You may or may not be aware that 67 year old Stuart Baxter was manager of Odisha in the Indian premier league, I use was in the past tense, he was unceremoniously sacked after his sides loss to Jamshedpur on Monday after his post match interview where he claimed “You need decisions to go your way” a staple used by many a manager after a loss. He then went on to say “I don’t know when we’re going to get a penalty, I think one of my players would have to rape somebody or get raped himself if he was going to get a penalty”
I know people say things in the heat of the moment, when they’re worked up, things they don’t mean, but fuck me, it’s 2021, and he’s thrown the R word around like it’s child’s play, surely you can think of better adjectives to describe not getting decisions in a game of football. He was rightly sacked for making those comments and can blame nobody but himself. I can’t fathom what he must have been thinking to even put his point across like that.
It’s not big and it’s not clever, it also wasn’t big and it wasn’t clever when Alan Pardew used it to describe a challenge made by Ched Evans on Michael Essien in 2009, the former Newcastle and Crystal Palace manger said “He’s a strong boy, he knocks him off, he absolutely rapes him” on match if the day two on a Sunday night.
I’m not a fan of that word being used full stop to describe anything, I also don’t know where people like Baxter and Pardew get off by using it to refer to footballing situations.
Anyway, that’s the end of my little rant, and if Baxter or Pardew never worked in football ever again (I’m sure they will sadly) it can’t come too soon.
Cheers, The Fat Man
Fat Lad Sports 