.
Disgraceful. How do you apply logic to those who have none? Short sighted, and reflective of the current state of our society and the ‘I want the best, and I want it now’ culture. Has anybody ever heard of the expression ‘The best things come to those who wait?’
Like Stuart McCall himself, I celebrated the goal on Saturday with extra gusto as even though the Conlon Out Brigade would have you believe it wasn’t, it was well and truly one in the eye for them.