OPINION
One of the most bizarre things we’ve seen – or heard, rather – took place at Wembley Stadium on Thursday night when Liverpool centre back Joe Gomez was booed by his own fans when he came off the bench for England.
The Three Lions were coasting to a 7-0 victory over Montenegro, but the 22-year-old was given a horrific welcome, presumably for his part in Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling being left out of the England squad for the game.
Sterling went for Gomez in a well-publicised bust-up on Monday, following the two players’ spat in the Liverpool v Man City match last Sunday. Resultantly, Three Lions boss Gareth Southgate chose to leave Sterling out of Thursday’s game, a decision that Gomez bore the brunt of when he came on.
It was a terrible scene, and former Chelsea defender Jason Cundy has summed it up perfectly with his take on the fans who booed the Reds star: “Neanderthal morons,” he termed them on talkSPORT.
“It just leaves me sometimes despairing at what kind of people go to football matches. They’re booing Joe Gomez for something that was not his fault.”
Cundy is absolutely bang on, there. It didn’t even make logical sense to boo Gomez. He was the innocent party. By all accounts it was Sterling who took the fight to Gomez, who remained calm throughout the City star’s tirade.
So why boo him? The only explanation is that these people are uneducated idiots. No right-thinking person would have booed Gomez for being attacked by Sterling. That doesn’t make any sense.
The Reds ace has now withdrawn from the England squad due to injury, but you do wonder what psychological harm this could have done to a player who is still just 22 years of age. That’s extremely young to go through something like this. So Cundy is right to take aim at the fans who booed Gomez. They don’t even fall under that description.
