It's too easy to forget that these 'elite athletes' are really just kids - generally uneducated ones at that.
TCLVEZ23 definitely made some poor decisions in terms of his public image, and overegged it a bit given what he achieved early in his career, but that doesn't justify the hate that the internet generation give him.
In his particular case, I'm just disappointed more than anything else. I watched him firstly at Watford (he actually wasn't great for our youth team tbh), then at Wigan and then for his first few starts with us on pre-season etc. He looked excellent, exactly the kind of tidy, pass and move type player he were lacking. But that was 3 years ago. And yes, Kevin Davies did his brave, studs up ruin a player on the half way line to show how big his balls are challenge, and yes, he got some mean comments on Twitter. But if you watch Tom from 2 years ago and Tom this summer - his bravery left him. He doesn't pass forwards any more. He doesn't take a touch and glide by a challenge.
He stripped out all the things that made him a potentially class player, and went for all the safe things that make him just another player.
Hopefully he has a great career at Villa where the pressure is off him - will be a bit like Ben Foster. But he'll always be a disappointment for me. Had the talent and the opportunity to be genuinely excellent at his sport, but not the mentality.
