El-Abd - FINALLY

[clippedgull]

I guess we all have a choice in whether to go to each home game or not.

From what I have read in The Argus, it was wrong of supporters to criticise players before the game.

Booing? Well, didn't they deserve that after another very poor performance?

El-Abd was certainly in the wrong, he should have been bigger than that and put in performances to win the crowd over.

Yes we were all pissed off, but he was being paid to entertain us, not to abuse us.

I guess a grudging apology is all we can expect from an average player.

Onwards and upwards!

 

[Basil Fawlty]

That apology is fine by me, now show that passion and desire on Saturday against Swansea and I'll be happy.

 

[ROSM]

That's good to hear.

For the record, Martin Perry hasn't responded to either of my emails yet.

funny that - cos he's responded to loads of e-mails from his planning lawyers, consultants etc about the impending deadline for responding to the submissions from other parties to Ruth kelly which is in the next few days.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he has been a bit busy rubbishing the stuff written by LDC and Falmer Parish Council and trying to secure the new stadium and will be able to devote his time to yours after that deadline has passed.

 

[ROSM]

I seemed to have been pictured in the argus surrounded by those fans who were getting most upset by el abds comments - and from that vantage I would say that some were singling out adam for some major abuse and then when he handed it back they acted outraged. I'm glad he's apologised but the fans need to stop being idiots as well.
I'm seriously considering not renewing next season as I'm fed up with being surrounded by adults who act like kids in D and E block - there only seem to be a few of us who sit there who actually want to have fun and enjoy ourselves.

I sometimes sit in that block and would have been in the bottom left of that picture. I am aware of the group you refer to who have made it an olympic sport to criticise players. Even to the extent of slagging oatway off in the gap between full time and extra time against swindon in the play offs second leg.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Adam El-Bad = Albion top bloke. Legend in the making innit

I'd much rather he was on OUR side of the trenches in a relegation dog-fight

 

[The Large One]

Didn't need to apologise as far as I'm concerned.

Or if he did, does that mean the wankers who abused Cox and Robinson will apologise as well?

 

[El Presidente]

Didn't need to apologise as far as I'm concerned.

Or if he did, does that mean the wankers who abused Cox and Robinson will apologise as well?

You forget to add, "unless they are STH's in which case they are immune from all wrongdoings"

 

[e77]

I sometimes sit in that block and would have been in the bottom left of that picture. I am aware of the group you refer to who have made it an olympic sport to criticise players. Even to the extent of slagging oatway off in the gap between full time and extra time against swindon in the play offs second leg.

In fairness he didn't go in for a single tackle between the full time whistle and the start of extra time.

 

[e77]

You forget to add, "unless they are STH's in which case they are immune from all wrongdoings"

Don't all STH sit there in silence?

You can't have the penny and the bun.

 

[stig]

full story

El-Abd apologises for hitting back
By Andy Naylor
Adam El-Abd has apologised for biting back at the Withdean whingers.

Albion's no-nonsense defender has expressed his remorse and regret after reacting to fans who booed the team off following last Saturday's 1-0 home defeat by Bradford City.

El-Abd and his colleagues came under fire from season ticket holders in the South Stand at the final whistle.

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Supporters say he responded by gesticulating and swearing back at them.

El-Abd confessed: "I regret and apologise for what I did but the fans have got to understand we are all passionate about what we are doing and it is not a nice feeling getting booed off.

"I'm frustrated, along with the fans. I want to win every game. We are not quite there at the moment but I really feel as if we are not far away.

"Having said that, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. The fans who come and watch know I am a player who gives 100 per cent and wears his heart on his sleeve.

"But my anger was vented in the wrong way, which I regret and apologise again for."

El-Abd is less understanding about the abuse directed at Jake Robinson, Dean Cox and, he claims, Tommy Fraser during the warm-up.

"At the beginning of the game two fans gave Jake, Coxy and Fraser stick which is completely uncalled for," he said.

"They are young lads learning their trade and we need fans giving them confidence and building them up.

"When they are knocking their confidence 20 minutes before the game it doesn't do them or the team any favours.

"We are all Brighton and Hove Albion and we all need to be pushing in the same direction.

"The booing in games, the heckling before the games, doesn't help the lads. We are a young squad, we are all learning together and this season is a building block for next season."

El-Abd believes it is no coincidence that Albion's form away from home - where fans are far more supportive - is much better than it has been at Withdean.

"I wouldn't say the lads are going into games nervous at Withdean but when you go away from home and, for example, you jog out for the warm-up, the fans give you a standing ovation and it gives you a buzz, gets you up for the game.

"When you run out at Withdean there is no one there, one man and his dog giving you a clap but everyone else standing there watching you.

"The fans have got a job to do. They have got to be up for the game just as well as we have.

"They have got a part to play. They have got to be a 12th man for us. When the fans are booing you they are doing the opposition a favour and it is not conducive to good performances."

Some of Albion's youngsters were affected deeply by the abuse they were subjected to against Bradford and manager Dean Wilkins has revealed they were still hurting 48 hours later.

"Saturday was tinged with an awful lot of regret from all angles and it made things very difficult over the Sunday and Monday but we have recovered from that now," he said.

"Adam regrets his actions, regrets what he said. It's a reality in sport generally, unfortunately, and our young players who are not used to it are going to have to learn from it and be very professional, as difficult as it is when things like that occur.

"We have a responsibility to perform and I can fully understand the frustrations at times because the results at home have been poor.

"The performances up to a point were good but we weren't getting the wins we wanted. Now, all of a sudden, we are not being as creative either.

"I can assure everyone that everybody is working hard at the club to try to provide the sort of entertainment that we all want to see and be a part of.

"If we had an older squad, a more mature player is more willing to let things go in one ear and out the other.

"This is the first experience our young players have had of this type of thing happening, so it is difficult for them but they are professional footballers and they have a responsibility to go out and perform.

"It can affect confidence and that can be a problem. We are not being as creative as we were earlier in the season and Dean (Cox) is a creative type of player. If his confidence is affected then it causes everybody a problem.

"I got stick a couple of times before a game but I was probably 25 or 26 at the time and I was mature enough to deal with that.

"When it is your first experience of it, as it has been for a couple of the younger players, then it becomes difficult, but they will become better and stronger people for it."

El-Abd is relishing the respite from Albion's Withdean woes in Wales tomorrow, as the Seagulls try to put a dent in Swansea's play-off challenge at the Liberty Stadium.

He said: "It's a lovely stadium and one all the boys want to play in. Swansea are a big side, tipped for the title at the beginning of the season.

11:25pm Thursday 19th April 2007

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

full story



"When you run out at Withdean there is no one there, one man and his dog giving you a clap but everyone else standing there watching you.

To be fair, that's actually a BLOODY good article, just a shame it's taken the club 5 days to script it!

 

[ROSM]

To be fair, that's actually a BLOODY good article, just a shame it's taken the club 5 days to script it!

I know - you're never satisfied

Of course it could be that they have carried out a full investigation and decided this was the best way to resolve it. Which is of course what any fan who was accused of bad behaviour in the ground would expect (and indeed has been the case since the law relating to behaviour in grounds and the protocol between the police and club led to the statement that is in the match programme every game for the last 3 years was introduced).

some of the people on nsc who have been complaining about that protocol have i'm assuming not been banned in those last 3 years so their current comments are a bit of an over reaction.

 

[BensGrandad]

I would like to think that I would view this in such a way that at 4.55 I would be annoyed about the result and about any abuse that had been thrown at me, had I given it in the first place, but by 5.30 I would be at home and the result is in the record books and we must move on to the next game . Her indoors reckons if we lose I am miserable all evening but I disagree with her.

Well done Adam go out at Swansea and show the passion that you have all season and with your teamates give us a victory that will make us definitely safe from relegation.

 

[Dr. Notthenineo'clocknews]

I'm not upset about his actions at all - couldn't give a toss to be honest.

The thing that gets on my tits is the self righteous Perry spouting off abouting banning people when his own staff can't even keep their emotions in check.

If I get banned from Withdean for swearing does that mean I can use El-Abd's excuse?

so you've NEVER sworn at Withdean, So we can sit there for 90

mins, moan groan curse gesticulate (sp?) and yes, swear but

when one of the players does it we want him hung.

When one of the QPR subs, who had put up with verbal abuse for

the first 45 mins gestured back, that same section of The Albion

following were running over to old bill and stewards to have him

nicked as if they had never even farted in the bath before, get

over it.

 

[Mendoza]

full story

together and this season is a building block for next season."

El-Abd believes it is no coincidence that Albion's form away from home - where fans are far more supportive - is much better than it has been at Withdean.

"I wouldn't say the lads are going into games nervous at Withdean but when you go away from home and, for example, you jog out for the warm-up, the fans give you a standing ovation and it gives you a buzz, gets you up for the game.

"When you run out at Withdean there is no one there, one man and his dog giving you a clap but everyone else standing there watching you.

Well said that man, like ive been saying the away fans we have are truly brilliant!! even in defeat we always applaud them at the end!

bring on swansea


apology accepted Adam

 

[Silent Bob]

El-Abd makes some good points.

I was shocked by this from the Cox article:
"It was the second home game in a row that the pint-sized Cox and Robinson have been the targets of a hate campaign. They came under fire from a different set of supporters when they were substitutes for the previous match against Doncaster."

Very bizarre behaviour, two different groups??

 

[chez]

Nothing to apologise for in the first place Adam.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

totally agree - the game is being screwed by people who havent got a clue about the "old fashioned" ways of the game.

no terracing
no standing
no swearing
no gay jibes

what a JOKE its a "working class" game.

Can I show my working class origins for a second or two?

Whatever happened to the world of my grandad, where a stream of swearing would invariably get the reaction from someone calling out, very firmly, "uhum ... ladies present" and swearing in front of kids was an absolute no-no?

I associate the swearing that goes on at football today as being more a phenomenon of the new, in-your-face, arrogant affluence that dates no further back than the nineteen-eighties.

 

[Wienergull]

I associate the swearing that goes on at football today as being more a phenomenon of the new, in-your-face, arrogant affluence that dates no further back than the nineteen-eighties.

Not quite sure that's true. I've been watching football since the late '60s and the language back then was quite an ear opener for a kid from a sheltered lower middle class existence. I think what has changed is the way abuse is meted out to players - the "in-your-faceness" of it, as you say. Watch any Premiership match on TV now and you see faces contorted with rage in the front row. Ugly emotions.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Watch any Premiership match on TV now and you see faces contorted with rage in the front row. Ugly emotions.

Indeed. But working class? I'm not sure.

My recollections of going to football with my grandad may be distorted by the fact that I was a kid and the people around us wouldn't, of course, be swearing in front of people of my age.

But that's the point I'm making.