Yuku free message boards

Rodney Marsh

In a deliberate and clumsy attempt to support and vindicate 'mate' Ron Atkinson from claims of being a racist, Former Arsenal captain Frank McLintock and his co-conspirator Rodney Marsh schemed to deliberately use the N Word fully aware of the offence it would cause to African British audiences. The 'Max Cliffordesque' type plan was to create a media stunt where use of the offensive N Word would draw fire away from Atkinson.

The strategy succeeded.

Right on cue the naïve and duplicitous defenders of McLintock have taken their analytical lead from papers like the Sun who implied his deliberate offensive comments were an innocent 'gaffe' from an un-politically correct old pundit. Many claim that he mistakenly used the old title of an Agatha Christie book and because the phrase was not targeted at a specific African there could be no malicious intent. They ignore the fact that McLintock was fully aware of the offence the word causes to African Britons, especially when in the very same week he made the slur, football supporters were being vilified for their racist chanting at African players and the media were attacking football coach Luis Aragones after he referred to the African French striker Thierry Henry using racially offensive language.

McLintock is not a media novice, he wouldn't use the 'F' or 'C' words on air, yet he contemptuously and purposefully used the N word without showing any sign of regret. When asked to explain his comments, McLintock replied "If you have seen it, you will be able to make up your own mind." The fact that he and his co-conspirator Rodney Marsh were both laughing immediately afterwards strongly suggests that the usage of the word was both malicious and premeditated.

If Ron Atkinson deserved a red card for personalising the racist slur, then McLintock and Marsh deserve at the very least yellow cards for abusing their position by deliberately setting out to offend Africans.

---