UNACCEPTABLE - Really?

When Liverpool lost to Wolverhampton here last evening at Anfield, the Liverpool Manager Roy Hodgson was quite right to point out that to say that the players' performance was unacceptable was quite out of order. It is, at the day's end, a game of football.

I love football, but when fans allow themselves to become so subjective in their assessment of a team's performance then they themselves are at fault, not the players.

There is far too much these days given to so called unacceptable performance (as opposed to unacceptable behaviour).

I cannot remember a time until now, that managers and coaches are sacked within months or even weeks of appointment. And this is endemic throughout our society. It smacks of intolerance. A teacher's response is unacceptable, the police response is unacceptable, the supermarket manager's dealing with a matter is unacceptable, the solicitor's handling of the file is unacceptable, and so it goes on right across every facet of local and national life.

When the Prime Minister pointed out that the students' behaviour at the Parliament Square Riot was unacceptable, Mr Cameron was using the term correctly and as a damning indictment on our young people who had allowed themselves to spiral into crime and disorder.

The term 'unacceptable' is a powerful term in diplomacy and used sparingly.

If the term is applied willy nilly to every poor sports result then that truly reflects the intolerance that has beset the British People.

Get things in perspective. You're asking your team to kick a ball around a pitch and into the net. Just that and nothing more. It's called sport. You're not fighting a battle or waging a war. If you think you are then you've lost the plot. Get real!

Ian Bradley Marshall
Liverpool