I`ve followed the twitter feed of Richard Stewart for some time. I`m not a keen follower, and to be fair, he never tweets anything controversial or really stunning, any way.
So I was a bit surprised when I searched for him today to learn he`d closed his account. Was he heading for the barricades if we didn`t sign anyone. How wrong I was. He`d closed it because of the abuse he`s had to endure recently from our "fans".
Let me point out to those people. At the last guesstimate I saw, the Stewart family had put about £30M in to the club. They`d come in at a time when we`d had 2 administrations and looked in danger of folding. From the doldrums we now have a state of the art stadium, fit to host televised international games.
A successful visit to Wembley and consecutive promotions got the club in to England`s second tier, and were all under pinned by the Stewart family investment. Meanwhile at the financial helm they, quite rightly promised they wouldn`t put the club in hock.
How sickening it must be to be subjected to abuse from"fans". Is it worth it? If I was him, that's what I'd be asking myself.
I ask those who are doing this "Do you think there is a queue of seriously rich people waiting to throw money at Rotherham United?" No! Anyone with premier league pedigree, yes but they`d be in it for the big bucks. What we have here is a family that already have a financial investment in this town with ADS Lighting. They`re putting something back in to the community. The only alternative I can see is a fans buy out. Oh we`ve had that before. What a success that was!
I`m not saying they`re perfect, but they`re doing a good job on a budget. At the end of last season relegated teams got more in prize money from the premier league than Real Madrid got for winning their league. Where does the Financial Fair Play give us smaller clubs a fighting chance?
Get behind the manager and support the directors.
There`s no room in this club for cyber bullies or any other kind of bully. Your views don`t represent what I`ve seen to be the majority of fans
i think its a bit naive of Mr Stewart to have a Twitter account because sadly in this day and age there is a small minority of people who don't know how to behave (in public never mind in cyber space). The abuse dished out by a few at Barnsley was as vile as I can recall seeing from RUFC followers and it seems to have spilled over onto social media. Everything you say is right. There is always room for constructive comment, but abuse seems to be considered justifiable and commonplace in some quarters which is just plain unacceptable.
The game is about passion and in lesser circles, tribal; almost transcendental or murderous. Either way it effects emotions like nothing else I can think of. Sadly there are many, and you hear them every home game, using foul and abusive language at anyone and everything that goes against anything which they deem to be right. As a kid, in the late 50's early 60's, I never experienced that behaviour, either at football matches or in the street. Its everywhere you go now, I even hear parents, mothers included, using the F and the C word in the street to their children.
There is a sad paradox that while we are stamping out racism from the game which is right, we allow the brutalisation to continue in other forms, in this case against the very people we should be thankful to, which in any decent society should be considered unjustifiable and downright criminal.
That is not to say we cannot criticise, disagree, or complain, but its the manner in which is done - the intent.
We are all Millers, we want to see our club that represents our town and by definition, us, to perform well, to win and give us the joy and pride in our club and home town.Goodness knows our town has suffered enough both economically and socially. Our expectations have been raised (which has not been helped by the statements issued by the chairman) and the dismal start to the season is making most, myself included, feeling let down and after a local game like last Saturday, humiliated. Its transient in nature, soon forgotten, but at that moment it is real.
We all feel it and most react in a human way,usually by venting the spleen on here, and thank goodness for the likes of Smiler and a few others on here who seem to be able to maintain common sense and reason throughout, while the behaviour of others on social media outlets can be considered nothing short of depravity. It lets us all down.
