Commenter mattG helpfully pointed me in the direction of this morning’s article by Mirror ‘journalist’ and John Terry biographer Oliver Holt. It concerns the alledged racist abuse of Oldham player Tom Adeyemi during last night’s game at Anfield.
Towards the end of the game, there was an exchange between Adeyemi and a fan in the Kop. One witness has claimed “fucking black bastard” was shouted in the direction of Adeyemi. It doesn’t need saying but I’ll say it anyway: if this is true and the fan is apprehended, I want him banned for life (obviously), jailed and upon release forced to walk the streets of Salford in our ’05 Champion’s League winning strip. Utter scum…
…and back to Holt’s article. It’s on a “reap what you sow” theme and adheres to a lazy causality meme with which HP regulars will be all too familiar following, as we have, the witterings of the likes of Galloway, Bunglawala and Baroness Tonge over the years. Different subject, same mbunderstanding.
There’s two things I want to say about this (there’s actually more like 78, but I’m cooking tonight):
1 – Is this the same Oliver Holt, John Terry biographer, who wrote this entreaty on behalf of one John Terry, England captain, barely two weeks ago? Readers may notice a difference in tone in the way Oliver Holt, John Terry biographer, gets all “innocent until proven guilty” on our asses in the matter of JT’s alleged “fucking black c**t” abuse of Anton Ferdinand which is now the subject of criminal proceedings, and the manner in which last night’s incident at Anfield is covered.
2 – Is this the same Oliver Holt, John Terry biographer, who posted this tweet on Nov 14th:
Is calling someone a ‘black c….’ racist? Spoke to a black player today who said racism is words like ‘c..n’, n-word, ‘w..’ etc. Don’t know
Doncha just love the “Don’t know” flourish, as in, ‘I’m just throwing this out there for discussion’…’any similarity with the alleged comments of John Terry, England captain, whom some claim can be seen on video shouting “fucking black c**t” in the direction of Anton Ferdinand, is coincidental’? Oh, and does anyone really believe Holt spoke to a black player about this? Oliver Holt wants to start a debate on what constitutes racism in time for JT’s case, but needs cover.
So questions:
a) If John Terry is to be presumed innocent (and he ought to be), then might it not be an idea to wait for Merseyside police and LFC to finish their enquiry into last night’s alleged abuse of Tom Adeyemi before an experienced reporter starts to dabble in casual causality theories which are all predicated on the alleged abuse of Adeyemi being proven?
b) Given the alleged remark towards Adeyemi is “fucking black bastard” and Oliver Holt, John Terry hagiographer biographer, cannot even decide whether “black c**t” is racist, what in the name of jumping Jesus Christ in a chicken basket is he doing writing this article at all?
The last question is rhetorical for all Liverpool fans, btw. Just because we’re paranoid, etc..
Alec adds: Now onto Inverness Cally.