The Spurs fans reaction to Keane yesterday was another good example. Half the ground booed him (traitorous little sh*t, in effect the ‘real’ captain yet still showed no loyalty, moving as much for money as for honours, should have said he planned to leave so we would have kept Defoe) and half applauded him (6 years of good service, always gave 100%, moved to ‘club of his dreams’).

Me? I did neither -I couldnt bring myself to boo him but I sure as hell wasnt going to applaud him off the pitch either.

Ashley Cole? – Arsenal fans have every right to give him grief. So do England fans as he epitomises the greedy, couldnt-give-a-monkeys, self-centred attitude that led to us missing out on Euro 2008 and that Capello has worked hard to eradicate. And doing the dirty on Cheryl Cole with a slapper gives us all EVERY reason to hate him!

Having said that, it's different for me and different for the players. For the players it's a short career. The desire to win and earn a lot of money is fair, not every player is a fan and I think Ashley Cole from the beginning was more for himself than for the club.

@Luke – when you’re making X per month and your colleagues are getting paid more for doing less, you might feel cheated and seek alternative employment. of course when you’re hearing 1/10000th of X per month (as we all are), it’s hard to understand.

But think of football as a career and wage disagreements as a sign of self-worth issues and you’ll understand it better.

Ashley Cole is still a muppet though…

Take Silvestre. I thought hell would freeze over before Manchester United would sell a player to Arsenal. Still, Silvestre moved and no one at Manchester begrudged him for it. He wanted to play more and he figured he would have a better shot at Arsenal than at Manchester United. He didn’t pledge his undying loyalty to Manchester United. He didn’t say “I’ll never go to Arsenal.” He handled things the right way, and, while he may get some good-natured boos from Old Trafford, I’m sure he’ll get a nice reception if and when he goes back in a Gunners kit.

The Sol Campbell case was one, I think Spuds fans understood – that he wanted to move to a club who regularly competed for trophies and Champions League football. The fact it was Arsenal obviously left deep wounds with their fans, though I’m not so sure it was for the massive wages. That came as part of Arsenal not paying a transfer fee to sign him.

Take Sol Campbell. After saying he would never play for Arsenal, not only did he go there, but he became one of their highest paid players. Something like that makes it personal to the fans, and I think that’s where the hatred comes from.