Thank you very much - I have been working on this so far for 2 years.
Ah.. sorry to pish on your chips there mate but it doesn’t and will not achieve an anti racist message and as much as you are great at the many things that you do with and for the club I don’t think you would the right person to achieve something of that nature.
This is maybe be one of those honest and difficult conversations I was talking about. When I made the point about us not taking the knee putting us in the same category as Millwall and us not doing enough to tackle racism you were quick to jump to both clubs defence saying (I think it was you anyway) saying lots was done in the community with food banks etc.. totally missing the point and a completely separate to anti racism. Millwall fans are proud of their racist element.. they pride themselves on it and they consider us to be one of the few clubs to stand side by side with them in refusing to take the knee.
It is fun to collect shirts and have folks have their picture taken, community engagement is important.. but no body looks at pictures taken in nightclubs promoted on social media and thinks that will send a big big message to the rascists.. it’s naive and I’ll informed. I dare say it’s a bit of a blind spot.
How about if the 27 panel wall was to feature 27 black players from Lindy Delapenha to our record breaking striker Chuba Akpom - Emerson, Ugo Ehiogu, Sol Bamba..
What story does that tell in comparison, how much of an impact does that have?
I do think we have let ourselves down with our approach and do think that we need to make a concerted effort to rectify that. My kids would love a black out kit and feel a little bit cheated that we haven’t had one.. obviously there are kids who support other teams that show of ‘their teams’ efforts.. be it in the playground, at football training, in the park or town. That does not compete with some random having their picture taken in an old boro shirt.
It’s the 50th anniversary of ‘the band’ next season.. how about we make it black and explain the reasons why. It would look cool as fcuk and it’s has nothing to do with taking the knee. Black shorts and socks.. interesting the discussion that came up recently about the origin of teams with white shorts and black shorts. Are certain sections of fans going to criticise the justification for that? It’s just a shirt but it’s much more visual and makes a much wider impact on fans young and old.. a genuine impact on fans from other clubs from the outside looking in.