Yep, when he fist came into the team as a youngster. Got crucified. Credit to him for coming through it because he was awesome after that.
I agree that footballers have always suffered some level of abuse, but I also agree with the OP that it feels worse now than it's ever been. Not helped by social media IMHO. Then again, back in the day, I never felt like I was paying ridiculous prices to watch a team full of horrendously overpaid kids. I'm not saying that's the sole cause behind the increased abuse footballers get, but the gap between "them" and "us" has significantly widened over the years and I can't help wondering if that's driving a disconnect between players and fans. I'd never boo anyone wearing a red shirt, but I can see why others might be so wound up that they'd want to vent. Mind you, I remember Emlyn Hughes saying that he had fans coming up to him in restaurants on a Saturday night, saying he was rubbish cos Liverpool had only won 2-0. So maybe there's no pleasing some people.
I don't think this can be overstated enough. People these days, as opposed to the 60s/70s/80s, are paying stupid money to watch hideously overpaid players - if they put the effort in and win games, all well and good. If they shirk their responsibilities and fail to win week after week, whilst still picking up their 6 (or more) figure wages, then people should have every right to tell them what they think.
I must be honest and say that there's rarely been a season when there HASN'T been a certain player subjected to abuse and I've been a supporter since the 1960's. Usually it was specifically home grown players, such as Barry Murphy, Kenny Brown, Les Harris, Phil Chambers, Ian Banks, Steve Agnew, Nicky Eaden for example. In fact, I can remember Agnew once getting booed as he entered the field as a second half substitute! There's even been occasions when the more talented players have been on the receiving end of abuse. As well as Banks & Agnew, the likes of John Bettany, Ray McHale & Conor Hourihane copped for it on quite a few times.
Getting back to the Internet, I think some people now carry bad feeling from one game to the next, because there is no shutting off between games.
Danny Wilson and even Neil Redfearn got booed inside their first six months here. I think redders was trying too hard at first.
I'd forgotten the stick Agnew got. Then he had a fantastic season, won player of the year, got a big move to Leicester.... and got more stick! And spot on with Conor, "heart of a pea"... must've been highly ranked on google that year and the year before with Mellis. There's always been stick, it just feels like there is some hatred of everything and anything now though, and i don't ever recall that being the case.
In fairness, I do not think the abuse is any worse now than it was in the past. The problem is that places like this provide a focus for everything. It focuses the disappointment of defeat and it focuses the elation of victory. That focus creates expectations amongst those who post and read here, and our club has struggled to meet those expectations for the last 12 months. When I was a kid, people felt the same emotions, but once you had exorcised them and had dissipated the adrenaline, you moved on more easily. There is no fault here. It is just the way the world has moved on.
You're dead right about hideously overpaid. Back in the 80s, players all drove their standard issue Volkswagen Jetta's with their name and Hayseldens logo plastered on the side. They lived in semi-detached houses in places like Monk Bretton or Ardsley, and you dropped on them in the shop or on the market. They were regular blokes with a slightly better paid job than the rest of us.
Social media has a lot to do with this - I don't mind people having opinions on team, club etc but the same point over and over again becomes tedious.
25 years ago (ish) my first game and fans were going and slagging players off then. I think rather than it being the case that fans used to be perfect and that now they are all negative it's simply the case that a lot of people have short memories
The only difference between now and the past is that in the past they only repeated the same thing over and to their friends, families and people they met. They may have said the same thing after every match to you, then to their other friend, then to their brother at home. Far more times than now actually but you only saw one of them whereas now you follow them, every time they say it you see it and it stays there s the next time they say it you see them both and so on.