It didn't initially. You're late to the party on this one.

Optimistic as ever

Good point.

Black players do not need bigging up because their individual talents should speak for themselves. That's how it should be. A meritocracy.

Surely Vince Hilaire, Wilfred Zaha,John Salako,Ian Wright,Eric Young, to name a few, would be contenders for a top ten best ever.

I'm not sure that has anything to do with creating a top 10 based on skin colour.

The plight of black players in the early days is well documented. Do you want to keep dwelling on it or move forward ? Black players in the football leagues are vastly disproportionate to the black population of the UK. That is a measure of footballing success is it not ?
Despite certain groups trying to make gain out of race issues, football has virtually no racism these days and black players are the norm.

I am in a position to say that.

Jim Cannon in black face? I think meritocracy might be pushing it a bit (largely on the manager front and gender front) but by an large in terms of race, its about what you can do, far more than the colour of your skin.

Most of the success of our accadamy graduates has been of black players, or players with a black heritage. The only ones of recent years that have been white were Ben Watson and Johnny Williams.

Edited by jamiemartin721 (19 Oct 2015 4.37pm)

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Already been done codge.

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Is this a five minute argument, or the full half hour? [Link]

Yes it does, because it's reflecting the extra burden they've had to bear in getting to the top of their profession.

It's not a matter of "dwelling on it", it's a matter of recognising black players' efforts in overcoming ingrained racism in football and making a successful career against the odds.

The number of black footballers may be disproportionate to the population as a whole but that is a reflection of the player's determination, not something for football to pat itself on the back for.

"...football has virtually no racism these days..." Hmm. Let's see what the famously leftie hand-wringing pinkos at the Daily Mail say about that, or are they just a "certain group trying to make gain out of race issues..."?

Racism is rife in English football with over 350 incidents from the Premier League to grassroots since 2012, investigation reveals

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You may in a position to judge but you are clearly making the wrong judgement.

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