When I see Saints supporters chanting abuse at one of their own players it astounds me.

My thoughts on Dan Harding as a left back are well documented, in truth others have made it more of an isssue that perhaps I do, but although I do not rate harding, I reserve my comments about him for this website, I dont spent my whole time at the game frothing at the moth and hurling abuse at him.

In recent weeks certain sections of the crowd have hurled abuse at Guly, its been quite isolated, but is seems whenever Guly makes an error the gasps from parts of the crowd are a lot more audible than they are for other players gaffes.

On Saturday at Doncaster however I saw and heard something that I have rarely seen in 40 years of following the team, a group of Saints supporters, probably in their early to mid 20's started to chant "Guly youre F*cking shit" it didnt catch on but this little group were clearly hoping that it would.

Now Guly didnt have a great game on Saturday, but then again who did, and Guly was better than most in fairness, despite being isolated up front for long periods with virtually no service, he still cleared a ball off his own line, made space and had a fine shot that their keeper had to deal with and push over for a corner and made our only dfence splitting pass of the day to put Schneiderlin one on one with the keeper, but still this wasnt enough for the boo boys behind me.

A run to nowere with a ball to nobody would draw the funny once "steeeeeeeve" cry from them but every time Guly touched the ball it was abuse, the Brazilian must wonder what he has to do to achieve the same hero worship as De Ridder or indeed others who have contributed much less, with 7 goals and 8 assists to his name this season, his contribution has been a lot better than some of our bigger names and although at times he has stuggled to get into games, on Saturday he looked like our only player who might change things despite thechaos going on around him.

I dont think Guly is brilliant, but I do recognise what he does for the team and how he often has to play out of position to keep the formation intact, some it seems dont see it that way, thats their perogative, however whatever our thoughts on players, (Or managers & Chairman for that matter) surely we should support the team during the 90 minutes and moan about who we think played badly down the pub, on the way home or on websites such as these.      

Photo: Action Images

StrasbourgSaint added 11:52 - Dec 5 I'm glad you've rasied this, Nick, and I'm 100% with you. We all have a little moan when a player does something wrong (and Guly misplaces passes quite often) but I try to keep it under my breath and, like you, get behind the team. It disgusts me when people single a player out when he is giving his best, and the disproportionate treatment Guly gets is starting to really annoy me. I don't get over to many games but did manage 4 in a month recently. At Coventry, at2-2, there were guys behind me (perhaps the same as you had at Donny) shouting the same abuse. No one player wins or loses a match but his performance that day was the difference. Hell! He laid on the first two and scored the third!!!! At Reading, it was his clever flick which put Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve through. One of the reasons he does misplace passes is that, more than some of the others, he actually gets ahead of his marker and wins lose balls. Another factor, perhaps, is that he thinks faster than some of the others and they don't read his play. De Ridder, Rickie and Lallana can, but would, say, Hammond or one of the full backs have latched onto the flick he made at Reading for the equaliser? If it hadn't worked, I bet the boo boys would have had a go, rather than moaning at the player who failed to read the run. Okay, rant over, back to work.

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Saintpaul120 added 12:02 - Dec 5 Agree with this 100% Nick. Any player can have an off game; any player can try and make difficult passes or lay on flicks or whatever but they will not come off every time. Players try things to be better than the opposition - sometimes they don't come off. As has been said above, it's absolutely counterproductive to slag a player off. He, and the team, need supporting by the fans, it does make a difference! That's why we have such a great home record - the home fans get behind the team; the 12th man as Nigel keeps saying. Lay off Guly and support him - whatever!!

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SaintsHub added 12:12 - Dec 5 Great piece. Baffling why so many people abuse Guly. Only one player in the division has more assists and he's our second top scorer. He's been one of our better players this season. Like you said though, even if you think he's crap, you should still get behind him. We're top of the league, but still people do nothing by moan all the time. The support on Saturday was abysmal. No positive chants after about 30 mins when things weren't going well, just moan moan moan. Shame we've got so many idiots following us these days

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bstokesaint added 13:26 - Dec 5 Quite simply nil return from away games at Bristol and Doncaster is unaccpetable. This is the first away game I've missed for a while, but the above match report doesn't surprise me. I get this not getting too down and not getting carried away mentality, but really sometimes the player need a big kick up the backside. Those who aren't in the first team regularly should be stepping up to the plate. The mentality needs to be sorted out. We play on a grass football pitch when we go away and with a size 5 football, just like we do at home, yet we've managed 21 wins on the bounce at home. Where's the logic? Nick, I agree we need more strength upfront and need to stop talking about preventing sloppy goals and just do it!!

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bstokesaint added 13:32 - Dec 5 Oops, this comment related to the match verdict. On the subject of Guly I'd say he's an incredibly frustrating player and I can see why some fans lose their patience. That said I personally would never boo him, because for all his frustrating moments he'll do something quite brilliant and that's what has won us games this season. Some of the other high profile players haven't yet played at their full potential this season. I would never lay in to them because they probably know this. It's up to us as fans to get behind all of our players at the games.

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boxosponge added 13:35 - Dec 5 Well said Nick. I totally agree with you. Guly was our best player (or least worst perhaps) and I was embarrassed by the pratts near me who were continually running him down. Our most threatening line up this year has been with Lambert and Connolly up front, Guly and Lallana out wide with Chaplow bursting through the middle. Its no coincidence that without 3 of those key players we struggled.

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Stephen added 13:49 - Dec 5 My take is that the chanters don't understand positioning very much. I watched the Hull game and Shneiderlin did a cross just in front of the goallie and Guly was about 5 metres out. Many of the anti-Guly brigade were complaining about Guly not running on to the ball and didn't notice Shneiderlin appologising to Guly for not pulling the ball back as Guly had taken up a great position to score. This is just one instance of many. Little can be done about these fans as they are some of the many who will never understand positioning or tactics but it would be good if they could stop being negative when they are so wrong.

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stmichael added 14:12 - Dec 5 Don't like to hear this. Guly however is very often the oppositions best player too. Too often he is caught or gives the ball away and we are caught on the break. As most of the goals we concede are on the break this is a serious problem. Not sure he should start away from home. Having said that the abuse is out of order and must stop.
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saintspodcast added 14:14 - Dec 5 I couldn’t agree more. Guly in particular always seems to get accusations of being lazy. Frankly it’s a lazy and unoriginal accusation often laid at South American players. He hasn’t been at his best recently but as the article states, neither has the team. However he still managed to grab a really important goal against Hull last Tuesday. Perhaps some fans are making comparisons between Guly and Papa Waigo – both of whom signed on loans from Italian sides where they were on the periphery of the team and both played in multiple positions at the club. Whereas Waigo often failed to track back, the same cannot be said of Guly. Guly is probably more of a striker than a winger, however he always works hard, even if things aren’t going his way. For anyone who went to Elland Road during the 2009/2010 season you’ll know that the same didn’t apply for Waigo. Listen to the Saints Podcast on itunes or by clicking here - http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/saints-podcast/id460930920

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ugliest added 21:00 - Dec 5 Totally agree with you this time Nick. Just not done those things!!
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DJI added 09:17 - Dec 6 I totally agree with you Nick. I have asked the same question on Twitter when I've seen some 'fans' slag him off! When Adam has an off day, and he is having many recently, there is never any abuse for him? I would accept that Guly can drift in and out of games sometimes, mostly when we don't get started quickly but that is no excuse to abuse him like some do. Even at Coventry, before he set up the 2 goals, there were fans near me that were shouting abuse at him, but screaming with joy when the first goal when in; the word 'hypocrites' springs to mind! I quickly moved to a new seat as I didn't want to sit and argue the point with this group of idiots. Most alarming was that at the Reading match, some 'fans' were heard to shout racial abuse towards him too; something that is completely unacceptable! The only colour the overwhelming majority of see he is, is Red & White! I have learnt to read the game much more in recent years and watch a lot more of the runs and off the ball movement than I ever did. That has helped me to appreciate the players much more than when a simple pass goes astray. I agree with you that some don't look at his contribution, simply at the moment. I for one am getting tired of the abuse Guly always seems to get.

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lincssaint added 10:58 - Dec 6 Good piece Nick and i agree with it entirely. Unfortunately i have to add to the post above. At Doncaster on Saturday one obnoxious so called Saints supporter spent most of the game berating Guly. It started off with the general 'useless' comments, these then became preceded by a wide variety of swear words. He even walked over and kicked the pitchside barrier on several occasions. Several poeple complained to a steward who had a word with the inidividual. The individual whilst quiet for a few minutes quickly lapsed back into his tirade of abuse, which become more vitriolic before turning racist. People tried to tell him to shut up but to no avail. Finally after numerous complaints another steward had another word with him. Thankfully racist abuse then ceases thou the swearing and general abuse didnt. There is no place for individuals like these in our ranks but until stewards evict these people from grounds it will not stop

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geezershoong added 11:04 - Dec 6 This is all about expectations isn't it? As he's somehow become a designated play maker with a great deal of fans we are waiting for him to get the ball & do something special which he can do, but it's not going to come off 100% of the time. He's also rather flamboyant which is fine if you can keep it up, but it also makes you a target when things go wrong. Agree with NI, doesn't deserve the flak.

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bstokesaint added 13:02 - Dec 6 I'm quite appalled that there is still any racism at our games. I (maybe naively) didn't realise it did. My brother said he'd witnessed some when he sat in the Northam for the Middlesbrough game and it was aimed at one of their players. It was just after the John Terry scandal and he didn't take it any further because it might have sounded like he was jumping on the bandwagon. To hear it levelled at any player is not acceptable and should result in being ejected from the ground and ban.

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geezershoong added 13:19 - Dec 6 It happens. A lovely young lady in the Northam called Emnes a 'black ****' at the 'Boro game, although she didn't have the guts to shout it out loud & vanished when I confronted her about it.
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