Football: Do fans boo their team and their manager more?

Wayne Rooney, who made headlines in 2010 after he attacked England fans for booing the team, remembers being booed a lot in his career.

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

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

“Obviously if a player or a player’s family is abused on the field, it can become a bigger issue, but in general I think booing is a good thing.”

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

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

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

“It might have been that way at the time,” Hart says. “I didn’t have any scars though, put it that way. I was just focusing so much on what I was doing, whether I was getting applause or booing, it didn’t make any difference to the way I tried to play the game.”

Danny Murphy, the former Liverpool, Tottenham and Fulham midfielder, also remembers the difficult moments during his career.

“At Fulham, when we were fighting for relegation, there was a lot of booing,” he explains. “You have to take it as a challenge. You have to want to overcome it rather than going the other way and letting it affect you, drain your energy and put fear into your playing.”

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

“We all love it when the fans sing your name when you score the winning goal or when the team wins, you can’t have one name without the other.”