He made several high profile mistakes in the past but he isn't really that bad. He is an absolute brick wall on his day, and so far he haven't been making any mistakes at all. He even won the player of the year for Wigan 2 seasons ago, when Valencia is still there. Just because one guy f*cks up a few times and he is blamed for life without even getting the chance to redeem himself. I'm a Man Utd fan and I can tell you that Ferdinand "on his day" is just as error prone as this guy.
That is the main problem with England. If Beckham didn't score that last minute freekick against Greece he would be still be hated by all English fans today. Seaman, Green and now Rooney all gets their fair share of hate from the fans because of few bad games.
Learn to forgive and move on, that's what I'm trying to say.