Quite understandably, Jamie Vardy doesn’t like hearing his wife being called ‘a grass’ by football fans up and down the country.
Some may say that in the face of such vitriol, it was a natural reaction to greet his goal at Tottenham last Sunday by pointing to the Premier League badge on his sleeve and reminding Spurs supporters that he had won one and they haven’t.
Factually true, but Spurs fans could also have pointed out he wore the EFL badge on his Leicester City shirt last season after something else he’d achieved that they have not – relegation from the Premier League to the Championship!
Vardy is a player I have a mixed reaction to. From my standpoint, the celebration was governed as much by spite as good humour – he is always on the edge of causing confrontation somewhere.
But more importantly, Vardy’s response by goading the opposition fans, although providing some short-term satisfaction, will be counter-productive for him in the longer term, albeit at 38-years-old it may not be that long on the football pitch!
If you want to dance with the devil, you play to his tune. You give it back to the crowd, fine, but you can’t cry when it comes back even worse.
Jamie Vardy baited Tottenham fans on Sunday, pointing out Leicester’s Premier League title
Vardy has never shied away from engaging with opposition fans and creating a controversy
You can’t beat the fans in situations like this. If they get hold of something – such as the Wagatha Christie case which reflected badly on Rebekah Vardy – and see it bothers you, more will join in and you have created an even bigger problem for yourself.
I have a couple of experiences of similar situations. At one time, my then-girlfriend was a close friend of Victoria Beckham. The crude songs mentioning her every time David stepped on a football pitch must have been disconcerting to them both.
David never reacted, or said anything, and it went away in the end. Silence is a harder reaction but a more disciplined approach, which does not give low-resolution thinkers like certain boo-boy fans any oxygen.
Less seriously, as an owner at Crystal Palace I would get ridiculed by a segment of fans and media about the fact I was always tanned, which was unsurprising given I lived in Spain.
I responded by headlining my programme notes: The future is bright, the chairman is orange. I thought it was a funny way to reduce the mickey-taking. In fact, the opposite happened – it grew. I realised the best thing is silence, to ignore it.
That’s what Vardy should do if he wants chanting about his wife to die down. The more he reacts, the more he risks the chants getting louder. I’d say it is probably better not to react. Scoring the goal itself is the response.
At the risk of sounding like a killjoy, I’ve always found ridiculous goal celebrations to be an overegging of the pudding, especially when it moves into parodying fans of the team they have scored against.
If the players want to do it, OK, I don’t want them to be robots, but they have to understand that if they move into the territory of potentially provoking the fans, they invite problems.
Simon Jordan does not want players to become robots but has warned Vardy not to go too far
The game is being governed by traffic wardens and if there is a breaking of the rules, they will find a way to punish you. Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye found that out at the weekend when he was booked for celebrating his penalty by flapping his arms like a seagull in front of the Brighton end.
There is a difference between being a professional footballer and being a fan. When players put themselves in the same space – by giving back what they have received – they invite the challenge that fans can double down and you can’t complain.
I understand why footballers including Vardy and Ndiaye do it. Having a stadium shout, mock, antagonise and offend you isn’t great. But that’s what fans do. Our game is based on division.
If you blur the line between yourself – a highly paid athlete – and them, the eventual outcome is one you may not like. It is a Pandora’s box. Better for you to score, get on with the game and rise above what the fans do.
Everton’s Iliman Ndiaye riled Brighton fans and was booked for his celebration last weekend
Of course, I understand that’s easier said than done because sport is a very emotional business. There is no real logic in people becoming so invested in football that it overtakes their lives. Fans spend all their money travelling for hours up and down the country to sometimes watch dreadful performances.
Grown adults chant the name of a 17-year-old kid and can become entranced by every aspect of their career and life. Broadcasters shove microphones in front of inexperienced players and expect something meaningful to be said.
It’s a world that doesn’t make sense in a lot of ways and you can’t sanitise it to the point where emotion is taken out of it.
I just think a more experienced footballer, as Vardy is, doesn’t need to rub it in. Younger kids may not be wise enough in the heat of the moment to know there is a flip side to winding up the stands, but he certainly should.
Vardy has form with Spurs this season, taunting them when substituted in a 1-1 draw in August
Vardy was quick to point out that Leicester have one Premier League title and Spurs have none
Vardy’s rise from non-League to Leicester City and Premier League legend gives him a special status at that club, though there are some who think his influence over the owners exceeds what a player should have.
Out there in the cauldron of a match, staying silent when fans are saying things about you or members of your family – many of which are untrue – is extremely hard. I get that.
But Premier League players such as Vardy are rewarded fantastically. He is the professional star, they are the ticket-buying masses. You’re not necessarily in the stadium for the same reasons.
If they go low, rise above it. You’ll be saving yourself – and your wife – a lot of hassle.
Scrap the January transfer window
Regular readers will know I’m not a fan of the transfer window. I don’t believe any industry should put a restriction on trade. Agents in particular profit from a contrived marketplace.
I also have a personal reason for viewing deadline day with disdain. In 2006, I signed centre forward Shefki Kuqi so close to the deadline that we set back the timing on the fax machine to ensure we made it.
Maybe it was karma but it turned out to be an absolute waste of money. We paid £2.5million and ended up letting him go for nothing, after we’d already sent him out on loan twice.
Shefki Kuqi joined for £2.5million but scored just 18 times in 83 appearances for Crystal Palace
Leave it to the sporting bodies, not politicians
England have come under pressure from politicians to boycott their match against Afghanistan
Nigel Farage has been among the voices calling for a boycott, but there is a problem with that
Some politicians are calling for England’s cricketers to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s refusal to allow a women’s team in contravention of ICC rules.
Morally, there is an argument Afghanistan should be excluded but I think it is up to to the sporting bodies to decide, rather than have politicians acting as police.
Nigel Farage was recently on the talkSPORT show I do with Jim White – he is one of those calling for a boycott, but he’d also be the first to suggest when England’s footballers took the knee or wore One Love armbands that sport and politics shouldn’t mix.
My view is to try to be consistent and say sport is about sport. It is incumbent upon those who regulate, such as the ICC, to do it properly. There are plenty of other issues in the world for elected political figures to fix on our behalf.
