Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Scoring is great... So start the celebrations
Well done Marko Arnautovic, a divisive figure at times and certainly one who has taxed the many coaches he has worked with during his colourful professional career.
But it was great to see the West Ham winger celebrate scoring against former club Stoke City with such gusto last weekend. Maybe it will put to bed the whole nonsense that is players not celebrating a goal against former clubs.
It has got to stop, for there are few worse habits in the game than the respectful stony-faced reaction to a goal that Romelu Lukaku exhibited against Albion.
Arnautovic didn’t hold back. After scoring the Hammers’ second goal at Stoke he ran off in front of the home end, arms out-stretched before giving it the full knee slide as incandescent Potters fans spewed forth with rage.
Not content with that, he held his hands above his head making the symbol of the West Ham badge once he got back to the halfway line just so the Stoke fans were left in no doubt as to where his loyalties now belonged.
You see, the thing is, for the past hour and some, the Stoke fans had booed Arnautovic to the rafters.
Catcalls, offensive gestures, sarcastic cheering as his shots cannoned off the bar or were saved by the keeper – the lad was subjected to the lot.
If there was any uncertainty in the player’s mind before kick-off about what he would do should he score, there was definitely none by the time his effort hit the back of the net.
Those home fans daft enough to have been jeering him made a rod for their own back. Their behaviour spurred Arnautovic on and he enjoyed his celebrations.
When he was finally substituted, the Stoke boss Mark Hughes could be seen appearing to mouth the obscenity, ‘Effing ungrateful effer!’ in his direction.
That’s the manager of a football club, not some wannabe balaclava-wearing hooligan 20 rows back dressed head to toe in Stone Island’s finest clobber.
It would be great if Arnautovic’s celebrations unleashed some honesty amongst footballers. That is not to say every celebration should be quite as antagonistic to fans of former clubs, but it is important to celebrate goals whoever they are scored against.
For a professional footballer there is no rush of joy in the job that can compare to scoring a goal.
There is a fascinating exchange between Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne in Pete Davies’ Italia 90 book All Played Out, which gets to the heart of what players must experience when they score.
“It’s a great feeling,” says Waddle. “For ten seconds you just lose your head.”
“It’s unbelievable,” Gazza adds. “You’re all over the place, all over the place, man. Run anywhere, even if you’re 5-0 down.”
Speak to footballers about the experience of scoring and they will talk of that rush of adrenaline and the blurred seconds of ecstasy before they regain their composure.
The idea that this has to contained by players in some sort of ritual acknowledgement that they once had a few good games for the opposition is ridiculous.
There are, of course, exceptional circumstances. It is understandable that a player like Steve Bull wouldn’t want to wheel off in exaggerated delight if he scored against Wolves, in the hypothetical event he had left Molineux towards the end of his career and returned as an opponent.
It would be hard to imagine Steven Gerrard celebrating scoring against Liverpool or John Terry doing likewise against Chelsea. But these are the very few exceptions.
This not celebrating thing is patronising for fans too. Do players imagine fans are small-minded enough to bear a genuine grudge?
The last thing supporters want after going a goal down is to see the scorer walk off head-bowed in funeral respect in deference to previous employment. Who are these scorers trying to fool?
Get on with it man, enjoy your moment, let the fans concentrate on moaning at the defender for giving you so much space.
Right-minded supporters are not investing any time and efforts into analysing the intensity of your celebration, they just want their own team to get their act together.
In 2012 Robbie Keane returned to Molineux with Aston Villa over a decade after playing for just about every other club in Europe and scored two wonder goals to help Villa to a 3-2 victory.
Did he celebrate them? No, instead he put on his best poker face whilst delirious team-mates jumped all over him.
Full marks for pulling it off, but there really was no need for such a self-imposed vow of solemnity.
The other side of the same coin is badge kissing towards one’s own supporters after a goal. Again, nobody is fooled by the faux love-in.
Thankfully that is a habit that does appear to be on the wane, probably because shirts are adorned with so much sponsorship these days there is a genuine risk of pecking a betting company’s logo.
Let us hope, that after last weekend’s events in Stoke, Arnautovic becomes the poster boy for celebrating. These moments don’t come along very often in a lifetime.
Go on, treat yourself to a smile.
