Cod Almighty | Diary

To be anti-anti-racist is to be racist

10 December 2020

Trentside Diary writes: Morning!

The king's been in his counting house counting out his money, and our chairman is letting Holloway eat bread and honey, or more importantly Old Mother Fenty has found a bone that wasn’t available on Monday because we had just about used up our quota of bones. Three days later the manager can have whatever financial backing he needs in the January transfer window.

There are times when such a commitment would have been exciting. Maybe it's my age, maybe it's a year of Covid or maybe it's the last 20 years of gaslighting that leave me unable to get over-excited by the second statement from the club in a matter of days. Apparently, we're trimming our squad which was originally built to have enough players for two or three domestic cups plus all those games in Europe. Or more accurately, in the words of our leader's deity: we spaffed all the cash with little regard to quality.

I genuinely feel sorry for the players. My big hope with Holloway was that he would be able to motivate players to greater things whereas all I see now is a man who chops and changes, blames them and pays lip service to his own responsibility. Maybe he's just past it? Look at Clough who managed to get a few more golden years from players who others thought were past it. Even Cloughie's magic didn't survive him going solo and losing Peter Taylor. An illustrious career slipped away.

Anyway, enough of that! We maids in the garden have the prospect of real-life football fairly soon, if we can just get Nelly council area into a lower tier. Is it worth me making a plea for us all to play nice? If there's one thing the players need at the moment, it isn't fans on their backs. So all you Tom, Dick, Harriet, Ian, Sam or Phil (other names as appropriate): let's try for positive support, at least for a few weeks. Many have suggested that teams are suffering from not having fans there, I don’t think having a go is going to improve our lot. Let’s treat it as a fresh start to a poor season so far.

While we're at it, let’s not embarrass ourselves with a few idiots booing the players for taking a knee. If you're booing, you obviously don't get it. If you are in the "I'm not racist, I just don't want them taking a knee" brigade, then just keep silent. Away fans abide by our minutes silence or applause for former staff or players – it's called respect. In a week that has seen a match abandoned because of comments by a match official, racism is alive and kicking in football. Any action to keep the issue in the forefront of public consciousness is positive.

UTM!