A few years ago, cartoonist David Squires, who was recently interviewed on The Roar about his weekly A-League comic strips for The Guardian, came up with a strip named The Bullshit Rodeo.
The premise of this was a simple one: how much can a football fan withstand from their club before criticising them?
Most fans of a club that play any sport know that they’re with them for life, so maybe it was a moot point, but Squires’ cartoon went through a number of fairly typical scenarios, albeit exaggerated for comic effect.
They would probably have caused anyone affected by such a situation to seriously consider whether their club is worth it.
There was the club being bought by a number of unsuitable characters, the appointment of a highly controversial manager, a hugely unpopular sponsor’s logo on the team’s kit, changing the colour of the kit to match that sponsor’s logo, the selling of the naming rights of the stadium, the relocation of the club, the re-naming of the club, and on it went.
Each of these scenarios, many of which have happened to British football teams in recent years (David Squires is a Brit, a Swindon Town fan, living in Sydney), were followed with an image of a fan clinging to a bucking mechanical bull (the rodeo of the title) offering a positive spin on these events with a smile on his face while the bull attempted to throw him.
Finally the fan is thrown, and abandons the club, when they… well, the cartoon is here for anyone that wishes to find out more.
This cartoon has been weighing on my mind a bit recently, as I find myself riding David Squires’ metaphorical mechanical bull.
I’ve always been a Sunderland supporter, and have had to live through some turbulent times at the club. Promotions, what seems to have been many more relegations, the appointment of some quite divisive managers, the purchase of unpopular players, the sale of popular players.
Having the Premier League’s lowest ever points tally (a record that was thankfully surpassed a few years later by a hapless Derby County), scandals, dramas, rumours of a toxic atmosphere at the club, and even losing the occasional cup final.
But, as the North-East football writer Harry Pearson once put it, albeit about fans of all of the region’s big three clubs, I’ve stuck with the club “through thin and thin”.
Recent events though have me wondering if the club has gone too far.
Even the most casual observer of football will likely be aware of the court case involving Sunderland winger Adam Johnson.
Johnson was a man with the world at his feet, an England international (albeit not a regular), playing for the club he grew up supporting, and taking home a massive salary while doing so. Johnson had the adulation of the club’s supporters, at a time when not many at the club deserved it, and lived the life of a typical Premier League player with his big house, expensive cars and glamorous partner.
However, in March of 2015 he was arrested and charged with engaging in sexual activity with a 15-year-old girl, a Sunderland fan whom, it later transpired, had idolised him and been pursued and groomed by him via social media.
Johnson was suspended immediately by the club, but re-instated two weeks later. The official line from Sunderland was of the ‘innocent until proven guilty’ variety.
While these events were undoubtedly unpleasant a part of me was willing to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt. After all, the club were also saying that Johnson had professed himself to be innocent of all charges.
Johnson continued to play for Sunderland for the remainder of the season, and was instrumental in helping the club avoid relegation. He has also been a regular this season, even while the court case loomed, with fans devising numerous unpleasant chants based on the allegations relating to his case. Some sung of their support for Johnson, others not.
A few weeks ago Johnson’s court case began, and once again the club stated that they would stand behind him, and stressed his professed innocence.
Johnson took to the stand and pleaded guilty to a number of the charges.
The club’s response was swift. A statement was issued decrying Johnson for lying to the club’s board, staff, fellow players and fans, and he was sacked with immediate effect.
As a supporter I couldn’t fault the club on this. The story from all parties associated with the club was that they, like the fans, had been betrayed.
To labour the point of Squires’ rodeo analogy, I was weathering some movement from that mechanical bull, but I wasn’t anywhere near close to being thrown from it.
This was soon to change.
As the case progressed it became apparent that officials from the club, most significantly chief executive Margaret Byrne, had been lying too.
Under questioning Johnson admitted that, soon after being arrested and charged, he had told Byrne that he was guilty. It appeared that she had deliberately suppressed this information so as to allow him to continue playing.
It beggars belief as to how Byrne could think she could get away with this. Johnson was never likely to commit perjury to protect the club, less so after they’d sacked him. One would imagine that Byrne would know better than this: she is a former criminal lawyer herself who sits on the FA’s football regulatory authority committee and the Premier League’s legal advisory group.
Byrne has since resigned from her post at the club, after, allegedly, having left the UK and gone into hiding. We are to infer from official statements that she, and she alone, was responsible for allowing Johnson to continue playing.
I’m not so sure that this is the case. Should there be an internal investigation, and the club has announced that this will be the case, I wonder if more members of the hierarchy at the Stadium of Light will be found to have been complicit.
Allowing Johnson to continue playing, and to take home his quite substantial £60,000 a week pay packet (which equates to approximately £3 million from the time he admitted his guilt to the time of his sacking), for the relatively short-term gain that his performances brought to the team, was a spectacular error of judgment. It has led to the Durham Police to state that the victim and her family would “want to know why he was allowed back on the pitch”.
They’re not alone.
I, and many other fans of the club, if the sentiments on online fan forums are to be believed, feel betrayed by the club. I’ve read and heard from others who would’ve preferred the club had been relegated last year than have this dark episode hang over them.
It’s difficult to disagree with that. To return to that metaphorical mechanical bull, I’m currently just about clinging on.
Were it not for the responses of the players, coaching staff and manager, all of whom distanced themselves from Johnson immediately after his admission of guilt, I’d have been thrown.
Steven Fletcher, currently on loan at Olympique Marseille, has been particularly scathing of his teammate and former friend, and even refused to testify on his behalf.
Sam Allardyce, Sunderland’s current manager, was not at the club at the time of Johnson’s arrest (Sunderland currently get through a new manager roughly every season), but he has stressed that he did not know of Johnson’s guilt until his plea in court, and has been at pains to point out that he was not aware of the full details of the case.
Allardyce, like Fletcher, has also spoken of his disgust upon the discovery of Johnson’s admission of guilt and the nature of his crimes.
However, with such a significant chain of events affecting the club it does again make one wonder how so many at Sunderland were able to know so little about this case.
If it’s uncovered that more at the club were aware of Johnson’s guilt and his crimes, and had also protected him so he could continue to pull on the shirt and play, then – and I say this with a heavy heart – I think that rodeo bull will cast me off.
And I’m not sure if I could remain a supporter of a club that chooses to act in such a way.
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