Brilliant Glen Johnson interview

[Exiled_red]

Glen Johnson

He's come out and said what most of us were thinking

[Gaz]

Love that last quote from Jonno

‘Everybody should now start loving hating each other again. For football reasons.’

[RedAndWhite]

The ironic thing about Paul McGrath's tweet is that nowhere did Glen Johnson accuse him of being racist. Key words from Glen:



Go ahead Mr McGrath you illiterate moron. He's calling what you said racist, not you as a person you cretin.

But if they acknowledged that point it would derail the whole argument against Suarez.

[wavydavy]

The good will out.

[Daniel 7]

Seen how the Guardian have sold it? Selective engineering for page hits.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/08/liverpool-glen-johnson-luis-suarez

The Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has accused Manchester United's Patrice Evra of manufacturing the handshake incident with Luis Suárez at Old Trafford which further inflamed the race row between the two players.

Suárez was given an eight-match ban by the Football Association for racially abusing Evra during an earlier match and the situation flared up again when Suárez refused to shake Evra's hand when the sides met again at Old Trafford. Suárez and the club have since apologised.

But Johnson believes Evra "stayed up all night" coming up with a plan to make sure Suárez did not greet his opponent in the expected manner by holding his hand by his side.

Johnson told the Daily Mail: "Evra was clever at Old Trafford. Luis didn't shake his hand because Evra's hand was down there. What else is Luis supposed to do? Would you go to shake someone's hand if their hand is way down there by their side? Course not.

"But then, because Luis didn't do it, Evra has pulled him back by his arm as he walked on, as if to say to everybody: 'Look, I wanted to shake his hand and he didn't …'

"Evra probably stayed up all night thinking about how to do that. The whole thing was ridiculous."

Johnson also said he was convinced that the original racism charge was incorrect, and that it was the club's idea that they should wear T-shirts supporting Suárez before their game at Wigan.

"The evidence was Luis's word against Evra's. I'm not saying Evra is lying but it's his word against Luis's, isn't it? So how did it all turn out to be so strong in Evra's favour? I work with the lad every day. There is no way he said that.

"With the media these days and the way it was going to be blown up, maybe the T-shirts thing wasn't the right thing to do. How should I say this? We wore them to show our support for Luis. It wasn't to send a message to everyone else. It was just for him.

"It seemed to come across that we were making a point. We weren't. It was the club's idea. But obviously we all agreed. We didn't really think about how people would react."

Johnson accused the former Manchester United defender Paul McGrath of racism after he used Twitter to criticise Johnson for wearing the T-shirt.

Johnson claimed: "The McGrath thing … that's actually racist. Saying what he said is racist. He is only saying that to me because I was the only black lad wearing the T-shirt. He's targeting me because of my colour."

McGrath tweeted on Thursday: "It saddens me that Glen Johnson has called me a racist, but he is entitled to his opinion."

Johnson also explained why he had been so publicly supportive of Suárez on his own Twitter account. "I wrote what I thought on Twitter. Then when I saw him the next day he came over and said thanks and that it meant a lot to him. I didn't write that for him to come and say thank you. I just wanted to let people know my point of view. Like it or hate it, I don't care.

"It was nice for him to see his team-mates supporting him, I guess. But what people don't appreciate is that these things stick with people and it can ruin careers. He could get almost forced out of Liverpool. He's a good lad and a fantastic player and all he wants to do is get on and play football.

"I can't understand how people don't get that in his culture the word 'negro' or 'negrito' is genuinely normal. Just because he's out of his country he is not going to stop using his mother tongue. If we went to another country, we would use our slang, wouldn't we? I can't see why somebody can get in trouble for using his culture in another country.

"I work with him every day. I know what he is like. Other people don't. I will not change my view."

The club said the manager Kenny Dalglish had not seen Johnson's comments and so would not speak about them during his press conference this morning.

[danperkins]

Pleasant read and great to hear from Glen Johnson in particular, although this will stir up things again. On the one hand it's great that Johnson is coming out and airing his opinions & on the other hand it's setting a platform for all this racist stuff to hit the headlines again, which by looking at footie websites and papers.. it has.

But i'm glad he said it as the bigger picture is that a mans reputation is at stake, so well done to Glen.

[Gingawaria]

Excellent read. A few Utd fans I know are up in arms about it.

Anyone else think this could be the start of a fight back by the club? I don't think it's a coincidence that it's Johnson that's made the comments, imagine the furore if Gerrard, Carragher or god forbid Suarez had come out and said this?

They can't accuse Johnson of Racism can they?

[RedReet]

Excellent read. A few Utd fans I know are up in arms about it.

Anyone else think this could be the start of a fight back by the club? I don't think it's a coincidence that it's Johnson that's made the comments, imagine the furore if Gerrard, Carragher or god forbid Suarez had come out and said this?

They can't accuse Johnson of Racism can they?

It was Johnson who was interviewed by someone who admits they think the club ****ed things up over this affair and probably thought Suarez was guilty before this. It's no PR stunt by the club, Johnson was answering what was being asked of him. Obviously he knew what the interview would be about and could have refused so maybe he did want to make his point publicly.

[Phoenix07]

Look at the state of this from Tony Evans:

http://twitter.com/#!/TonyEvansTimes

[Shaggy]

Yeah he's a ****. Johnson has a different opinion to him, so Evans calls him stupid.

Just **** off.

I'd have thought, as a colleague of Suarez, a mate of his, someone who sees him every single day, and finally, a black man, Glen is just slightly more qualified to offer his opinion on this than practically anyone else on the planet.

[Gibbo]

Why does he retweet people who are correct when abusing him?

[Shaggy]

Loads of people do that - I imagine it's either to try and make the abusers look stupid, or to rally their own followers into helping them out and having a pop at the abusers. Either way it's stupid.

[Trippendicular]

Seen how the Guardian have sold it? Selective engineering for page hits.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/mar/08/liverpool-glen-johnson-luis-suarez

The Liverpool defender Glen Johnson has accused Manchester United's Patrice Evra of manufacturing the handshake incident with Luis Suárez at Old Trafford which further inflamed the race row between the two players.

Suárez was given an eight-match ban by the Football Association for racially abusing Evra during an earlier match and the situation flared up again when Suárez refused to shake Evra's hand when the sides met again at Old Trafford. Suárez and the club have since apologised.

But Johnson believes Evra "stayed up all night" coming up with a plan to make sure Suárez did not greet his opponent in the expected manner by holding his hand by his side.

Johnson told the Daily Mail: "Evra was clever at Old Trafford. Luis didn't shake his hand because Evra's hand was down there. What else is Luis supposed to do? Would you go to shake someone's hand if their hand is way down there by their side? Course not.

"But then, because Luis didn't do it, Evra has pulled him back by his arm as he walked on, as if to say to everybody: 'Look, I wanted to shake his hand and he didn't …'

"Evra probably stayed up all night thinking about how to do that. The whole thing was ridiculous."

Johnson also said he was convinced that the original racism charge was incorrect, and that it was the club's idea that they should wear T-shirts supporting Suárez before their game at Wigan.

"The evidence was Luis's word against Evra's. I'm not saying Evra is lying but it's his word against Luis's, isn't it? So how did it all turn out to be so strong in Evra's favour? I work with the lad every day. There is no way he said that.

"With the media these days and the way it was going to be blown up, maybe the T-shirts thing wasn't the right thing to do. How should I say this? We wore them to show our support for Luis. It wasn't to send a message to everyone else. It was just for him.

"It seemed to come across that we were making a point. We weren't. It was the club's idea. But obviously we all agreed. We didn't really think about how people would react."

Johnson accused the former Manchester United defender Paul McGrath of racism after he used Twitter to criticise Johnson for wearing the T-shirt.

Johnson claimed: "The McGrath thing … that's actually racist. Saying what he said is racist. He is only saying that to me because I was the only black lad wearing the T-shirt. He's targeting me because of my colour."

McGrath tweeted on Thursday: "It saddens me that Glen Johnson has called me a racist, but he is entitled to his opinion."

Johnson also explained why he had been so publicly supportive of Suárez on his own Twitter account. "I wrote what I thought on Twitter. Then when I saw him the next day he came over and said thanks and that it meant a lot to him. I didn't write that for him to come and say thank you. I just wanted to let people know my point of view. Like it or hate it, I don't care.

"It was nice for him to see his team-mates supporting him, I guess. But what people don't appreciate is that these things stick with people and it can ruin careers. He could get almost forced out of Liverpool. He's a good lad and a fantastic player and all he wants to do is get on and play football.

"I can't understand how people don't get that in his culture the word 'negro' or 'negrito' is genuinely normal. Just because he's out of his country he is not going to stop using his mother tongue. If we went to another country, we would use our slang, wouldn't we? I can't see why somebody can get in trouble for using his culture in another country.

"I work with him every day. I know what he is like. Other people don't. I will not change my view."

The club said the manager Kenny Dalglish had not seen Johnson's comments and so would not speak about them during his press conference this morning.

I've lost a lot of respect for the Guardian in this whole ordeal. They've time and again misrepresented things to further the controversy. Like in the above, it says 'but Johnson believes Evra "stayed up all night" coming up with a plan to make sure Suárez did not greet his opponent in the expected manner by holding his hand by his side.' Obviously he meant that figuratively.

[Shaggy]

Yep likewise. I won't be buying that **** again.

[Exiled_red]

I've lost a lot of respect for the Guardian in this whole ordeal. They've time and again misrepresented things to further the controversy. Like in the above, it says 'but Johnson believes Evra "stayed up all night" coming up with a plan to make sure Suárez did not greet his opponent in the expected manner by holding his hand by his side.' Obviously he meant that figuratively.

It's the sort of thing you expect from a tabloid.