“In my place…you just have to take it.” So said Atletico Madrid’s veteran manager, Diego Simeone, in seeking to explain his confrontational reaction to what he claims were insults and goading from a small group of Liverpool fans at Anfield last night. Simeone’s spleen-venting was obviously wrong, he had to be dragged away, was rightly dismissed, he has previous with fans, and expressed his “regrets”, but should managers really “just have to take it”? Abuse wouldn’t be tolerated outside a stadium, so why should it be accepted inside, simply because football has a more febrile atmosphere? It’s possible to have edge and atmosphere without abuse.
Managers should be treated with respect. If incidents - like the one Simeone claims – do continue, the area around dug-outs will be turned into exclusion zones, heavily stewarded. “My reaction isn’t justifiable but do you know what it is like to be insulted for 90 minutes?” Simeone asked in his post-match press conference. “I hope Liverpool can improve that aspect and that when they identify the person who did that, there will be consequences.”
First, there will be consequences for Simeone, probably beginning with disciplinary action by Uefa, even if simply a fine and another warning. There will be questions about whether stewards acted earlier. Inevitably, there will be consequences for the individual depicted raging at Simeone and mocking him. It will doubtless seep out in the Spanish or Argentinian media the nature of the insults directed at Simeone.
The fan is already being lionised by some on social media, and slammed by others. There will be calls in some quarters for a ban. The fan’s embarrassed his club. He’s given rival supporters more material for slating Liverpool. The headlines should have all been about Liverpool’s mentality, winning late again. Digital artists will have a field day with the images from TV, leading to Hieronymus Bosch-style tableaus of angry faces. That’s unfair on the majority of decent, welcoming Liverpool fans.
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Of course, of all football’s pantomime villains hoping for sympathy, Simeone was not going to receive much understanding or support from an English audience. The man in black, the master of the dark arts, David Beckham’s Argentinian nemesis from France 98, a manager who dishes it out at times to opposing fans, is hardly a saint.