Liverpool have a proud history of being an inclusive and welcoming club but the name of one former captain has been tarnished by the comments of an ex-teammate.
Speaking on The Football Historian Podcast, Howard Gayle shared a harrowing story about Tommy Smith: “It was one day in training, I’ve had a shot and I was a very good striker of the ball and it hit him on the inside of his leg and he was jumping and hopping around.
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“He started calling me a black so-and-so. I just stopped, everyone stopped, I went; ‘If you ever, ever call me that again, one night when you go to bed and you go out of your room for a p**s and I’ll be there and you’ll never, ever forget that moment.’
“And he looked at me and he seen that I wasn’t messing and he seen that I done it in front of everyone, so everybody could see, so anyone else who wanted to follow his pathway – I was ready, I was ready to deal with it now.
“So, he didn’t say nothing and he kind of kept out of my way, or off my case. And I’d admired this man as a Liverpool legend in the 1974 FA Cup Final and to go into an environment where an idol is actually a bigot and a racist, I’m thinking, if this is him representing the club, what else is going on in there?”
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It’s a terrible story to have to re-live for the former striker and shows how hard it was to be a black player during this era in football and in society.
Thankfully the game has come a long way since then but the 65-year-old should never have had to make such a stern defence of himself, all because of the colour of his skin.
You can watch Gayle’s comments on Smith (from 31:32) via The Football Historian Podcast on YouTube:
