Its clear that when it comes to commenting on our Tarbs' performances, things can get divisive on this Board and sometimes spin out of control. I've played my part in these dusts ups, as have others. On a Taarabt thread last night, all out war erupted between two posters and continued well into this afternoon. Perhaps its time we establish a code of conduct when it comes to assessing Taarabt's displays so such messy affairs don't develop again. For those of us who are critical of the player, let me state where we're coming from. Its not that we don't think he's a good player. I think everyone has always agreed that his potential is huge. The problems arise when a general hysteria is whipped up on the Board and he's lauded as an all conquering great. When this is done on a continual basis, it alienates a small number of contributors who prefer to base praise on actual achievements rather than future potential and conjecture. During our one and a half seasons in the PL, Taarabt has played some good games and some bad. Played brilliantly at times and dreadfully at others. When he has a stinker, a collective dismissiveness takes hold and everyone from the Manager to his team-mates to the fans get blamed for his poor performance. And when he plays well, he's up there with Lionel Messi. These irrational positions have the effect of forcing a small number of posters to push back and in doing so, they can end up being very vitriolic towards the player when in normal circumstances, their criticism would be far more balanced. Personally, I have found myself saying things about the lad that, in the cold light of day, appear very much OTT. However, in the context of having to listen to a relentless stream of hype, this overreaction can perhaps be understood. Yorkie started a thread last night, no doubt himself annoyed at our overly harsh critiques, to put one or two of us back in our place. I've no problem with that and it was a good OP. Unfortunately, Queens' response was like that of an angry man who's had enough of the Adel adoration and his almost hysterical response was way above and beyond what he would say had he not had to endure weeks and months of non stop frenzy around that polarising player. So what you get in the end, in its most extreme form, is what we had with Queens and Finglas last night and today. Another (albeit less confrontational) example of this problem would be when COL posted up his report today. In my opinion, he overdid the praise for Taarabt, and I responded "and away we go". Straight away I was told that I didn't think he was MOTM. In actuality, I thought he was outstanding yesterday and was clear MOTM but because of the last year and a half of Adel worshipping, I don't trust COL's judgement and went into defence mode. Instead of wanting to praise the boy for his performance, I find myself getting irritated at everyone else losing the run of themselves entirely. Its a vicious circle you see. Over the top praise brings over the top criticism and things degenerate from there. So can we all try to be a bit more reasonable and objective? For my part, I will stop attacking Taarabt when he has a bad game. And I'll try to be less impatient when he has a game that things don't come off for him. Maybe others can meet me in the middle and dampen down their euphoria when he has a good game and be a little more objective when he plays poorly? If we can do this, we can take the sting out of what has become a divisive subject and in the process, avoid what happened between Finglas and Queens from recurring.
Pistols at dawn? Good post. Quite a reasonable and honest statement - hopefully we can all follow its precepts.
Very good post Swords in fact outstanding ESP the bit about questioning the report I was there he was outstanding Col uses ! Marks too much and his report has turned into a good read trouble is the bloke can't handle any degree of comment that's a weak characteristic in my book Debate things out IMO I will probably report him for calling me an idiot however I as you know don't get on with the mods on here
Could I have the executive summary, please Swords. Too many words to get through after a long, long day doing that mysterious thing that I do.
Played superbly but tbh Fulham's midfield left their defense exposed, Adel was running at the CBs and had a field day. Let's hope he'll come good against Newcastle
It's a long report but had kept my dinner down as I limp through my lady watching SP12 ... Too late Seb Coe is up and so is my carrots BBC people are sleeping rough in the city and now the pregnant lizard is on Coe shut it Tony sign Beckham think of the shirts! Take it back British public Wiggins toughest sport on the planet plus great drugs
At 6 and a bit short paragraphs, its considerably shorter than Clive and his cohort's ramblings I can assure you. Actually, can someone close this thread? All its getting is one-sentence, snide little comments from people thinking they're smart. There's no point in reaching out. I should have known better.
At least Oddball gives and takes it in equal measure. With the amount of genuine responses this thread has got, I now totally understand why Queens lost it the way he did. Poor cu*t should be given a medal for lasting as long as he did.
Code of conduct for our opinion of a player's performance? Sounds like a 1984 revisit. Just post it as you see it!
Fabulous post Swords. Don't agree with all of it but in the spirit will let it pass because I'm 100% behind the the overall message. Sport is more than "only a game" but holding a particular view (about sport at least) should not be a cause for warfare between two people who have never even met.
It's a good post Swords and certainly well meant. The key to all this is respect, which is already enshrined in the board rules, no need for anything special for Taarbs threads if we keep this in mind.There is a tendency to react to posters' usernames/ reputations rather than what they actually write. We express ourselves in different ways and should be grown up enough to understand this. Despite being virtual personalities we know each other well enough to know what will spark a fight. I thought your 'here we go' post on Col's thread was calculated to do just that, apologies if I've got that wrong, but in that context you can hardly complain about the one line responses on this thread. Nice try, you old tart.
