Football’s boos problem: why are we so quick to turn on our own team?

It wasn’t nice. The treatment of the England team and Gareth Southgate by their own fans at Molineux on Tuesday was loud, consistent and, in the words of those there, quite “unsavoury”. There has been debate over whether it was right or wrong (full disclosure: I am in the wrong wrong wrong camp). But perhaps we should also wonder a little more as to why it happened in the first place.

First and most obviously, the performance was just poor. From Aaron Ramsdale’s goalkeeping to John Stones’s defending, Bukayo Saka being a yard off everything and Harry Kane making a fool of himself in an attempt to earn his second soft penalty of the international break, none of it was good on the eye. As Southgate acknowledged, expectations of this England team have been raised and at Molineux – over two internationals – they weren’t met.

Then there’s the relationship with Southgate himself. Likely there are some England supporters who don’t like the manager any more because of his support for the taking of the knee. He not only defended his players over their decision to protest against systemic racism but vocally advocated for it. You can imagine the home secretary might have been put off by that, if no one else.

Then there’s the argument about the handbrake, the boring football, the failure to make the most of the £100m Manchester City squad player Jack Grealish. This is a legitimate complaint (if wrong-headed in the views of others – ie me) and one that has been hyped up on talk radio and social media for more than a year. It was always going to bubble over at some point. And some of this thinking (especially the boring bit?) appears quite transmissible – even 2,000 children felt it was appropriate to boo after the 0-0 draw with