The 2011/12 Gary Speed Memorial Thread

[Lineker]

Carlos Tevez says Roberto Mancini treated him "like a dog"

Just fuck off already, Carlos.

[MDK]

Tevez and Suarez should form their own heel stable.

[Hobo]

So we're back to Tevez then?

[DavidMarrio]

Goes in cycles. We'll be back to John Terry again in a few weeks time.

[Gazz]

Well apparently Tevez is back in training tomorrow, which means that there'll be a story tomorrow where he hasn't caught his flight out of Argentina.

[Cheeky Hughes]

And you'll get the opinion writers on the tabloid sports pages calling City weak if he ever gets a sniff of the subs bench. I wouldn't play him at all this season really, just for the simple fact Tevez has been out of training for 4 months, and I'm sure there was a picture somewhere of him looking pretty unfit recently.

Besides, we need a Brazilian player to take the heat of the other South Americans. What's Anderson up to?

[therockbox]

To tackle racism, we must tackle ignorance

John Barnes

It’s not about football, it’s about destroying modern myths of colour, race and superiority

In 1987 a black friend of mine went into a shop to buy a coat. He asked the assistant if they had it in black and she said no, they only had it in nigger brown. She was a lovely woman, but what would we say if that happened today?

If I were to ask players of my generation if they had made a racist comment in a football match, anyone honest would almost certainly say yes. No one batted an eyelid 20 years ago. Now when Alan Hansen says “coloured” rather than “black” (because black used to be an insult) or Luis Suárez says “negrito”, everyone jumps up and down to distance themselves from such remarks. They believe racism has been consigned to the past.

When Thierry Henry led the campaign to kick racism out of football it might have changed attitudes towards Henry, but it didn’t change anything for the black guy on the Holloway Road. I am often asked if black players can make good managers. That is an inherently racist question, built on an assumption that a manager’s qualities are based on colour, even though the people asking it don’t mean it to be.

The Football Association ticks all the right boxes with its policies and campaigns, the Government passes legislation, the Prime Minister gets involved because someone didn’t shake someone’s hand, people queue up to say ignorance is no excuse. But they are wrong. Ignorance is the excuse. To stop it, we have to start talking seriously about race.

The idea that race is about colour is relatively modern. When Aristotle spoke about races he was differentiating between uncivilised barbarians and civilised Greeks. But it was introduced by governments, backed by the Church, to validate slavery and colonialism, to justify treating some people as less equal than others. Just as Linnaeus classified plants, so people were classified by the colour of their skin. Academics tried to prove differences in skull formation to give scientific support to the idea that black people were morally and intellectually inferior.

But race is not a scientific reality. You could find a tribe in Africa who are genetically closer to Europeans than to an African tribe a hundred miles away. Some Saudis have whiter skin than Italians.

The notion of “whiteness” is an ideology of superiority. Nothing similar has ever existed in black culture. Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda do not see themselves as the same. When the Labour MP Diane Abbott talked on Twitter about “divide and rule” her claims depended on a sense of black identity that wasn’t correct.

Empires that conquer new territory find they cannot impose their own ideas for long. The only way to evolve is to assimilate cultures. The Greeks and Romans learnt that and we are learning it now in Britain.

In the 1970s when the Arsenal and England footballer Ian Wright arrived from Jamaica, his family would have retained their Caribbean identity. And Tony Adams, his Arsenal and England team-mate, would have had his English culture. But their children, like other black, white and Asian children, have grown up together and formed a new British culture.

I was on a train listening to four boys who all sounded like Vicky Pollard. One was black and one was white and, in what sounds like a joke, the others were Asian and Chinese. Their shared culture superseded any sense of race.

It would probably be the same for John Terry and Anton Ferdinand. If they were at a nightclub they would be more likely to gravitate to each other because they wear the same jeans and move in the same world than to someone of the same colour who had nothing in common with them.

As long as racism exists in society it will exist in football. Passing laws saying it is illegal might stop fans shouting abuse in public, but it won’t stop racist feelings any more than theft laws stop people stealing. It won’t stop if we ban players who make racist remarks.

As football finds itself at the heart of arguments about handshakes and insults, let’s use it to make real progress. There is a positive change between the generations and we can speed that up by destroying some basic myths about colour, race and superiority.

John Barnes is a former Liverpool and England footballer

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article3318919.ece

[Adam]

To tackle racism, we must tackle ignorance

I don't know why, but that headline makes me think of Reg D Hunter's "To defeat Fritzl...you must become Fritzl" line.

[Colly]

I'll eat ten hats if John Barnes wrote that Aristotle paragraph.

[Hobo]

That was a good article. Also I read it in John Barnes' voice for some reason.

[Plubby]

Even Barnes himself is not immune to it - were you aware that on that train there was one black boy, one white, one asian AND one chinese?!

[Dingle]

Ignorance is bliss, so I'll just refer to everyone as fellow human and be done with all this nonsense.

Except the women, they're obviously beneath us. Sexism is still in fashion, right?

[GoGo Yubari]

Sousa hates sports so this thread is safe for horrible sexism.

[Dingle]

Yeah yeah, I figured I'd be safe here in the men's room .

Oh sweet memories...

[Gazz]

Even Barnes himself is not immune to it - were you aware that on that train there was one black boy, one white, one asian AND one chinese?!

In England, Asian generally means Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

The Club can announce that, following a meeting of the London Borough of Haringey Planning Sub-Committee on 13 February, the design improvements to the Northumberland Development Project together with the revisions to the Section 106 planning agreement have been approved.

Daniel Levy, Chairman, said:

"We are delighted with these three unanimous decisions and are grateful for the support of the Council and those right across the community who have who expressed such enthusiasm for our plans.

"We welcome the public sector coming together to further regeneration in an area with such a real need. We are proud of our roots in Tottenham and we are committed to seeking to deliver a world class new stadium, associated developments and the ensuing benefits of employment opportunities, economic uplift and community gains.

"There is still much work to be done and we shall keep everyone connected with the Club updated over the coming months with our progress."

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Eden Hazard has hinted he could be set to spurn the advances of Chelsea and Arsenal and sign for Tottenham this summer.

The 21-year-old Lille starlet is a target for a host of top Premier League sides with Liverpool and Manchester City also keen on his signature.

And he has admitted in the past that playing in England is his wish, telling Canal+ in January: “I'm leaning towards England. It's a style of play that suits me and it's there that you can learn the most."

But now it appears that Spurs have stolen a march on their top-flight rivals after Hazard revealed on Belgian TV that a move to north London could be of interest.

He told RTBF: “Maybe I'll go to Tottenham. It's a great English club. I said I would go to England.”

France Football journalist Philippe Auclair confirms that Eden Hazard has not signed for Tottenham, but claims that there is information to suggest some kind of agreement has been put in place between the in-demand Lille attacker and Harry Redknapp's side. Hazard has also been linked with moves to Arsenal, Chelsea, Man United and Man City.

That would please me.

[stokeriño]

The Club can announce that, following a meeting of the London Borough of Haringey Planning Sub-Committee on 13 February, the design improvements to the Northumberland Development Project together with the revisions to the Section 106 planning agreement have been approved.

Daniel Levy, Chairman, said:

"We are delighted with these three unanimous decisions and are grateful for the support of the Council and those right across the community who have who expressed such enthusiasm for our plans.

"We welcome the public sector coming together to further regeneration in an area with such a real need. We are proud of our roots in Tottenham and we are committed to seeking to deliver a world class new stadium, associated developments and the ensuing benefits of employment opportunities, economic uplift and community gains.

"There is still much work to be done and we shall keep everyone connected with the Club updated over the coming months with our progress."

Are these the amendments where Spurs ditched their prior promise to build some affordable homes and a £1.2m donation to local schools on the basis of 'affordability'? (lol)

[Jimmy]

Hazard would be a fantastic signing, but surely that will cost a bit more than Spurs usually want to pay - and they still need to sign Adebayor or another striker. Would still love to see it happen, though.

[IAceI]

Ohh err Eden you naughty boy, flirting with all these teams around Valentines Day as well? Get a room.