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This chant that we are getting grief for


Bjornebye
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Guest Alex_K

Also don't see how it is homophobic. The song was created in context of leading European players at the time becoming in essence male prostitutes for a no-mark club (Chelsea) that suddenly swam in cash. If people want to rail against it of course that's their prerogative but I do think it is disingenuous to emphasise the homophobic overtones: the song was always focused on money & decent players selling out on their principles to leave some big clubs (Makelele - Madrid; Crespo - Inter etc.) for what was a non-entity of a club in a period before £££ truly had its corrosive effect on the game. Sexuality was never the focus.

 

EDIT: Given the link posted I'll somewhat retract sentiment above .. however still don't think for the vast vast majority of fans who ever sung this the 1980s story of a Chelsea hooligan with a prostitute was what was on their mind ..

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2 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

I used to think that, but - as discussed on here a few weeks ago - it pre-dates Abramovic. Apparently it dates back to some stories of pictures circulating of a prominent Chelsea hooligan with a rent boy. Do you imagine there would have been the same reaction to pictures of him with a female prostitute?

 

If it's alright with you, I won't ask you about what is or isn't homophobic; I'll ask Kop Outs and all the other LGBT+ supporters groups.

Yeah, just found this...

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/LiverpoolFC/comments/9ikb2g/meta_the_phrase_rentboys_now_falls_under_our_no/?usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D

 

In that case...

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21 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

I don't know if anyone older than me can tell me I'm wrong but Chelsea sung "Chelsea rent boy" as did every other club at Gerrard when he nearly left us. So we sung it back. The point being why the fuck is it us getting the grief for it 

We're getting grief because it was highlighted last week and the boss asked for it to stop.

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1 hour ago, Bjornebye said:

Ok, I didn't sing it, it was already on my radar not to sing it but my point isn't "should it be sung or not' it's why all of a sudden are we getting twatted as a fan-base with it. Anyone who went the game today will know that when the players took the knee, the chelsea end booed and the reaction was a stadium of applause. How we are all of a sudden getting marked as a fanbase that is homophobic or whatever is a fucking joke 

 

Chelsea are cunts.

We don't have to be cunts but some people are choosing to be cunts.

 

We are supposedly famous for unique, witty, wonderful football songs and chants.


Sing those.

 

Our fans do not need to sing this boring song.  If it were actually really funny, witty and also happened to be offensive, there might just be an infinitesimal justification to sing it.

 

But it's shit.  And boring.

 

Like, if those of us who get pilloried sometimes for living in and trading boringly off the clubs glorious past (mea culpa), then this shit song falls into a similar category, and for a much more valid social and anthropological reason.

 

Stop dragging our knuckles, and pack it in.

 

And other fans of ours around them should fucking start calling them out if they sing it.

 

It's fucking unnecessary bullshit.

 

 

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19 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

EDIT: Given the link posted I'll somewhat retract sentiment above .. however still don't think for the vast vast majority of fans who ever sung this the 1980s story of a Chelsea hooligan with a prostitute was what was on their mind ..

 

I'm deeply sceptical of this origin story, I must say. I don't think I'm alone in never having heard this chant until Abramovich took over the club. If someone can link me to pre-Roman match footage featuring said chant, then that will be persuasive. Until then..

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Just now, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I'm deeply sceptical of this origin story, I must say. I don't think I'm alone in never having heard this chant until Abramovich took over the club. If someone can link me to pre-Roman match footage featuring said chant, then that will be persuasive. Until then..

What a weird hill to die on.

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Just now, AngryOfTuebrook said:

What a weird hill to die on.

 

I'm not on any hill. I never sang this chant anyway. I'd hope we'd established by now that I don't generally accept claims without evidence, regardless of what that claim may be.

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12 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I'm deeply sceptical of this origin story, I must say. I don't think I'm alone in never having heard this chant until Abramovich took over the club. If someone can link me to pre-Roman match footage featuring said chant, then that will be persuasive. Until then..

 

So you're condemning this song only conditionally for the moment, until you get historical clarification?

 

Do chronological semantics come into whether it acceptable/tolerable or not... and there is some type of mitigation we might pathetically be able to grasp on to perhaps?

 

Unnecessary, fucked-up and unequivocally anachronistic is the only time reference we need to frame this shit in.

 

 

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39 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

The media singling Liverpool and our fans out for special attention. I think I'm still punch-drunk from the Suarez bullshit.

Wake back up then mr militant left winger 

22 minutes ago, No2 said:

We're getting grief because it was highlighted last week and the boss asked for it to stop.

He was pushed into an interview, why Klopp? why not any other manager throughout the last 15 years? 

12 minutes ago, s(k)aturation said:

 

Chelsea are cunts.

We don't have to be cunts but some people are choosing to be cunts.

 

We are supposedly famous for unique, witty, wonderful football songs and chants.


Sing those.

 

Our fans do not need to sing this boring song.  If it were actually really funny, witty and also happened to be offensive, there might just be an infinitesimal justification to sing it.

 

But it's shit.  And boring.

 

Like, if those of us who get pilloried sometimes for living in and trading boringly off the clubs glorious past (mea culpa), then this shit song falls into a similar category, and for a much more valid social and anthropological reason.

 

Stop dragging our knuckles, and pack it in.

 

And other fans of ours around them should fucking start calling them out if they sing it.

 

It's fucking unnecessary bullshit.

 

 

I agree, its a shit chant no need to sing it. We are wittier than that but in the passion of a footy game especially a big one en masse chants happen, again, I'm not questioning the chant I'm questioning the reaction

9 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I'm deeply sceptical of this origin story, I must say. I don't think I'm alone in never having heard this chant until Abramovich took over the club. If someone can link me to pre-Roman match footage featuring said chant, then that will be persuasive. Until then..

You're defo a rent boy 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*if anyone from SSN is reading this, it was a joke. 

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Guest Alex_K
14 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I'm deeply sceptical of this origin story, I must say. I don't think I'm alone in never having heard this chant until Abramovich took over the club. If someone can link me to pre-Roman match footage featuring said chant, then that will be persuasive. Until then..

I also never heard this chant in many, many years. Maybe it was among a 'niche' support group .. I don't know. Nor do I care. But it does feel like a reimagining of history to suggest a chant that went without reprimand for more than a decade suddenly had a homophobic bent to it all along

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4 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

 

I agree, its a shit chant no need to sing it. We are wittier than that but in the passion of a footy game especially a big one en masse chants happen, again, I'm not questioning the chant I'm questioning the reaction

 

Mate, that's cool and your choice. 

I just reckon any kind of "whataboutery" on this is unhelpful, and a Pyhhric win.

 

 

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I've said it elsewhere but it's maybe worth repeating, my first bf was a rent boy. He made very good money indeed. He used the term as did I. Insulting? Hardly. He would, as many did and do, quite happily take money for sex with a woman. He was however, believe me, very gay. In fact his brother was paid by women for having sex. He too was called himself a rent boy. 

 

I hear various gay organisations saying it's a homophobic term but I truly fail to see the irrational fear of homosexuality anywhere in the term "rent boy". Like others above in the thread, I've always thought it was to do with mercenary players. 

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11 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 

I'm not on any hill. I never sang this chant anyway. I'd hope we'd established by now that I don't generally accept claims without evidence, regardless of what that claim may be.

Really? Any time anyone reminisces about their experiences at a match in Ye Olden Dayes you refuse to accept it without evidence?

 

Chinny - and may I add - reckon. 

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6 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

I also never heard this chant in many, many years. Maybe it was among a 'niche' support group .. I don't know. Nor do I care. But it does feel like a reimagining of history to suggest a chant that went without reprimand for more than a decade suddenly had a homophobic bent to it all along

 

Oh that's OK then.  It was our niche aficionados perhaps.

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

 But it does feel like a reimagining of history to suggest a chant that went without reprimand for more than a decade suddenly had a homophobic bent to it all along

The lack of a reprimand doesn't mean it wasn't homophobic. Think about all the racist shit that went without reprimand for years; it was still racist, it's just that most people didn't give a fuck.

 

We're now being asked to give a fuck about homophobia.

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6 minutes ago, rb14 said:

I hear various gay organisations saying it's a homophobic term but I truly fail to see the irrational fear of homosexuality anywhere in the term "rent boy". Like others above in the thread, I've always thought it was to do with mercenary players. 

 

And that's really all it takes nowadays - whoever is and why they're singing it, just best to stop.

 

Really isn't worth the grief.

 

If this chant were up there with YNWA, it might be worth putting up a counter-argument.

 

But really, it's a song that makes Benny Hill look like Benny Elton:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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17 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Really? Any time anyone reminisces about their experiences at a match in Ye Olden Dayes you refuse to accept it without evidence?

 

Chinny - and may I add - reckon. 

 

I mean, if someone says pies were better in the 80s, I probably wouldn't argue. However more extraordinary claims necessarily require more extraordinary evidence. I just think it's odd that nobody can recall this chant from the alleged time it dates from.

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3 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 I just think it's odd that nobody can recall this chant from the alleged time it dates from.

I've spoken to people who can and one or two on this forum have said so. Barry Wom reckons it got a bit of a revival in the Abramovic era, presumably for the reasons suggested here, but the points is that it existed before then.

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6 minutes ago, Strontium Dog™ said:

 However more extraordinary claims necessarily require more extraordinary evidence. I just think it's odd that nobody can recall this chant from the alleged time it dates from.

It's not really an extraordinary claim to suggest that football fans in the seventies and eighties would sing stuff without stopping to consider whether it's homophobic.

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