07 February 2024 , 17:22
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Todd Boehly's reign at Chelsea has been chaotic and turbulent rather than plain sailing, leaving beloved Blues fans disenchanted.
The American has spent close to £1billion on players and worked with five different managers in nearly two years of ownership. The over-inflated squad struggled to produce the results on the pitch, resulting in a 12th-placed finish last season.
In came Mauricio Pochettino last summer, a much-loved, successful football manager, who provided some hope for fans that he'd be able to get the West London club back on track. A further £400million was spent on players under the Argentine and they do have a Carabao Cup final against Liverpool to look forward to at the end of the month - but in terms of the Premier League, they're currently just one place better off in 11th and following back-to-back defeats, are looking at their rivals below as opposed to those above.
Big-money signings such as Mykhaylo Mudryk, Moises Caicedo, and Enzo Fernandez are three of the many new faces at Stamford Bridge struggling to find their feet, and it has resulted in vile abuse on social media. The abuse got so bad for midfield duo Caicedo and World Cup winner Fernandez that they deactivated their X accounts, while Mudryk challenged an angry Chelsea fan to a 1 vs. 1 with £10,000 on the line.
Abuse on social media isn't uncommon; it's widespread and the famous aren't the only targets of online, and often faceless, trolls. "I believe that the players they are getting tired and sick of getting online abuse every time when something goes wrong," Brazilian legend Gilberto Silva told Mirror Football this week.
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"They don't play well when they lose the game or make mistakes. As a human being, everyone does, we don't have a good day every time in our lives and in our work - players are the same. They are humans, and sometimes people because of their passion or because they were dissatisfied with something they put out on social media all of their frustration because of the result and this is not good because they forget that it is a moment to support the players.
"I understand that, I totally understand their frustration, but you come into players' accounts and abuse them on their accounts. It's not right. It's like if somebody comes into my account, this is my space. I want everybody to enjoy interacting with me, and interact with somebody else - but respect each other. If somebody does something different like they go to my house and they respect me and my guests.
Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez deactivated their X accounts (Getty)"They have to be out. Not me, on my social media feel that I need to be out of my house or my space but there is no accountability on anybody who does this kind of thing. The players are afraid and scared because they don't know who they are dealing with. People without pictures. We don't know if it's a true person or machine or whatever, if they good guy or bad guy. What (about a) guy who just had a bad day like the player on the field and they come out and do this kind of thing.
"I hope things change but my opinion is that I think the players are getting tired of receiving this kind of abuse on their channels and there's no accountability to anybody. People keep talking, the clubs and federations, journalists, but in a real situation what has been done? It’s a question for us to ask."
Silva says players can't be blamed for hitting back at online trolls, but he has urged Mudryk and Co. to not stoop to their critics' levels and own their own voice and channels. The 47-year-old says fans also have to be aware of the pressure put on football players to represent their communities. " I don't think you can blame him," Silva said on Mudryk lashing out.
Mykhaylo Mudryk offered a fan out for a 1 vs. 1 in football for £10,000 (Getty)"Because at some point, the players like everybody, get p****d of being abused many many times and then it has to be quiet because you are a football person. But at some point, you reach the level of sadness he got in those things because you go every day on the training ground, you work really hard. People think it's easy to be a football player. It's not.
"Like any other job, It's hard to be a football player and then the amount of pressure you have to hold on your shoulder. you represent a football club - doesn't matter the size of the club - you represent the community where people expect a lot from you and for some people, it’s their life. their club is their life. We as a football player hold this responsibility. We don't think, ‘I'm just go there just have fun have fun’.
"Fun is part of the process but at the end of the day, players want to win the matches, they want to play well, they want to succeed, make their families proud, make the fans happy with their performance, and make the club important in the competition - but sometimes things don't work. But as Mudryk responds, as I mentioned before; (it) is his channel.
Gilberto Silva and Striver CEO Tim Chase spoke to Mirror Football in Lisbon last November and followed up this week (Getty)"He has to own his voice on his channel, his house. Listen, with some stupid people, you cannot win at the level they are. If you lower your level, you always lose. but if you raise your level, I think is the end of the story. But how to do this? Just use your channel in an intelligent way, in a good way, because not giving attention to these people who are abusive, is the end of the story.
"Now focus the attention on the other people because I'm sure many of the fans who really like Mudryk or the other players who have left their social media, were so upset because of that because they lost an opportunity to see what their Idol was doing, sharing some things - but you have to focus on good people because if you focus on the wrong side of these people this is not a good way. But I hope the players understand that we have to own our voice."
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Abuse of football players is a topic close to Silva, with the Arsenal Invincibles and Brazil 2002 World Cup-winning midfielder, suffering hateful, racist comments during his playing days, which is why alongside former teammate Roberto Carlos and Tim Chase, he created a hate-free social media platform for football players, clubs, and fans, called Striver. The platform moderates content before it makes its way onto the app, preventing hateful comments from being seen or received.
Gilberto Silva and Tim Chase have also partnered up with Roberto Carlos (Getty)It has also been designed to give players confidence to engage with fans in a constructive manner, while also having fun by responding to challenges. CEO Chase says Striver has proven social media can be hate-free and has questioned whether the big three; X, Facebook, or Instagram, really want to put a stop to it.
"We know that football fans can be super excited one minute; we're winning the league one minute and then we lose the game and suddenly we're getting relegated," said Chase, who has been inspired to continue the fight against online abuse after seeing private messages directed at a high-profile footballer's wife and child. "That's the emotional scale we're dealing with and it goes from one bit to the other really quickly. And that's just life as a football fan and we all get sucked up and it will get super excited."
Chase added: "Look, we've proved a startup like us can totally remove abuse from social media if you want to. Not one bit of abuse gets on our platform ever. Fact. We've shown it.
Silva is an Arsenal and Brazil football legend (Getty)"And we don't rather than removing it once it goes live, we stop it going live. So it never happens. We can prove to do that. So a little startup like us and do that, what can the power of all the billions behind all the social media platforms (do) if they really wanted to? They could do it. They obviously don't really want to do it."
Silva, Carlos, and Chase have already had several meetings with football clubs across Europe and that's unlikely to slow down. Silva says football federations, clubs, players, and fans are all responsible for creating and maintaining a respectful community space. "We are here to support players, the clubs, and the federations to have better communication, but also have fun," Silva said. He then added: "For me, we are here as Striver, we know what we are doing. If you don’t know, come and find out. You will see a community where people are enjoying talking about football their idols, the game, but knowing they are in a safe environment."
Carlos reflected: "It's a shame that they [Caicedo & Fernandez] had to deactivate their accounts and this is why we have created Striver, so things like this don't happen again."