By Neil Ravenscroft
October 7 2002

Sometimes there is a reason for the fan's dislike of certain players, but sometimes the reasons seem to defy all logic, to me. at any rate. Fans site message boards over the years have quite often carried threads on “who was the worst player ever to wear the shirt”. Walsall fans usually come up with similar answers, with Dale Banton and Bica usually getting the “nod” ahead of a lot of candidates. That’s fair enough, but why do perfectly good players often get the bird?

Mark Rees, for example, was adored by the fans and rapidly became a folk hero. His footballing skills, however, were limited to say the least. I could never understand at the time why the crowd took such a dislike to Martin Butler as a Walsall player, when he was a youngster of some promise. Michael Ricketts too often looked like he wasn’t interested, so that one can at least be explained. All the same, he was criticised for wanting away to further his ambitions, whereas Alan Clarke and David Kelly stayed in the fan’s hearts, despite doing exactly the same thing.

Some players get criticised because they are too clever for their teammates. Back in the 70’s, Mick Bates was one of these. He was good enough to have played in a European Cup Final for Leeds, but got a lot of stick by some fans at Fellows Park for wasting too many passes. What he was doing, of course was playing the ball into a space where someone should have been, but wasn’t. On the other hand, another player who graced the European stage at the highest level, Ronnie Ekelund, was just the same and fans were crying out for him to be in the side.

Sometimes, especially with strikers, it’s because they can’t make an immediate impact. David Zdrilic looked like he was going to suffer this way, despite his lack of match fitness, but started scoring in the nick of time, yet Junior is still trying to come to terms with the pace of the game and most fans, in my experience, love him.

With midfielders, there is another problem. Sometimes you don’t see the contribution they make until they aren’t there. I, personally, always thought we looked a better side with Tom Bennett than without him and that is certainly the case with Martin O’Connor (both for us and Blues), yet he has always been appreciated.

The main complaint, though, always seems to be about attitude, “lack of effort”, or “lack of heart”. (Witness the Dingle fans complaints at the moment). So how do you explain the current reaction to a player who always gives 100%, always looks like he cares about the club and who has enough bottle to step up and take a penalty to earn a point in the third minute of injury time?
Step forward, Zigor Aranalde. I know he has this annoying habit of losing concentration and giving away daft goals occasionally, I know he deserves criticism for the quality of his performances at times (I did it myself on this site following the Rotherham game), but the one thing you can’t have a go at him for is his effort. He never looks like one of those foreign imports who has just come for a last pay day (Jean Jacques Eydelie) or, even worse, one of the mercenaries who are always looking for the highest bidder, but “kiss the badge” with the best (Bukran, Padula). Have a go at him when he makes a mistake, but don’t turn him into a target for the inevitable boo boys. He doesn’t deserve that, especially after Saturday!