What were the “opinions” Mings had that Souness had a problem with?
Souness doesn’t say.
Now my strong suspicion (am I allowed that?) is that Souness’s real objection to Mings is not anything he said in the segment where the two apparently appeared together on Sky Sports’ News - because Laura Woods went into that and what I took out of it was that on that segment Mings came across as grounded and humble - something that I think would be in keeping with anything I know about his personality (am I allowed have an opinion on that?)
I think Souness’s real problem with Mings was when he tweeted to Liz Truss (or was it Priti Patel?) after the England-Italy Euros final when whichever one of them it was made a tweet about the England team.
Mings called them out over their deep hypocrisy when they tried to whip up anger against the England team over taking a knee.
I strongly suspect Souness didn’t like that tweet and that’s why I think he has the problem with Mings.
I think Souness is jealous of the money Mings makes. Average players making fortunes etc. Even though Souness himself is benefitting himself from the football media rights boom.
This is the tweet I’m talking abut. It was addressed to Patel. And Mings is spot on.
But I bet anything Souness didn’t like it and I’d bet anything what he was thinking inside was something like this:
“Uppity black man. Who does he think he is? Have some respect.”
There is such a thing as “tolerance” among a lot of white people towards people of other skin colours. Tolerance means they tolerate them, as long as they are quiet or especially “dignified”. That’s why white people love to eulogise Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. Because they were “eloquent” and “dignified”. It’s why Barack Obama had to develop the rhetorical style he did to have any chance of becoming US president.
But when they start speaking up, having opinions, especially opinions that are clearly correct and touch a raw nerve, the tolerant white people don’t like it. And if they do something wrong, or are seen to do something the tolerant white person holds as something wrong, they’ll get it in the neck.
That was the mindset Ron Atkinson had. Remember, Ron Atkinson signed black players.
When somebody touches a nerve with you and utters an opinion you hate - because you are a bigot - but cannot remotely counter, your default response is to say that person is “unwell”.
We truly are honoured by the presence of your gifted mind here.
You objected to me voicing an opinion about Souness’s words based on clear and consistent of his opinions and the tone he made them in.
Then you seemingly see no problem with a noted troll of toxic opinion of of over a decade’s standing calling somebody else “unwell” for uttering opinions they don’t like and have no response to.
That’s quite the position you’ve manoeuvred yourself into.
It was not an argument I was trying to make. I have no intention of going back and forth with you. I stand by my Souness comment. You don’t know him well enough to make the judgements on his character that you have imho.
You tagged me and I responded to the ‘unwell’ comment. I have no intention of getting personal. My comment was in jest. I wish you nothing but good health.
You’re entitled to your opinion on that but I don’t see how you can square it with yourself holding an opinion that it’s OK for internet trolls (and that poster has a long standing record of being nothing more than a hateful troll) to call others unwell when they utter perfectly reasonable opinions about a public figure’s character when that public figure have a record of targetting people of a particular skin colour in a particular way in a particular tone.
On the one hand you’re trying to shut down perfectly legitimate opinion while trying to legitimise abuse.
