It didn't exactly hit a nerve, Gaz. It's just that a bit of a culture has developed whereby any fan (and that's all we are) who vents when things are going bad, is labelled a death-rider or whinger. I hate that (even though maybe I'm not being labelled with that myself). A lot of these 'whingers', though reactionary (and who of us isn't at times), are very loyal and knowledgable fans.
To call them deathriders and whingers is indulging in a form of political correctness that I hate.
I have another interesting observation.
I put Pou Pou Escobar on 'ignore' about a month ago. Since then I have been able to think far more objectively about the situation Parra find themselves in (since the forum ceased to be fans just venting and processing, him arguing against them, and them coming up with more 'whinging' arguments to counter him). Because of that I've become far less reactionary in my thinking (and maybe less of a 'whinger'). From what I can gather, I needn't have bothered 'ignoring' him, since he seems to have taken a break from here himself. And there's the funny thing. MOST posters are now taking a more philosophical view of things lately (and I don't just mean since our first win; I mean over the past few weeks). Have you not noticed there are now fewer 'whingers'?
Pou encourages 'whingeing', sadly. He encourages people to argue that the coach is f**ked, long after they would have normally mellowed following an initial dummy spit. He did it with Kearney and he's doing it with Arthur. That's why I say there aren't many 'whingers' on this forum; because there aren't.
I don't see why Pou should be blamed for others getting upset about him putting across his point. The man likes to argue, fair enough, but he does it in a reasonable way.
He prefers to see that the sky is not falling. He doesn't jump to conclusions. He gets called out on this often, to which he fights back, just as he calls out those who do tend to have knee-jerk reactions to things.
He seems like a pretty rational guy. He goes overboard some times, sure. But I like to hear opinions from both sides of an argument, and he normally offers up a good one from his.
Our club is pretty miserable. We've been a laughing stock for years, and things don't seem to be on the improve. We have every right to be negative about how the club and team has been progressing. Good posters who come up with ideas and arguments and can put them across well in this forum (such as yourself, mjc, Bazal, Barry, Joshua, Eele, among others) are great to read. But those 'The sky is falling' posters, you know the ones, who have barely anything of interest to say, while expecting the club to do every quick fix necessary and if it doesn't happen then we are all just accepting mediocrity (when in actual fact, they are accepting it themselves as long as they continue to be Parra fans).
We all know who these posters are.
They are the ones with the snarky comments normally aimed at what other posters have said about the team in the preseason like, "Its a good thing we have a very talented team" and so forth.
People can complain about us not having signed big props in the offseason all they like, but we all know that the club had already recognised that they need some size. It's just that some of those people can't seem to grasp that it's not as easy as just going out and signing the players you want. There are negotiations. They have to fit your needs. The club has to fit their needs. We have a salary cap to adhere to. Many, many factors.
Anyway, I think I have had quite the rant here now. I can't even remember how I started this post anymore, haha.
