What Alejandro Garnacho’s response to YouTuber says about today’s footballers

Argentine’s refusal to celebrate goal against Leicester, according to Bruno Fernandes, is due to frustration at recent criticism from fans

When Alejandro Garnacho scored a corker of a goal at Old Trafford on Sunday, it might have been expected that he would celebrate it with gusto.
After all, like many a modern player, the Manchester United winger enjoys a bit of a theatrical celebration, seeing a goal as an opportunity to deliver some interpretive choreography, cupping his ears, or shoving the ball up his shirt front, or sitting atop the pitchside advertising hoardings, arms folded, looking deliberately matter of fact about the brilliance he has just unleashed.
But this time, he checked his run to the crowd with a dismissive swish of his arm, and trudged back to the halfway line, head down. 
This angle of Garnacho’s goal against Leicester 💫pic.twitter.com/4vzbIoP1rg
After the match, his captain Bruno Fernandes explained he had refused to celebrate out of a frustration with some recent criticism from the crowd. Garnacho did not feel like marking the moment. Which, Fernandes added, was a shame, because it was a goal worth enjoying.
It was pretty clear what was being referred to. Ahead of last Thursday’s Europa League game against PAOK at Old Trafford, Garnacho was filmed by a fan signing autographs as he made his way into the ground. The would-be doorstepper was giving him some advice. “You’ve got to pass better,” the off-camera voice was saying, “and work on your first touch as well.” Irritated by the comments, the player is seen to inquire, sarcastically, of his critic: “Why are you not playing, man?”
Garnacho vs PlanetFaz😳😳😳😳 pic.twitter.com/pWBxdzgu0R
That might have been that, a private exchange soon forgotten about. But in the modern football world, such interactions quickly become online content. And the fan, who apparently enjoys a touch of notoriety posting United-based stuff on social media, immediately put the exchange up on YouTube. Within seconds, tens of thousands of people had seen it, commented on it and given it a prominence it barely deserved. Garnacho himself noted the storm in a teacup it had provoked and took umbrage.
Fernandes was quick to point out to his team-mate that he really should not allow such things to worry him. After all, the overwhelming majority of those going into the stadium revere him. Indeed, the regulars at Old Trafford have updated their chant about Cristiano Ronaldo to laud him, as high a compliment as they could offer.
And there was another video doing the rounds of a boy fan catching the player’s eye as he was about to go on to the pitch, his warm-hearted enthusiasm rewarded when Garnacho went over after the game, hugged the lad and gifted him his shirt; a lovely, friendly exchange. Fernandes made it clear to his colleague he should be concentrating on the torrent of good wishes like that regularly pouring from the stands, not isolated criticism.
Love this ❤️Garnacho heard a young kid singing his name when being subbed on.After the game he gifts him his shirt. 👏 pic.twitter.com/j3lfYJx6Cb
The thing is, though, Garnacho is not 21 until next July. And his age is significant. It is not just that he has a lot to learn or that he has yet to develop the kind of hide that enabled his predecessors in a red shirt, the likes of Roy Keane, Bryan Robson and Ryan Giggs, to brush off criticism with accomplished ease. It is more that he comes from a generation for whom the phone is the window into everything.
Recently the United coach Darren Fletcher remarked he was astounded by how many players he sees in the dressing room, addressing their screen immediately after they come off the pitch. Just give it a moment, was his advice; let things settle. Yet for the modern player, contact with the outside world solely comes via the mobile. This is where they glean their entire world view: information, news, trends. And, yes, criticism.
In Fletcher’s time, players might have been irritated by being given a poor rating mark out of 10 in the local paper’s match report the next morning. Online, though, is an entirely unfiltered, unregulated, unpatrolled frontier. Much more targeted, direct and immediate too. Here things can quickly accelerate. One bloke mansplaining that a player needs to pass more accurately suddenly gets amplified out of all proportion.
This may not be what the overwhelming majority of the fanbase thinks. It may be an over-wrought critique of a youngster still negotiating his way through the game. But for the player seeing the comments being constantly referenced on his phone, it does not appear that way. Suddenly everyone seems to be against them.
And Garnacho is not the only one who has been disgruntled by the online world recently. At Tottenham, Brennan Johnson took exception to some ugly social media comments made after he had missed a chance in an early season defeat. His response – scoring in each of the next six matches, goals marked by a finger-to-lips shushing celebration – was exemplary. Garnacho’s cowed response to a goal which, in its approach and delivery completely undermined his critic, however, merely added yet further attention to it.
The next time he stops to sign an autograph he will likely encounter half a dozen would-be analysts hoping he might rise to their bait as he did before and thus give them a couple of seconds of attention. Much better just to enjoy the moment.