Football: Are fans booing their own team and manager more?

Wayne Rooney, who made headlines in 2010 after hitting out at England fans for booing the team, remembers being booed quite a lot in his career.

“It’s always been there. Fans obviously have their opinions and sometimes they’re with you and sometimes they’re against you,” he said.

“It’s probably just picked up a little bit more now with more TV cameras, with social media and with phones filming from the stands.

“Obviously if a player or a player’s family is getting abused at stadiums then it can become more of an issue, but generally I think booing is fine.”

Like his former England team-mate, Joe Hart agrees it’s part of the game.

“You get booed by the away fans,” said Hart. “That’s kind of par for the course. I’ve probably received a few from home fans in my time – not many. If I was being booed I was probably doing something wrong!”

Both players think booing has always been there. But did it affect them?

“Maybe it did at the time,” says Hart. “I’ve got no scars from it though, put it that way. I was very much focused on what I was doing so whether I was getting applause or boos it didn’t make any difference to how I tried to play the game.”

Former Liverpool, Spurs and Fulham midfielder Danny Murphy also remembers difficult moments during his career.

“At Fulham when we were fighting relegation there were lots of boos,” he explains. “You have to take it as a challenge. You have to want to overcome it rather than go the other way and let it affect you, drain your energy and put fear into your play.

“I always felt like it was a challenge to overcome it, to try and do better. I think if you’re playing Premier League football and you’re at that level that’s your job to do so.

“We all love it when the fans are singing your name when you’ve scored the winner or when the team’s winning – you can’t have just one and not the other.”