As the months have passed and the controversy faded, the boos that once followed Kurt Zouma around the country have gradually become more infrequent, less impassioned, less intense. The counteracting “ZOOUUMs”, meanwhile, have shed their essence of partisan defiance and morphed into something more jovial, unashamed, guilt-free.
In pitch, the two are similar enough to be almost indistinguishable. Their noisy contrast, though, speaks in microcosm to a footballer’s quiet rehabilitation.
