He's being a big tit. I thought he was captain for England a few times? His book will be ****e anyway.
During the peak of his national career the only two permanent captains were Alan Shearer and David Beckham. No way was he getting ahead either of those two, so to decide that it was race which stopped him is very silly to say the least. If Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry were white it wouldn't surprise me if he argued that he wasn't Arsenal captain because of race either. Not saying racism doesn't exist in these corners, but this isn't an example of it.
This seems a case of playing the race card, which is a shame. When it is used so cheaply is gives less credit to genuine racism issues. Maybe he's been speaking to John Barnes, another who blames racism on his own shortcomings.
Care to give a few examples of Barnes 'shortcomings'? He admits to being a failed manager because [his words] 'I wasn't good enough'. He speaks a lot of sense on race and racism and always said he never let racists get to him as a player. His words again 'the way to beat racism, be successful, and I was'. Barnes was a particular target for abuse. But he says it had no impact because it never occurred to him that he was the victim. "I never had to bite my tongue, I came to England when I was 13 and people started racially abusing me on the pitch, but I didn't realise it was aimed at me, so I didn't pay attention. If people want to make monkey noises at me or throw bananas - I don't think I look like a monkey, and I know I'm not one, so it didn't affect me at all."
As a manager. I've heard him say on radio shows before that he hasn't been given another chance at management because he is black. "It's true, if I had won enough matches I still would have been in the job. But I can lose fewer matches than a white manager, a Scottish manager, a Spanish manager and be sacked. Direct quote from the man. Sounds a lot like an excuse for his managerial shortcomings to me. Barnes as a whole sways wildly from sensible comments to outlandish sensationalism without catching breath.
Barnes comment that black managers don't get the same second chance that white managers get is true. Until they are given the same chance we won't see any more black managers in the game. 'Outlandish sensationalism' like what? On second thoughts don't bother.
No we don't. We wonder why Liverpool have to make everything about them, we wonder why you are offended by everything but outraged by nothing, we wonder why you felt Suarez t-shirts were a good idea, we wonder how long it'll be before Suarex looks to push a move through again. Just a handful of things we wonder about.
Based on what stats exactly? A lot more white managers in this country, currently and historically so hardly going to be a fair like for like study. One of the few teams in the relegation dog fight not to sack their manager is Norwich. Wonder what Barnes' view is on that? If you don't think that saying he would have stayed in jobs (he was performing badly in) for longer if he was white is not outlandish, you're on a different planet son. Even if true, it could never be proven and just makes him sound silly. I think he has some good opinions on the race issue, and people like him are needed in the game to speak up given their experience. Just think he goes too far sometimes which then negates the impact of the more sensible things he says.