Papa Shango
Player Valuation: £70m
At footie training last night, about 15 of the guys are called negro. Im gringo. There is about 10 called gordo. Small guys are called chiqui. The red head is colorado. The grey haired - viejo.
There was not one racist there.
Rafael is short in Spanish for Rafael so I will call the man Rafael, if that is good with you.
And Im not defending him.
But he was bang on the button about Moyes and his knife to a gunfight attitude. In spanish, the expression is small club. I honestly cant say it in spanish without saying equipo chico. Listo!
And he corrected himself afterwards because he wants the job, which is fair enough as he is probably within his rights to want the job. Not my favoured candidate though.
Just like Cavani wasnt racist or discriminatory either when talking to his friends and countrymen.
Context is everything.
Most British managers dont work abroad because they struggle to master one language, never mind two. You have to cut some slack to people talking in their second language. Fair play to Bielsa, he doesnt even try.
That's cool, in Argentina etc it's fine. Cavani doesn't live in Uruguay, he lives in England, he has lived in France for years etc etc. Is that not context too?. If you were over here and called me a negro we would have a big issue specially if you had lived over here for ages. I get that Cavani was a personal conversation technically but in terms of Benitez ignorance is not an excuse in the same way that I couldnt claim ignorance if I started doing nazi salutes in Germany or chewing gum in Singapore (which is quite the spectrum really...)
To be honest I am channeling this more through the Suarez Evra thing as he knew exactly what he was doing. I think Benitez knew exactly what he was doing too.
I know what Rafael is short for! Calling him this sounds like we are mates with him. He is Benitez! I hate seeing "Rafael" and "Stevie G".