BBC1 9pm. Heads up in case anyone wants to check this out, just saw the trailer, looks interesting particularly re the infamous John Terry debacle.
It is so sad that NW thought Anton wasnt the same player after. And the silence from the other side is very deafening...
Unusually for that match I had changed my seat and had a seat 5 rows from the front on the line of the penalty box in Ellerslie Road. I basically saw everything. Terry was a truly nasty piece of ****. It does amuse me though that of what he said (******* Black ****), the only word I can write here is the one he got done for. Ferdinand did not hear him say it, he walked away from the incident...it was other players that heard it and challenged Terry, and that is why it became so nasty, as the match progressed. Oddly coming back from that match I noticed a black spot in my field of vision in one eye and spent the next day in hospital with a suspected torn retina.. Terry caused that too. Have to say Anton Ferdinand was never the same player, and the controversy ruined our season too.
He may not have been the best defender we have ever had, or the best player we have ever had, however, he was at that time one of our own (and as someone that has played for the club I support, will always be one of our own) but NW had a knack of getting more out of players than they perhaps (and we) thought possible. No one deserved that kind of abuse.
Kiwi...he didnt play...he just bled us dry. After all the crap with terry they get the last laugh as we employed hughes (ex scum) who then took that ex scum with him.
The way Terry behaved that day was a total disgrace. But the way that much of the football community and the media tried to excuse, downplay or outright deny the incident in the aftermath was an even bigger disgrace in my opinion. Absolutely shameful.
I’m going to light the touch paper here. I think we need to get a grip. He was called a name and verbally abused. Big deal. It’s not cancer. I’ve been called names, we all have. Particularly when the name caller is a worthless piece of 5hit, so what? It’s meaningless. Get over it. How would our families cope if we “were never the same” at work because one person was nasty on one day to us - with three words? Truth is, Anton was a very ordinary player at best for us. If this event hadn’t occurred and his performances had continued in the already downward trajectory they were on, we would have had few memories of him at all. Racism obviously should never be tolerated. This event is all about Anton being called a racist name by one vile man. Anton was immediately and enormously supported by his team, the club and the fans who made much noise in his favour about this abysmal incident. Surely that depth of care and support should mean more to him and reflect how people feel more, than one horrible little man’s comments during a match. Did Terry not rightfully lose the England captaincy as a result? If so, it was anything but swept under the carpet.
Same thing happened to me at an Iron Maiden concert at the O2 around that time, never thought of it but I'll blame John Terry for that as well...
"Particularly when the name caller is a worthless piece of 5hit, so what?" - that's an insult to 5hit!
Have you seen the programme? I haven’t so I won’t pre judge it, but I have read a couple of interviews with Anton about it, and he’s very explicit that it’s not about him v Terry, but about racism in football and it’s impact on individuals, especially mental health. This is something beyond my personal experience, so it might just be enlightening to watch it with an open mind.
I will watch it and may well post a further response if it transpires I am the ignorant philistine I may appear to be.
I will also comment more after the program, but I do know that Ferdinand and his family recent and awful lot of abuse via social media, a lot of pressure was put on him from outside sources to play it down. I believe he received a bullet through the post. And he was the person who was abused in the first place. Yes I have received abuse ( and racial abuse too, although not related to the colour of my skin)..it was not nice, but no where near, absolutely no where near what Ferdinand received.
Opinions, like ar**holes, are something we all have, and mine is certainly no more correct or more sanitary than anyone else's. Nor, frankly, is mine a particularly pretty sight. All I would say though is that in my view racially motivated abuse is different to common name-calling. It's more insidious and damaging, and it shames us all. We just can't let it become normalised IMHO.
That was pretty shocking. It was obvious that Anton got little help at the time...he got bad advice, It really affected him completely. The FA did not help him, there was no evidence that the club helped him. It seemed to me that Ferdinand was treated as the perpetrator not the victim throughout by the FA and the court He was very brave to retell the story...and for those who didn't see it... anton reached out to John Terry, and tried to contact him. Terry has never got back to him. He never actually apologized to Anton Ferdinand