Harry Redknapp’s outburst at the "filth and abuse" hurled at him by Aston Villa supporters on Saturday surprised me. After a lifetime in the game, I’d have thought the 60-year-old Portsmouth manager was immune to the behaviour of the morons who populate the terraces of Premier League grounds.

I’m not saying ALL fans are morons, but there seem to be a growing number of idiots who think that shouting and gesticulating obscenities at rival players, managers and fans is what football is all about. They’ll pick on any weakness as a target - and Harry’s recent arrest as part of a fraud enquiry is an obvious line of attack. Particularly when his Pompey thoroughbreds are hammering the daylights out of the team the lunatics support.

Redknapp revealed: "You’ve got people saying stuff behind you with little kids shouting filth. Do we have to keep standing there and accepting that?"

'I admire Redknapp's courage - but his players did a much better job of ramming the Villa morons’ obscenities back down their scummy throats'


Unfortunately, Harry, the answer is 'yes' - because if you get involved with scum elements, you’d have as much chance of coming out on top as a teacher who smacks an uncontrollable pupil. In other words, it will be you who’s had off to jail under this country‘s ludicrous legal system, not the real villain. A bit like what happened to you last week, in fact!

What disgusts me more than the fact Redknapp was abused by terrace hooligans is that many of those involved were parents who encouraged their children to join in the ’fun’. Is that what this country come to - a society where fathers teach their kids to have no respect for anyone?

Harry sounds like a guy with similar principles to my own. He was brought up in a society where people - including rival football supporters - had respect for each other. Like me, he never swore in front of his kids, but now it seems that fathers actively ENCOURAGE their children to join them in the gutter by chanting obscenities.

As Harry explained: "The fans were shouting filth, filth, filth. They had their kids with them and should be ashamed of themselves. They were behind me in the dugout with their kids and they were making filthy gestures.

"It stinks, it turns me over, it does my head in. Do we have to stand for this? At Chelsea the other week, one bloke came running up to the Portsmouth coach, bent over and took his trousers down. And he had a kid with him. It’s disgusting.

"I was brought up differently to that. When I went to see Arsenal with my dad as a kid each week, there was nothing like that at all. It has been increasing in football now for some time and I don’t see why we should have to put up with it."

Neither do I, Harry - but the fact is that no one is going to do anything about it because (a) stewards who tell foul-mouthed yobs to shut up are likely to be beaten up and (b) our government make the police kow-tow to political correctness which allows the scum elements in our society to get away with murder - literally in some cases.

By all accounts, Redknapp became involved in verbal exchanges with some of those hurling abuse at him. I admire his courage - but his players did a much better job of ramming the Villa morons’ obscenities back down their scummy throats.

The only feasible solution to terrace idiots is a self-policing element in the crowd, where decent people act as vigilantes and the loudmouths misbehave at their peril. I’ve seen it work admirably at rugby matches, where anyone who steps out of line is likely to be rooted out at source. The problem is that idiots are a tiny minority of the rugby public.

Sadly, I am coming to the conclusion that the type of people who would bait Redknapp may constitute a majority of those who attend football. You have only to look at the sort of comments Sportingo authors receive on this website. Any mention of Arsene Wenger will inevitably prompt at least one libellous and obscene comment from the anti-Arsenal brigade about his private life. I understand the Sportingo moderators are perpetually removing such obscenities and foul-mouthed abuse from the comments section.

Whether these comments are being placed by silly youngsters wanting to see swear words in print or 'adults' from football’s scum society, I don’t know. What I do know is that if people don’t start behaving themselves, the rapidly-dwindling discipline of our society is going to break down altogether.