Is a distinction being made between moaning so that people around you might hear, and so that the players might hear?
Like everybody around me (actually, all the season tickets holders, not the irregulars) I was moaning on Saturday. Lukaku, for instance, had, even by his standards, an incredibly frustrating game to watch until he scored.
I wasn't shouting complaints at him or anybody else. I never would, nor boo at our individual players or team and never have. But to myself and the half dozen people around me, I express my frustration out loud sometimes when it feels overwhelming. The notion that it's wrong to do that at a football match is absurd. It is an absolutely central part of the experience of watching any sport, in all cultures at all times and always has been.
I'm not an unthinking cheerleader, or a permanently delighted imbecile. I'm a paying spectator and a devoted fan. I have had a chunk of my life invested in that team for forty odd years. I've sat there watching sh1te in the rain for decades. I'm entitled to express an opinion on how my team performs. And not just on the Internet. I'm entitled to go to the match and swear at a volume the players can't hear when they do stupid things - over and over again.
It's got nothing to do with "getting behind the team". This isn't about the noise we make or what we say publicly (though I sit in the halfords, so noise doesnt really arise). It's a low level, private conversation between fans about the shortcomings of the team we all love. We're not only entitled to that; it's central. A conversation in which you're only allowed to say positive things is pointless and stupid.
And what about the manager and the coaching staff, are they allowed to complain, or does the ban on negative comments and expressing furious frustration extend to them too? Because I sit right next to the home dugout, and of all the people around me, they are the worst. Which is absolutely natural and exactly what you would expect. Why should it be any different for anybody else?
Having said all that, I'm sure the positive things i say out loud always hugely outnumber the negative. Whereas there are people who only ever seem to complain. That can make it seem like they only go to the game in order to find fault, and can be very wearing to listen to. I eventually moved seats a couple of years ago to escape from such a woman.
Perhaps it's really irritation with people who never say anything positive that leads people to sound like they think nobody should ever say anything negative. Which - balanced criticism being a foundation of all sport watching - may perhaps not be what they really mean.