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Black managers...where are they?


theacademic
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Cheers.

 

Basically I was posting half cut, watching Sevilla and then Real and while having a conversation with a mate about what I was posting, so yeah not at my most eloquent is more than a fair cop.

 

It's nice to see someone can tell the difference between being clumsy, which I'll gladly admit and being racist, which I'm clearly not.Not that silverlining cares if I'm racist or not. Let's face it SL could be the Grand Dragon of the KKK and still call me a racist if it suited his purpose.

tbf mate what you said suggested black players hadnt got the intellect to be intelligent players,so to speak.

you listed a bunch of white players and suggested that because YOU were not aware of any black players who do a similar job that your theory kind of has substance.

maybe its a nativity or ignorance more than racist but when you go in with the attitude that racism doesnt exist your kind of not giving people a chance.

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Basically I was posting half cut

 

Everyone's entitled to being fully-cut after a win like today.

 

Mind you, you'd think this would be a post-match where arguing among ourselves is a waste of a celebration, no?

 

Come on boys, get stuck into the cooking sherry, have a laugh and buzz into work tomorrow with glorious, worthwhile hangovers.

 

This win fully deserves it.

 

Anthropological debates are a waste of energy at this hour.

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tbf mate what you said suggested black players hadnt got the intellect to be intelligent players,so to speak.

you listed a bunch of white players and suggested that because YOU were not aware of any black players who do a similar job that your theory kind of has substance.

maybe its a nativity or ignorance more than racist but when you go in with the attitude that racism doesnt exist your kind of not giving people a chance.

 

There it goes again. At no point did I suggest that black players don't have the intellect to be intelligent, never, not once.

 

I listed a group of white players known PRIMARILY for their footballing intelligence, not their height, their pace, or their strength.

 

At no point did I say this was true of all black or all white players and on more than one occassion used terms like "in general" or "cross section" to show exactly that.

 

I'm pretty sure "nativity" isn't the problem (phone?) and it's not ignorant to make any of the points I've made though they weren't made in the most eloquent of ways (a criticism I can accept because it's actually true)

 

Finally I didn't say racism doesn't exist, I merely dared to suggest that it's not the reason there arn't more black players. I've been very complimentary of many players in this thread, both black and white and suggested players that I believe would make good managers in the future. I picked out Desailly (as I have long before this thread) as someone I believe could make a great manager and then also went on to agree that Makelele inspite of the physical gifts he had of pace and strength also read the game as well as any, but then he was brought over to Europe (France) at an early age was he not and trained in their world famous academy I believe. It is this training that the majority of black players were not given (Gullit again as I pointed out was) that makes the difference. If an African player comes over here later on in his life with physical gifts that negate him needing to compensate mentally then why would he go on to show game intelligence and then build on that?

 

If you look at the player managers now who have achieved anything in their careers or been given the chance to do so at managerial level (regardless of race) it is down to the education they had as younger players. Guardiola, Gullit, Rijkaard, Mourinho, all associated with Barcelona/Ajax, that's why they made managers because the clubs taught them the right way or in Mourinho's case he learned the right way watching and taking notes.

 

So again, I don't see any racist comments.

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btw mate,not being a prick but what would make you say black players dont develop the mental side of their game.

i mean you said it as if it was fact.

show me a black player with the intelligence of (insert white footballer)

you said that as well.

 

i mean cmon mate,you cant blame people for jumping on you,you really cant.

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dont be cock. As long as the prime minister and the monarchy is white, the bias will definitely exist. black people are there in bigger numbers because of the history of slavery.

 

Karma, its a bitch init.

 

Im asian and racism exist the strongest in my country too...ESPECIALLY EMPLOYMENT. because money and status is power.

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Translation : I don't know but it must be true 'cos lot's have said it is.

so what your saying is,lots of people has said it has happened to them but "i dont know" who these lots of people are?????

in your attempt to be clever youve made no sense.

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so what your saying is,lots of people has said it has happened to them but "i dont know" who these lots of people are?????

in your attempt to be clever youve made no sense.

 

The problem is that you've said it exists,which i actually agree with,but not provided any examples as such.

 

You dont have to provide names but an experience or two would help your argument.

Thats the crux of it i'd say.

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Take John Barnes as an example. One of my favourite ever players and a true Anfield legend...he claimed that discrimination had stopped him getting a top management job - conveniently forgetting that he got the Celtic job and could not hack it and he has since been unsucessful at Tranmere. Its not because he is black its because he is not cut out to be a manager. People are looking for excuses but the truth is that a combination of luck (right place,right time), contacts and skill are what is required...there are many great ex players who could not make it as a manager - I do not believe that colour has anything to do with it...if John Barnes had proved himself elsewhere he would probably be Liverpool manager now.

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dont be cock. As long as the prime minister and the monarchy is white, the bias will definitely exist. black people are there in bigger numbers because of the history of slavery.

 

Karma, its a bitch init.

 

Im asian and racism exist the strongest in my country too...ESPECIALLY EMPLOYMENT. because money and status is power.

 

Yeah that's right because after world war two we kidnapped them to take them to the UK !! The majority of black folk in the UK are decended from the people of the Carribean (sp) and African commonwealth country's, who moved to the UK of their own accord after world war 2.

Nobody denies racism exists but as yet Red Dub couldn't provide the examples.

Dont be a cock

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so what your saying is,lots of people has said it has happened to them but "i dont know" who these lots of people are?????

in your attempt to be clever youve made no sense.

No I'm not. I'm saying that you are saying that, but have yet to provide some instances which was what Emlyn was asking. For the record I accept racism exists across the globe but it's also kind of easy when you don't get a job to say "It's because I'm (Black, Gay, a woman) isn't it"

 

I actually saw the above excuse in action some years back in the UK when the race relations bill was first activated.

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There's nothing racist about it, it's a numbers game coupled with culture.

 

Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast all have the capabilities to produce great managers in years to come but they don't have the kind of funding we do.

 

I believe Desailly would make an excellent manager if he decided to give it a go because he's a fantastic pundit that not only gives real insight into the game but he also seems to predict how a game will turn out at half time based on what he's seen and he's got an uncanny ability of getting it right.

 

I do have a hard time thinking of many black players now that you'd think "he could make a great manager", that's not racist, it's just how I see it.

 

Black players are usually physically fitter, faster and stronger in general than white players and maybe for this reason they over rely on these aspects and don't develop the mental side of their game as much, so maybe this explains why they don't go into or do well in management.

 

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There's absolutely nothing wrong with what I am saying, this is just a microcosm of how overly sensitive people are to comments about other races.

 

If someone wants to use intelligence to negate my argument then fine do so, I'll gladly debate with anyone but if you just want to call me a racist and use the tags to get at me then you're probably better wiping the dribble off your chin and going to bed.

 

Bit unfair that as any black posters will have spent so much time 'running quickly around' that they won't have 'developed' enough 'intelligence' to 'debate' with you.

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Oh right, "plenty" then, you win, i simply can't debate against such compelling evidence.

 

I remember seeing something, I think on Football Focus, with a few black ex players who were coaches or had been tring to get into management (I think Viv Anderson may have been one) and they all said that they basically lost out on jobs to people who had far less experience than them, and were often just not responded to when they applied for a job. I'll try and find it.

 

A great example for me is Paul Ince and Roy Keane, very similar players, similar recors in terms of winning things, similar winning attitutde, one starts his managerial career at Macclesfield in League 2, whilst the other starts at Sunderland, who although only being in the Championship, had just been relegated and have a massive stadium and fan base (relatively speaking) and was given a load of money to spend.

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I remember seeing something, I think on Football Focus, with a few black ex players who were coaches or had been tring to get into management (I think Viv Anderson may have been one) and they all said that they basically lost out on jobs to people who had far less experience than them, and were often just not responded to when they applied for a job. I'll try and find it.

 

A great example for me is Paul Ince and Roy Keane, very similar players, similar recors in terms of winning things, similar winning attitutde, one starts his managerial career at Macclesfield in League 2, whilst the other starts at Sunderland, who although only being in the Championship, had just been relegated and have a massive stadium and fan base (relatively speaking) and was given a load of money to spend.

 

This is the one I meant, it was from newsnight back in 2004 and transcript is below. I've highlighted a part for WrongIslander

 

BBC NEWS | Programmes | Newsnight | Black football managers

 

Black football managers

 

 

The kindly clichés about English football, the beautiful game of the people, took another knock.

For "people", read "some of the people". One professional footballer in four is now black. But fewer than one in every 30 clubs has a black manager. There's also a dearth of black coaches and administrators.

 

The watchdog Independent Football Commission said many believe this is clear evidence of institutional racism.

 

Peter Marshall investigated with some of English football's black stars.

 

 

Watch the interview

 

COLIN KING:

Get a partner. Get one ball between two. As you approach your partner. I'll will show you what I want you to do. Ready. First of all I'm going to say take and I'll take the ball...

 

PETER MARSHALL:

Colin king is a football coach with all the FA's qualifications but no job. So turning a negative into a positive, he's got a PhD out of it. The academic title, Institutional Racism in Football Coaching, Management and Administration.

 

KING:

They've been quite awful actually, I mean at 17 years of age I tried to get into a professional club and was told that niggers couldn't be in the game and so I went down the coaching route and I got all the qualifications. I wrote to a lot of clubs asking for coaching jobs, nobody ever responded. I had a lot of racist experiences when I went on coaching courses. I was called a black Hitler, I had a chip on my shoulder, I was difficult, I was uppity.

 

PETER MARSHALL:

John Barnes is a football idol, a superstar, one of the most talented ever to play for England. He had one brief spell as a football manager, that was four years ago, since then, nothing.

 

JOHN BARNES:

I have tried for about four or five jobs, I have applied for jobs and I've also had Graham Taylor and Terry Venables who I've worked with, and who of course you would think if they phoned clubs up..

 

MARSHALL:

England Managers.

 

BARNES:

...England Managers, to recommend me even for an interview, not necessarily to be given the job. And that has not brought anything, not even, not even an interview.

 

MARSHALL:

Do you think you might be aiming too high?

 

BARNES:

Well, if I'm aiming for a second division club, the only other alternative is either third division club or the conference. I know Luther Blisset, I know so many other England internationals have been turned down from Third Division clubs so, I don't know how much lower we can go. Maybe we should go into the Sunday league, possibly?

 

MARSHALL:

It's a mystery, isn't it this?

 

BARNES:

It's not much of a mystery, no.

 

MARSHALL:

Along side the superstar, John Barnes and the coach and academic, Colin king, there are at least two generations of successful black footballers, conspicuous by their absence from the running of the game, from coaching and managerial jobs. These are people with all the right qualifications to be football bosses, apart from the colour of their skin. There are 92 premier and Football League clubs in England and 20 to 25% of the players are from ethnic minorities, but only three of the managers are black. They are doing well, but in the bottom division. The players union, the PFA has found that while 73% of white players are keen to remain in the game after retirement, even more, 76% of black players want to stay on, yet their opportunities are restricted. It took 30 years for black players to be regarded as simply footballers, to beat the racism of the crowds. In the vanguard were two England strikers, Luther Blissett and Cyrille Regis. Since retirement, both have worked as coaches, but never got the chance to manage. Today Regis has given up to become an agent while Blissett has been out of work for 15 months.

 

LUTHER BLISSETT:

You know you've done well in the interview, because you know if you've cocked it up or not, just like on the football pitch, you know when you've cocked it up. You are honest with yourself. Then you don't even get anything after, a letter to say no or whatever. That's it. That's the end of it. Things like that, that is hard sometimes to understand why that can happen.

 

CYRILLE REGIS:

As a player it's tangible. You can hear the racist chants, you can see the letters, you can see the bananas on the pitch and you can react to it, but when you are going for jobs and interviews and putting your CV's in and job applications, you can't really tell somebody's heart where they're coming from, what prejudices they have inside of them.

 

BLISSETT:

Often you get letters back, and you'll either say, yes we'd like you to come for an interview, which I've had on a couple of occasions and the others you sort of get, maybe we are looking for somebody with a bit more experience, which is a bit of a slap in the face for somebody that's played at the various levels in the game that I have played and played at some of the clubs in the countries that I've played football in.

 

MARSHALL:

The only black managers to be appointed in the Premier League and both are now gone were the Dutchman Ruud Gullit and Jean Tigana from France. World stars, their international status transcending race. Given the current football fashion for importing managers, it's harder for English-born bosses to get jobs if they are white, when they are black...

 

KING:

I have done a lot of research, and you speak to two white managers and white coaches and I think there is a thing called the "comfort zone" that white managers and white coaches probably are much more comfortable working with white coaches and white managers, based on their personal friendships and their relationships outside of the game and they're maybe not so comfortable working with people who they have played with but maybe not built up that type of close relationship outside the game.

 

MARSHALL:

So it's a friendship thing in some ways?

 

KING:

I think definitely it's a friendship thing. You ask most players, any top manager or coach, they will pick people based on who they know, rather than what they know.

 

MARSHALL:

It was 1999 when Kenny Dalglish, the new technical director at Glasgow Celtic, introduced his friend and protégé John Barnes as his choice of manager.

 

BARNES:

Kenny Dalglish was taken as technical director and he insisted on me coming. He trusted me, he knew me, we'd worked together before so he had belief in me. And although we won 12 of the first 13 or 14 matches, I realised very early on that you know if I lost a couple of matches, because everyone there wasn't fully behind, or wasn't, not necessarily supportive, they were supportive while I was there and they were behind me when I was there but they weren't all in favour of the appointment. So I knew that because they are not in favour of the appointment if I lose three or four of the matches that will just reinforce, yes, we've got the wrong man.

 

KING:

I think John Barnes' situation for me is what I call the one theory, black players are given one chance and that's it. I think John Barnes is a very interesting situation, here is a black player, that we've been told that he is probably the best role model we have had for 20 years, and if he makes it we can do it anywhere. The fact that he didn't make it at Celtic, maybe implicitly saying that black players are not ready at the moment.

 

MARSHALL:

John Barnes was sacked after only eight months and some poor results. You are not suggesting there was racism involved in Celtic's decision?

 

BARNES:

Not at all. In fact my Englishness seemed to be more of a problem than my blackness up there! But no, in no way was I accusing Celtic of racism but we are talking of the dynamics of when a black manager is at a club. In many respects it is unconscious. You know it's unconscious, you say to people, you tell people your ideas it is unconscious in terms of you can see do they actually believe what you are telling them. That is what I'm talking about. Not necessarily the Chairman, the directors, it's everybody concerned with the club. Ricky Hill was at Luton, as much as everyone loved Ricky as a player and may have loved me as a player, when you become a manager do they actually have the belief in what you are telling them?

 

MARSHALL:

Ricky Hill survived only five months at Luton and his assistant, the first black man to be a fully accredited FA national coach lasted just three months. He has now had to go to America for work. For all its claims to modernity there are some old fashioned attitudes in the world of football. Two apparently forward-thinking Chairman I spoke to referred to their coloured players with whom they have no problem. At the FA, which set up an equity unit over a year ago they've still no idea whatsoever, how many black players are taking coaching badges. It will be this summer before they even start collecting the figures to tell them how big a problem they have got. Paul Davis is South London born and a North London hero. He won a host of medals and cups with Arsenal, today he is working part-time for the players union. Puzzling over why there are so few black coaches in football.

 

PAUL DAVIS:

The FA have got no black coaches at the moment, I believe, in the professional game within the structure of the FA, that's the governing body of football.

 

MARSHALL:

So that's the message being sent?

 

DAVIS:

So People look at that. They think, well 30 years down the line, we have had some great players who have come through the game, all interested in getting involved in football and coaching.

 

MARSHALL:

In fact the FA say that two of their 18 full-time coaches are black. One is a woman with the women's squad, the other coaches the learning disabilities team. Today's report from the Independent Football Commission says on race,"the football authorities need to place a much firmer emphasis on results... The FA in particular must raise its profile and put a much stronger emphasis on action and outcomes as opposed to plans and intentions." But how to set targets and change the make-up of individual football clubs? They will choose who they think is the best man for the job. Despite qualifications, they will say that it comes down in the end to personality, that such and such is probably a better manager then so and so, therefore we'll go for him?

 

DAVIS:

Well, there is no point in having qualifications then or going for all these courses because if at the end of it the clubs are going to be able to dismiss that, and forget it, well what's the problem, we don't need to look at that because we are going to choose somebody because of this, then the whole process is going to be flawed.

 

MARSHALL:

Paul Davis speaks from bitter experience. As a junior coach at Arsenal, he recently found himself passed over for promotion in favour of a less-qualified colleague. After 26 years with the club he resigned. His case is now at arbitration, one more black coach lost to the game. With English football about to enter a new era with the new Wembley Stadium, the game's image needs remodelling too. Institutional racism may be subconscious, may be unintended but it's still deeply damaging.

 

KING:

It just shows you how powerless black players are to change the system. If the black players are under represented as Chairman or directors, they haven't got the financial investment in those structures. They are being excluded and that's how institutional racism operates.

 

BARNES:

The stereotype of a black man is that he is a good athlete, therefore, he should be able to run fast, box, sprint, play rugby, play football, we are athletic but can we think? That is the hardest barrier to overcome.

 

BLISSETT:

When you get knocked back, if it was week after week, day after day, whatever, you've got to eventually start to suspect there may be something else going on somewhere. It's human nature. It's not because I'm black why I'm saying that. Anybody that knows me knows I have never been one to go down the route, it's because I'm black or whatever. That's never ever been a part of my thinking, and it still isn't even now. That's probably the reason why I still persevere as I do.

 

MARSHALL:

After the struggle to gain acceptance and acclaim on the pitch the barriers to get on to the coaches bench still look formidable.

 

This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.

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I remember seeing something, I think on Football Focus, with a few black ex players who were coaches or had been tring to get into management (I think Viv Anderson may have been one) and they all said that they basically lost out on jobs to people who had far less experience than them, and were often just not responded to when they applied for a job. I'll try and find it.

 

A great example for me is Paul Ince and Roy Keane, very similar players, similar recors in terms of winning things, similar winning attitutde, one starts his managerial career at Macclesfield in League 2, whilst the other starts at Sunderland, who although only being in the Championship, had just been relegated and have a massive stadium and fan base (relatively speaking) and was given a load of money to spend.

 

 

And I think this is the Footy Focus one I may have been confusing the Newsnight one with. This was from 2007

 

BBC SPORT | Football | Focus: Football's black mark

 

English football's claim to be fair and equal is fatally undermined by the current plight of the country's black coaches.

 

These statistics show the scale of the problem:

 

 

Less than 1% of senior coaching staff at the 92 league clubs are black - even though more than 20% of players are.

 

Only two managers - Macclesfield's Paul Ince and Torquay's Keith Curle - are not white.

 

Just two of the nine most highly-qualified black coaches in the country - all of whom have better qualifications than Middlesbrough boss Gareth Southgate - currently have jobs in the league.

 

Since its inception in 1992, there has never been a black English manager in the Premiership - even though about 25% of its players are not white. Jean Tigana managed Fulham and Ruud Gullit was in charge at Chelsea and Newcastle, but there has not been an English black manager in the top flight.

Garth Crooks, the BBC broadcaster, former Tottenham striker and football adviser to the Commission for Racial Equality, describes the situation as "appalling".

 

"Football should be ashamed of itself," he told BBC Sport.

 

"Bearing in mind the self-confessed tolerance of English football today, it's shocking that Paul Ince and Keith Curle are the only black managers in the league.

 

"We're certainly not in a position where we can afford to exclude a whole section of society from coaching and management."

 

 

WHY ARE THERE SO FEW BLACK COACHES AND MANAGERS?

RECRUITMENT

 

The University of Warwick's Sue Bridgewater, who has carried out extensive research on black coaches and managers, says: "There is a general view that they are not being given the same opportunities as their white counterparts."

 

Crooks says the different opportunities given to former Manchester United team-mates Roy Keane and Paul Ince highlight this.

 

 

 

 

They were two of the finest central midfielders of their generation and captains of their country.

Yet Keane was handed his first managerial job at Championship side Sunderland, while Ince was passed over for a Championship job before taking over at Macclesfield, who were bottom of League Two.

 

"One is at the bottom of the league and the other is near the top," Crooks said. "Why is that?

 

"Is it because people are more comfortable with Roy Keane, his culture and the way he looks and talks?

 

"The view among black footballers used to be that they had to be much better than their white counterparts to get in the team. The same seems to be true of black managers now."

 

Viv Anderson, England's first black international, now runs his own business after becoming disillusioned at the lack of opportunities to become a manager after eight years as assistant at Middlesbrough and a season before that as boss at Barnsley.

 

He describes football as "an old pals act, a closed shop where chairmen appoint managers they know and are comfortable with, and the managers choose their own backroom staff".

 

When you consider that there is not a single black chairman or director at any of the 92 league clubs, this suspicion is not surprising.

 

Crooks describes the way that some clubs recruit their coaching staff as "bordering on the medieval".

 

"People should be allowed to be interviewed and properly assessed, based on their record and CV, just as they are in most other walks of life," he says.

 

 

"As an example, I know two reserve-team coaches who have recently been appointed without even having the qualifications. No other industry in the world would appoint on that basis."

 

Bridgewater insists that most clubs do now use the same recruitment techniques as industry. She cites the example of Coventry, who employed recruitment consultants, sifted through CVs and interviewed candidates before appointing Iain Dowie earlier this week.

 

Yet there are exceptions. A spokesman for Leeds United admitted Dennis Wise had been appointed without any other candidates being interviewed for the post.

 

"The chairman thought Dennis was the right man for the job," he said.

 

And managers often bring their own backroom staff with them without going through a formal recruitment process.

 

Jason Galbraith Marten, a self-employed barrister specialising in employment and discrimination law, says clubs are leaving themselves open to legal action if they use such a recruitment process.

 

"The code of practice of the Commission for Racial Equality recommends what you should do to have a fair and transparent recruitment procedure," he said.

 

"If you failed to follow this, it would strengthen your case at a tribunal. If successful, you could claim compensation for injury to feelings and loss of earnings."

 

NOT ENOUGH CANDIDATES

 

Despite the shortfalls in the recruitment processes of many clubs, Notts County striker Jason Lee says black coaches themselves are partly to blame for their plight.

 

The former Nottingham Forest forward is in the twilight of his career and beginning to take his coaching badges.

 

"I don't think enough black players are pushing themselves," he told BBC Sport.

 

"I think more internationals, some of the better players, should be pushing themselves. I don't think enough of them have done the badges and put the time and effort in.

 

"I'm frustrated with some of my black colleagues who don't give it a real go. It's easy for me to say at the minute, because I haven't applied for these jobs yet and been given knock-backs.

 

"But if I start to get rejected in favour of people less qualified than me then I'd start to break it down and wonder why I wasn't getting the job.

 

"If you can't find any reason, it's easy to say 'well I'm black and he's white'. I think that's just the way of the world and some people just need a reason."

 

Former Newcastle and England striker Les Ferdinand is currently taking his Uefa B coaching licence and told BBC Sport "you don't see black faces on the courses".

 

Brendon Batson MBE, one of the first top black footballers and now a consultant to the Football Association on issues of equality and diversity, says a lack of role models is a big problem.

 

"There haven't been any role models for young black coaches, which has led to a mindset among black players of 'this isn't for us'," he told BBC Sport.

 

Crooks says this is because he and Batson are part of a "lost generation" of black coaches - players who made the breakthrough into English football in the 1970s and 1980s yet were never given the chance to move into management.

 

For example, Crooks says former England international Cyril Regis - who was one of the "Three Degrees" at West Brom in the 1970s - became an agent after failing to make the breakthrough into management.

 

"He wasn't even given the courtesy of a reply when he applied for jobs," Crooks says.

 

"I made the decision a long time ago that I would be better off making a career in broadcasting rather than management.

 

"I don't see why I should suffer the humiliation of not even getting a reply."

 

BEING PREPARED

 

John Barnes, the finest black player of his generation, was held up as the great hope for black managers.

 

He was handed a massive opportunity when he was named manager of Scottish giants Celtic in June 1999, but lasted only eight months after a disastrous run of results including a Cup defeat by Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

 

Barnes was eager to move back into management, and even coached for free at Swindon for a while, but was not given a second chance and now works as a television presenter.

 

 

Barnes was not given another management opportunity after Celtic

Ferdinand says he is angry that Barnes was not given another opportunity.

 

He told BBC Sport: "People say he wasn't ready for that job. But there are plenty of Caucasian managers who weren't ready for jobs, failed, and were then given another chance.

 

"John was a fantastic player, is intelligent and thoughtful, and will have learned from his experiences at Celtic. But he seems to have been thrown on the managerial scrapheap."

 

Yet Bridgewater has a statistic that 55% of first-time managers never work again.

 

So the resounding message is that when a job comes up, you have to be ready for it.

 

As well as Ferdinand taking the Uefa B course, three of the 21 coaches currently taking the Uefa Pro Licence course - Iffy Onuora, Keith Alexander and Leroy Rosenior - are black.

 

 

WHAT IS BEING DONE?

The CRE published a report on racial equality in English football in October 2004 entitled "It's Everyone's Game".

 

It was highly critical and prompted the sport's governing bodies to confront the issue. Yet, ironically, there were more black managers in the league - three - then than there are now.

 

The Premier League introduced a "racial equality standard", which 14 of its 20 clubs have signed up to. The Football Association points out that the coach of its women's team, Hope Powell, is black, as is recently-appointed England under-16 and 19 coach Blake.

 

Yet the Professional Footballers' Association seems to have been the most proactive in ensuring that there are more black coaches and managers in the future.

 

It set up a black coaches' forum, headed up by former Arsenal midfielder Paul Davis, in the wake of the CRE report.

 

Davis contacts black players as they near the end of their career to find out if they want to pursue a career in coaching.

 

He then gives them advice and information about getting their coaching badges and qualifications, lets them know about job vacancies, helps with CVs and interviews, and encourages them to go to games and network.

 

Former England full-back Earl Barrett told BBC Sport: "I thought I had no chance of becoming a coach when I finished playing, because there were so few black managers in the game.

 

 

"But the forum encouraged me to try and gave me hope. They encouraged me to keep busy and go to games. Now I'm getting qualifications (he has completed a sports science degree and is now looking into taking his Uefa B badge) and hope to get a foot in the door."

 

Bobby Barnes, the PFA's London representative, says Barrett is part of a new generation of black coaches who will be qualified to manage at the very highest level.

 

Bridgewater says the aim must be for there to be the same proportion of black managers as there are players, which would mean about 18 of the 92 clubs having non-white bosses.

 

"Steps are now being taken and black coaches are becoming highly qualified. The issue is out in the open and steps are being taken to correct it."

 

She, Barnes and the governing bodies believe there will be more black managers in the future.

 

Yet Keith Alexander, who led Lincoln to four consecutive play-offs before having a short and inglorious spell at Peterborough, thinks it will take a bigger change.

 

He told BBC Sport: "How many black chairmen or board members are there? I don't know of any.

 

"How many of the FA coaching courses are run by black people? Only Noel Blake.

 

"It makes you think it will take a black owner with plenty of money, who comes in and appoints a manager, or someone like Paul Ince going through the divisions for a black manager to get a chance at the highest level."

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Name me one black player at the top level that compares to the intelligence shown on the field of an Alonso, Carragher, Scholes where their game intelligence is the first thing you identify.

 

Dunno if it is the first thing you identify (but its not the first thing I identify about Scholes or Carra either), but game intelligence was/is an important factor for all the below I think

 

Barnes

Des Walker

Paul Mcgrath

Thuram

Desaily

Makele

Viera

Sol Campbell

Rio Ferdinand

Paul Davis

Gullit

Rijkaard

Seedorf

Kanu

 

But I don't think style of play as a player is really a big factor in being a good manager anyway, the list of Premierleague managers is made up by quite a few no nonsense burly defenders and strikers.

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