Get well soon, Fabrice

By Chris Quinn on Mar 20, 12 11:22 AM in Birmingham City FC

Hi to all and welcome to my first blog.

It's never nice to start anything on a sour note, but unfortunately, I think there is only one topic this blog can be about at the moment.

Saturday saw the horrific scenes at White Hart Lane as ex-Blues player Fabrice Muamba suffered a cardiac arrest during play. Fans are used to seeing players feigning injury and rolling around the turf apparently writhing in pain, but it was apparent immediately that this was not one of those cases. The faces of the players on both sides told the story for those watching via ESPN's coverage at home. To their credit, ESPN refused to show any replays of what had just occurred and kept their cameras focused on fans, players and sometimes just a view of the pitch. This was serious.

I have to admit, I was surprised when I had heard that it was Muamba who had been struck down. A man who never stopped running during his spell with Blues, he is naturally one of the fittest players in the Premier League. It just did not make sense.
As I searched for other Blues fans reactions to the incident, I was surprised to see people playing down his contribution to our club on a popular forum. Of course, we're all aware that he was not technically the best player in our side, but his endeavour and desire to always give 100% is something that would usually endear him to our fans.
Yet I saw people asking if they could have a minute's applause because they were not very well either. There seemed to be some sort of satirical element to a lot of the posts.

As I read further on, it seemed to stem from the fact that Muamba had criticised the way our club was being run during his spell at the club - describing it as 'Mickey Mouse'
After reading the article in question from the Daily Mail, it is true that Muamba had indeed said "There's no Mickey Mouse stuff here (Bolton). It's only proper stuff going on." But wasn't he just telling the truth?
After all, our players were openly being criticised in public by our chairman who had no desire to attempt to back the signings then manager Steve Bruce had made. We were being run like a Mickey Mouse club (and with the actions of Carson Yeung, probably still are.)

So why do fans still seem to bear a grudge against Muamba? If Newcastle fans can come together and give a rousing applause for a player who has no affinity with them, then why do some of our fans seem to think we should not?

It must be said that there are also a lot of Blues fans who are genuinely upset by the whole incident. it's pretty hard not to be when you check his Twitter feed and see pictures of him relaxing with his son and the tweets from his fiancee.

I just hope that by the time the weekend game with Cardiff has arrived, Muamba has continued with his rapid improvement and we can give him the support he deserves.
Anybody that has ever come into contact with the man will not have a bad word to say about him and come 11:59am on Sunday, I hope Blues fans will show him the appreciation he deserves.
Keep Right On, Fabrice.