[Ammi]

Originally Posted by BeloTheBelt

To be fair to the thread originator, i didnt know most of those other Ron quotes.

I defended him(ron) before, but cant really anymore.

I find it Ironic that when entering the house he told Emma that the one thing he cant stand is "stupidness".

..to be fair to Ron, you also have to take the full context of those remarks as well and that these aren't comments that are new, they were made 10 years ago, they were racist comments and he's paid a very high price for making them, that's something that everyone's aware of, I think he's a really silly man because he's not stupid in what's right and wrong and he's completely savvy to media etc, yet he continues to say these things that will cause offence and bring about nothing but negativity for himself, maybe he doesn't care..?..but I don't think he's racist...I'll be honest, for a long time I did think that and when he went into the BB house, my first instinct was to dismiss him as a racist and not really give him a chance..but I was interested in other people's opinions and learning more about him because a lot of people seemed to still hold him in high regard and I was curious as to why as I don't believe those people are racists either or condoned what he's said in any way, so I asked for people's thoughts in a thread and was really enlightened by what I've learned about him as a person and some of the things he's done/achieved etc...

..anyway, to an extent I do think it's just his environment/mindset etc at how he expresses things and is oblivious to the offence in them but I also think that sort of ignorance/stubbornness shouldn't be excused either because it can be very harmful in creating and encouraging stereotypes...I'm sure for most of us if only our negatives were highlighted and none of our positives we could all look like really bad people and with Ron, there are definitely negatives but from what I've come to understand there are also many positives which don't just balance out his character but I can see that he's done many fine and positive things in encouraging and promoting black players in the sport he's very passionate about, but that's just my opinion, I think the best validation comes from the people who know him well and have worked with him...

..I still can't understand how some people can say, oh it doesn't matter what he's said, he's still a great guy and he's not doing anything wrong, it's just his age etc....of course it matters what he says, it shouldn't be excused, he doesn't even try to excuse it himself, he knows he's done wrong and been stupid..he'll probably keep on doing it anyway because he doesn't seem to think before he speaks and when he does say something it'll be discussed and rightly so, discussing something isn't over-reacting to it...

..anyway, the Paul McGrath thing, I think it's very important to not 'judge' on a selected quote from what he said but look at his complete opinion about Ron, the good and the bad....and it's under the heading of 'Ron's no racist'...


Aston Villa legend Paul McGrath has revealed that Ron Atkinson called black players “coons” during training sessions.

The retired soccer star claimed Big Ron used the racist term while manager of the Premier-ship club in the 1990s.

Yet McGrath insisted that his former boss, who resigned from his ITV job last week for branding Chelsea player Marcel Desailly a “*******ing lazy big n****r” live on air, was an INSPIRATION to black players.

When we put the claims to Atkinson yesterday, he did not deny using the derogatory term ‘coon’, but said: “You should have heard what the players called me!”

Big Ron, from Barnt Green in Worcester-shire, resigned from his £200,000 job as a sports pundit after his outburst on Tuesday night following Chelsea’s Champions League defeat against Monaco

He thought his comments about Desailly to fellow commentator Clive Tyldesley were offair - but they were being broadcast to audiences in the Middle East.


Some fans who heard the rant claim that he also called Blues boss Claudio Ranieri a “wop” and midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron “a lazy *******”.


After a storm erupted Atkinson, 65, apologised immediately and quit his TV post. He has since left his job as an expert analyst for The Guardian.


He has also been shown the red card by West Bromwich Building Society, who had planned touse himtopromotea newmortgageplanthis week.


Atkinson gave McGrath his big break in football when he signed him for Manchester United in 1982.


He was also the player’s manager at Aston Villa, where the defender arrived in 1989 after having been shown the Old Trafford door by Alex Ferguson for heavy drinking.


McGrath, 44, who now lives in Ireland, said he was shocked at the Atkinson outburst against Desailly.






“I heard what Ron said about Desailly and I thought it was a daft thing to say,” he said. “It was out of order. I was shocked because I had not heard Ron use that word before.”


But then he added: “I heard him call some black players a coon during training. It didn’t happen very often, it was occasional. But I’m not going to defend him to the hilt.


“I think Ron is probably one of the old school where language like this was probably more accepted.”


Although McGrath condemned Big Ron for using insulting language,he said that he did not believe he was a racist.


“You only have to look at his record over the years,” he explained. “He was one of the few managers who helped black players in their careers and he treated everyone well

He was a great inspiration for me personally. He brought me to Manchester United and looked after me. He was at Villa as well. He treated me brilliantly.


“He would have been the first person to have befriended black people.”


But McGrath added that he was subjected to other racism during his career.


“Over the years I did experience racism,” he said. “There was a lot more of it about then.


“Ron is one of the most decent managers that I had, but I can’t condone what he said.” McGrath is no stranger to controversy himself. His drinking exploits have seen him hit the headlines for the wrong reasons.


Friends have spoken about their fears that booze binges could kill the soccer legend and have urged him to give up the bottle.


McGrath was in rehab for six weeks last November following an incident outside his ex-wife’s house in Manchester.


But he told the Sunday Mercury that he is now happy working as director of football for Irish team Waterford United.


“It’s great,” he said. “It’s wonderful working with the team and it’s been going fairly well


..I think for me this kind of sums it up in that you can not condone/excuse etc what someone says because it's just wrong but it still doesn't make them a bad person or not admirable as a whole or in Ron's case, it doesn't make him a racist, just infuriatingly stupid sometimes....I'm sure some people will go on with very blinkered vision just looking at the few stupid things he's said and some others will make excuses and say he doesn't do anything wrong, which of course he does but I still think he's one of the good guys regardless...