For that reason I try and rein myself in whenever one of their leading lights makes a right royal fool of himself. And that's a lot of self-control!

But little else gets my goat than when the mollycoddled begin to get all sanctimonious and self-pitying. Much like Sol Campbell this week when he phoned up Radio 4 to demand a stop to supporters' abuse of players.

It was a curious blast from the Portsmouth and former England defender who has seemed oblivious to fan's vitriol in the past. This is the man who grew up at Spurs and then jumped ship at the first sniff of big bucks to join their hated rivals Arsenal. Now you need thick skin to make a decision like that.

While racism and phyiscal violence should have absolutely no place in society let alone a football ground, fans DO have a right to vent their spleen.

Of course some fans overstep the mark, but if I earned their salary and held their privileged position I'm prettu sure I could handle name-calling no matter how vile it was. Ignore it, get on with your game and be the bigger man.

If footballers are having a bad game, the man who has paid over the odds to get through the turnstiles to support their vastly over-inflated wages should eternally hold the right to criticise. It's a principal employees the world over must abide by and a sad fact of life.

The only thing Campbell is achieving by this is to encourage the boo boys to louden their catcalls. They must be delighted to discover their tactics actually work and that players are vulnerable enough to let their performances be affected.

It's nothing new, footballers have always been the subject to this, and I agree, sometimes what is said is unacceptable.

Maybe today's generation should learn from the past when the very best players in soccer history simply laughed right back at their tormentors or used it as a spur to play even better. After all, sticks and stones......

What do you think? Add your comments below