The Toxicity of Man Utd fan Twitter

By @Elitesolskjaer, published on 06/07/21

Fans can have different views, but there is a difference between having a difference in opinion and activity rooting against the team you are supposed to support. People like Pogbasenior and MikeLUHG make the site a less enjoyable place to be at times. It's not even on Man United FT that things are wrong; all the big sides have the same problem with harmful and toxic fans. These accounts constantly abuse and slander their players just for a few interactions on a tweet. They also make players out to be better or deserve more game time, and when they do get the game time, the same fans abuse and criticize them for not being prime Messi.

The fan channels don't help with this as they slate the players on camera. Stephen Howson is the one that sticks out in my mind. When I watched him before I stopped, he would slate Ashley Young and Luke Shaw for every bad touch they made and go on about how Shaw wasn't good enough for United and how Young was useless and wasn't a United great. Negativity gets clicks, and that's what the YouTube crew do. Whatever will get them views, they will jump on and say no matter what they said in the video before. They also use clickbait in the titles to get more attention and to make people mad.

After a United loss, going on to the united comments is a warzone between Olein and OleOut about why the manager is or isn't at fault for the team's performance. This could contain abuse and why the manager is the worst person in the world for not picking an 18-year-old, this isn't to say the other side is better sometimes. They never blame ole even when he was in the wrong or say anything bad about the players, and this is also wrong and very naive.

Favouritism is prevalent on FT, with accounts often having their favourite player as their avatar. These are usually hardcore fans of these players and refuse any criticism of them ever. I have seen this even with myself, sometimes with particular players, but I try to avoid it the best I can.

The example I will give will be our defenders and, in particular, Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelöf, who seem to be different in the eyes of the fans. Bailly can be good but is too injury prone and too rash for his good sometimes. Certain sections of the fanbase always make up excuses and try and say it's not Bailly's fault and will blame the other defenders instead. He is a meme and someone the fans will not critique quickly. Victor is the complete opposite of Eric in every way, with him being ever reliable for the club over the last four years he has been with us. Fans are quick on any mistake the Swede makes and never gives him the leeway like they do with Eric.

This is the best example of the fans wanting the cool player over the non-cool one, the erratic player who is injured a lot, over the save player who is injured never. This is the same all over the pitch, and it makes me annoyed that a player may be fantastic, but the player that does the neat tricks that will get likes on YouTube will get more attention.

If fans were more respectful of the players, then the players would be more likely to interact with fans. As it stands, people will abuse players if we lose and only scapegoat certain players if things go wrong. As a fanbase, this must end, and I hope that influencers in the fanbase help stop the abuse instead of putting fuel on the fire.