Why Are Football Fans so Quick to Judge New Signings?

The summer can be an exciting period for a football fan as you wait and see what players your club brings in to strengthen your squad. However, it's inevitable that no matter who you support there will be one or two players that you know little or nothing about. In this case fans tend to rely on what the selling clubs fans are saying, the club they played for previously or their first few games. But why do football fans feel a need to judge so quickly?

Opinions of fans that the player has just signed from are highly unlikely to be a valuable form of information, mainly because the fans are angry their star player has been sold. But still we tend to trust and believe in them -- because we see them as experts having watched the player perform on a regular basis.

Next the idea that a player can't be good if he plays for that team or if he has never played in such a league. Why not give him a chance to prove it before he is condemned and sometimes players just haven't had the opportunity. Where did the idea come from that a player than has never played in the Premier League can't possibly be good enough for the top flight? If he has never played there how do you know he is not good enough?

Then we have the idea that if a player doesn't hit the ground running he must be useless even a mistake in a pre-season game can be enough to convince fans their manager has wasted money on this signing. Sometimes it can take a player a bit of time to find his feet and get settled in the area and it can also take him some time to gel and get use to his new teammates.

Simeon Jackson is a classic example of this. Comes to Norwich in the summer and no one is really sure what to make of him, some Gillingham fans say he is useless and after a few indifferent performances the Norwich fans start to agree. The suggestion is made that the manager can't spot a striker and he clearly has been a waste of money. However, Jackson found his scoring boots towards the end of the season and ending up with 13 goals that played a significant part in Norwich's return to the Premier League. That late run included two hat-tricks and the winning goal that secured Norwich's promotion. So why do fans want to judge so quickly? And surely at the end of the day it's the end result that matters!

Join the conversation on Twitter and tell me why fans judge so quickly.