Football’s boos problem: why are we so quick to turn on our own team? | Paul MacInnes

Treatment of England and Southgate was the latest example of a culture so ingrained we heard it even from a crowd of kids

It wasn’t nice. The treatment of the England team and Gareth Southgate by their own fans at Molineux on Tuesday was loud, consistent and, in the words of those there, quite “unsavoury”. There has been debate over whether it was right or wrong (full disclosure: I am in the wrong wrong wrong camp). But perhaps we should also wonder a little more as to why it happened in the first place.

First and most obviously, the performance was just poor. From Aaron Ramsdale’s goalkeeping to John Stones’s defending, Bukayo Saka being a yard off everything and Harry Kane making a fool of himself in an attempt to earn his second soft penalty of the international break, none of it was good on the eye. As Southgate acknowledged, expectations of this England team have been raised and at Molineux – over two internationals – they weren’t met.