Former Rangers manager Michael Beale has questioned the value of fan media in the modern game, describing some criticism levied at players and managers through these channels as "unfair".
Speaking on the Inside the Academy podcast, the candid conversation with Beale – who's now set to reunite with former Rangers boss Steven Gerrard as the Liverpudlian's number two at Al Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia – covered a number of topics, before the 44-year-old addressed social media and fan media in football.
He said: "You can shut yourself off from it, but no one else is shut off from it. I think the biggest thing with social media is we get so influenced by it, positively and negatively.
"Social media, you can go on and find [positive player interviews] and you can use that with your players on a real positive. But you can also see a manager getting hounded.
"Stepping back over this time out, I've seen some of my friends as managers and they're really getting it as well. Even when they're doing well. And there's a lot of fan media.
"I remember the first fan media was maybe Arsenal Fan TV, and they obviously… they didn't oust Wenger, but they made his last few months more difficult, it's fair to say.
"And if Wenger was winning, if Arteta wins now, is there any fan media? Because, you know, you ain't all going to praise. It's a game of opinions, but now the opinions are on you."
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Beale continued: "You can shut yourself off from it. But if everyone else in the building's reading it, it does influence everyone else. If your family's reading it, it does influence.
"So it's difficult. It's difficult. And there's no real way of knowing how someone is going to react to it until you're in the middle of it.
"I think some of it is really unfair. Does anyone care about my story? There's no point in me coming on here and talking about [what] no one cares [about]. So you just have to dust yourself off."
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