Ex Lion Tamer

Calling people "coloured" hasn't been acceptable for at least 20 years. Someone in Greg Clarke's position, with a degree of responsibility for overseeing policies on race, really has to do better. It's not that hard to keep up if you take the time to learn

It may well have just been a big misunderstanding but I do think officials have a responsibility to understand the nuances of language and how they might be interpreted. They all probably ought to receive training. Similar to Greg Clark, on the face of it he just made a mistake but he has a responsibility to understand this stuff and get his terms right.

People have been very quick to jump in with their views on this one but this footage suggested he called him a negro, not just a black guy Even if you take the quote that Reuters reported, it's racist if you all me: “The black one over there. Go and check who he is. The black one over there, it’s not possible to act like that."

Hypo told us players are just going through the motions when taking the knee, so I guess these players did so after scoring against Millwall because they were told to by the authorities

I used to find the brass band they always had at halftime at the Dell extremely tedious. But I didn't boo them because really, who cares that much? Just let them get on with it

The only reason BLM has increased racial tension is that white people are being forced to face up to things that people of colour have always known to be true

That's like saying we haven't cured cancer so all research thus far has been meaningless. This is a process of changing and opening people's minds through discussion

Going back to stop and search, because it is an important part of this issue, here's an example of why it is causing such resentment: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/race-britain/stop-and-think For anyone willing to learn rather than stay in entrenched positions, the report also looked at whether people of colour really get stop and searched more because their is more crime in their communities (P54). It is very hard to get definitive evidence so we'll never be able to solve the issue, but ‘self-report’ studies have shown consistently that rates of involvement in offending and drug use are similar among white and black respondents and significantly lower among Asian respondents. At the very least we can't say for sure that stop and search isn't being misused.

None of what you've just said invalidates what I've said

The very fact that we are having this important discussion is proof that taking the knee is having an effect and is not just a meaningless gesture

I can't see that gambling advertising benefits anyone except the bookies,the television companies and the clubs, and they're already raking it in anyway. If it's banned then we're all still free to gamble if we want to

I will admit that I've never known a full on gambling addict. But while banning advertising won't stop addiction, it surely doesn't help people who are try to quit if they have it constantly pushed at them when they're trying to watch football?

I would add that plenty of white middle class people take drugs without ever needing to fear being stop and searched with no evidence

That may be true to a degree. I'd love to see definitive stats on it but am not aware of any. In their absence we have no idea whether that that is all of it, even though it's easier to go with that because it makes us feel better about ourselves. What we can be pretty certain of is that stop and search is causing serious resentment. Just listen to what Black people are telling us rather than thinking we know better. There are countless examples of where S&S has been used badly. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54709901 https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/08/met-police-apologise-for-handcuffing-athlete-bianca-williams https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-11/suffolk-police-apologise-for-racist-comments-from-officers

The vast majority of footballers are not left wing, let alone radical Marxists. So when they take the knee, they are clearly not endorsing Marxism. Yet people choose to focus on that because they don't want to face up to the fact that Black people in this country face discrimination. Black footballers and their teammates who aren't just going through the motions simply want the rest of us to understand that. Black people are 8.9 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people. Can you imagine how humiliating and annoying it must be to be searched by police when you haven't done anything wrong? Structural racism does exist in this country, no matter how much it hurts our self image as white people to face up to it

This is exactly right. It was a tough call but at that time it was reasonable given that we'd have had to spend money to find a replacement

Although it sounded ridiculous to us, I can identify with being in a foreign country and mimicking the accent to try to help people understand what you're saying

That's one of the reasons why Wenger didn't persist with Walcott up front

I generally side with giving players time, but I would have sold him to Watford to fund other signings. He'd had a lot of time and I didn't think he was ever going to kick on. I would have been wrong of course, though the fact that it was only Watford that were interested suggests other clubs may have felt the same. If he had gone to Watford then perhaps he wouldn't have kicked on because he wouldn't have had Ralph's coaching

The turnaround in JWP's finishing has been remarkable, so it could happen. Shane Long though

If it is true then I'd like him to own it and bring back the Jason Puncheon celebration

Could it be some sort of serious bowel disorder like Darren Fletcher had? It's a bit embarrassing to talk about publicly, hence the secrecy, and can be really quite uncomfortable ("not a good time to be Salisu"), but ultimately he should be able to get it under control by following a strict lifestyle ("we gave him all the time he needed to solve these issues"). Or of course i could be way off!

Oh no, where have I heard this before!

I don't understand the point of scrapping the Community Shield. If it doesn't take place then clubs will just have other friendlies instead, so its not like they are reducing their workload. Is it really as cynical as not wanting gate receipts from a friendly to go to charity?

Not trying to make any sort of a point with this but when do we think was the last time we signed a player with 47+ England caps? Keegan? Le Saux was close but only had 36