Footy fans constantly fail to hit the target

 By bruce millington  2:44PM 20 JAN 2011 Racing Post editor Bruce Millington's Thursday column for January 20 is reproduced here . . .

WHAT a funny lot we football fans are, with our hopelessly misdirected shows of emotion. We come over all angry, frustrated and sympathetic about totally the wrong things.

Here are four examples of what I mean:

1. Footballers changing clubs
Darren Bent goes from Sunderland to Aston Villa and the phone-ins are full of people asking why. It's patently obvious why. The only thing people should be questioning is why so many people are questioning the move.

He was on around £35,000 a week at Sunderland and is believed to be on nearer £80,000 at Villa. Throw in the signing-on fee and the long contract and you'd have to think the guy would have been insane if he'd done anything other than accept Villa's offer.

And let's not forget, Bent was completely unwanted at one point in his career, when he was so inactive at Tottenham that he actually hired a personal trainer - and paid the bill - to improve his fitness.

Now he's shown his ability, he's perfectly entitled to reap the rewards, although I do feel for the Sunderland fans.

2. Managers getting the boot
Every day thousands of people lose their jobs, and in many cases that creates severe stress for the person who has been given the heave-ho.

How will they feed their family? What hope have they got of finding alternative income? What earthly chance have they got of punting like a lunatic now?

A football manager gets the elbow and football supporters everywhere feel a collective tugging on their heartstrings.

The poor guy. He didn't deserve that. These club owners are brutal,  etc. No mention that the victim of the chairman's trigger finger is likely to walk away with a significant (and sometimes obscenely massive) severance cheque, and is liable to be minted anyway. Too many managers are sacked too quickly, but the actual victims of these decisions are the clubs, whogenerally show no improvement under the new leader.

3. Foreign footballers who speak truthfully to the media
Denilson's the latest person to be found guilty of the serious crime of trying tobe as honest as possible in an interview and then having his words twisted like a corkscrew.

The hapless Brazilian is one of the worst players I have ever seen to regularly appear in an Arsenal shirt but that doesn't mean he deserves such intense castigation as he's receiving for having said, quite rightly, that Cesc is not a natural leader or a demonstrative captain.

He probably made the comment in passing to a foreign journalist over a convivial cup of coffee in a swanky Parisian pavement cafe, only to gasp in horror when he saw yesterday's papers in which his remarks look like they've been made with a conviction that suggests he's seriously considering having ‘Cescis not a great captain' tattooed on his forehead. The sooner everyone realises tabloid footy hacks regularly take a quote from an interview published elsewhere and blow it into major diplomatic incident the better.

4.Players asking the ref to book an opponent
Rafael, before his sending-off at Spurs, waved an imaginary card at the ref after he'd been clattered, and the commentators went into a predictable frenzy of admonishment,
along the same old boring lines of "we don't like to see that in the English game".

Why not? What's so bad about it? If you were randomly punched in the face in the street and a policeman was standing there doing nothing, would you not ask why he wasn't feeling the miscreant's collar?

I see absolutely nothing wrong with a player seeking justice if he thinks he's been hard done by. Get over it. It's no big deal.  You want a truly reprehensible appeal? How about when players ask to be awarded a throw-in or corner when they know full well that the ball came off them last? That's cheating, pure and simple. It happens numerous times in every match, often followed by a stream of obscenities towards the official when they are not given the decision they are trying to dishonestly gain, and yet nothing is ever said.

The dauntingly fascinating festival
IN two months' time it will all be over. I'll have dropped a fortune, wrecked my liver and be relying on Arsenal winning the Prem for some kind of miracle recovery.

In the meantime, it's great to bask in the false hope that Cheltenham will bring financial riches as well as the guaranteed sporting splendour. This year's festival has a dauntingly fascinating look to it, with the vast majority of races being far more wide-openthan usual. I've got a sneaky feeling for Big Buck's in the World Hurdle if that helps.