Raheem Sterling & Riflegate

[The Artful Dodger]

Sterling getting hammered for his new Gun tattoo. It is a stupid thing to flaunt on social media but Sterling seems to trigger exceptional wrath from our media, being young, black and ambitous is not looked on kindly in England.

[Smiley Culture]

It wouldn’t be a national tournament if The Sun didn’t start hammering England players in the build up to the tournament and Sterling, for some reason boils peoples piss, so he’s an easy target. 

Sterling has explained that his Dad was shot dead when he was 2 (never knew that) and he shoots with his right foot, so that’s the meaning rather than some attempt at glamourising gun crime as The Sun would have you believe.

[Stan]

30 minutes ago, The Artful Dodger said:

Sterling getting hammered for his new Gun tattoo. It is a stupid thing to flaunt on social media but Sterling seems to trigger exceptional wrath from our media, being young, black and ambitous is not looked on kindly in England.

He didn't even flaunt it did he? Just training and he gets photos of him with it on view. 

The media's obsession is fucking weird. Like proper weird. 

They lambast him for going to Primark. They do so for when he eats at Greggs. They do so when he buys his mum nice things. They do so when he drives around in flash cars. 

Let him live his fucking life. I'm not even joking when I say things like this (constant obsession over choices made in life (not even bad or wrong choices here) can lead someone to very dark places. Every decision of his being judged for no reason at all. The Sun (and whoever else reports on it) are all fucking cunts. 

[Danny]

1 hour ago, Stan said:

He didn't even flaunt it did he? Just training and he gets photos of him with it on view. 

The media's obsession is fucking weird. Like proper weird. 

They lambast him for going to Primark. They do so for when he eats at Greggs. They do so when he buys his mum nice things. They do so when he drives around in flash cars. 

Let him live his fucking life. I'm not even joking when I say things like this (constant obsession over choices made in life (not even bad or wrong choices here) can lead someone to very dark places. Every decision of his being judged for no reason at all. The Sun (and whoever else reports on it) are all fucking cunts. 

He's a young black footballer and the best we have, they've always disliked him for it going back to their interest in his children.

[Inverted]

The English media are a shower of foaming-mouthed racists so it's not exactly a surprise.

[Dave]

Whilst the timing with the current knife crime epidemic in London isn't ideal, he's explained the meaning behind the tattoo and I would like to think we can move on.

The bigger issue here, as Gary Lineker pointed out, is The Sun's obsession every tournament trying to lambast our better players to still remain relevant as a publication in this day and age of electronic forms of media. 

It's beyond weird. Everybody wants to see us to do well yet at every opportunity they'll try and unsettle our players and coaching staff. Just leave them to it ffs.

[Dave]

1 hour ago, Danny said:

He's a young black footballer and the best we have, they've always disliked him for it going back to their interest in his children.

He got criticised once for shopping in Primark. So he definitely cannot win.

[Smiley Culture]

Big fan of the woman in the Sun demanding he gets it lasered or he’s removed from the National team. 

[Stan]

32 minutes ago, Cannabis said:

The S*n. Say no more, an absolute disgrace in every sense of the word.

The Daily Star as well. Utter bellends.

[Happy Blue]

He could have the St George flag tattooed on him and the Sun would accuse him of being a white supremacist! 

[Smiley Culture]

The way Sterling has been selected, numerous times, by this countries media is borderline bullying and quite possibly racist as well. 

I remember saying it at the time but there was a complete under reaction to the news that one of Ant or Dec had been arrested for drink driving, which was followed by all sorts of outpourings of sympathy to him (there should have been none, I must add). Yet had this have been a footballer, especially Sterling, the same 40 year old mothers would be campaigning for the return of the death penalty because he was in a crash with a car that included a small child. 

 

[Dave]

I dont think race has anything to do with it to be honest. He had a flash attitude in his teens that has made him a target ever since.

[Berserker]

The  Sun is one the worst papers in the world and they are all a bunch of bastards, i agree.

[Smiley Culture]

6 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

I dont think race has anything to do with it to be honest. He had a flash attitude in his teens that has made him a target ever since.

Most footballers who have the talent Sterling has, who are then paid the money Sterling was/is on are going to be “flash” and spend money on what us ‘normal’ people would deem extravagant. That shouldn’t be used against him. 

I think race does therefore play a part in this. There’s definitely a case in the UK that young, black successful men are a target for the media. Stormzy is a prime example of that and Sterling is too. 

[Dave]

9 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Most footballers who have the talent Sterling has, who are then paid the money Sterling was/is on are going to be “flash” and spend money on what us ‘normal’ people would deem extravagant. That shouldn’t be used against him. 

I think race does therefore play a part in this. There’s definitely a case in the UK that young, black successful men are a target for the media. Stormzy is a prime example of that and Sterling is too. 

Wayne Rooney? John Terry was my given an easy ride either 

Stormzy loves to play the card, his tweets about the 'feds' at Notting Hill Carnival was embarrassing.

[Smiley Culture]

49 minutes ago, The Palace Fan said:

Wayne Rooney? John Terry was my given an easy ride either 

Stormzy loves to play the card, his tweets about the 'feds' at Notting Hill Carnival was embarrassing.

Arsenal’s badge, Robbie Keane’s goal celebration, Sheffield United’s badge...

Nah, they’re not Raheem Sterling though. 

[Lucas]

This photo was posted nearly three weeks ago after City received the title.

Whatever the thoughts are on the tattoo, there is no coincidence that the English media have waited until the domestic season was over, and the focus was on the international side ahead of a big tournament, to attack the player.

It is piss poor that as a nation, we cannot come together and get behind our team.

[Dave]

54 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Arsenal’s badge, Robbie Keane’s goal celebration, Sheffield United’s badge...

Nah, they’re not Raheem Sterling though. 

Sheffield United's badge has black in it 

I agree its unnessecary media sensationalism. What I don't agree with is it's got anything to do with the colour of his skin. There's several young successful black people who don't get targetted by the media. Anthony Joshua being the most prominent example.

[Lucas]

It has absolutely nothing to do with racism. I think Smiley is clutching at straws with that one.

It's been happening for bloody ages with white sport stars. Gazza, Beckham, Rooney etc have all been national heroes, built up by our media and then seized on like a dog with a bone pre tournament, till their failure meant mini victories for reporters.

It's not just footballers, we've had it with Flintoff and Pietersen in Cricket, Henman and Murray in Tennis, Hamilton in F1 etc.

The bottom line is, we're not happy unless we are criticising or creating an argument it seems. Sometimes the players can put themselves in silly situations but even when things aren't there, our media look for anything to tear us down.

It's a load of bullshit. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

I don't like Raheem Sterling at all. But even I think this is a stupid attack on him and our media should be ashamed.

It's a fucking tattoo and it's not like it says "use this M16 to shoot children." People have tattoos of Satan and pentagrams and it's not like they're making human sacrifices to a man with a goats head trying to get into hell. Absolute non-story, no surprise it's the Sun trying to make a story from nothing create controversy. They are the bottom of the barrel in the British media and are a disgrace to journalism and to Britain.

[Honey Honey]

The Sun operates on a no such thing as bad publicity basis. Free marketing. All that outrage helps circulate their name, increase its prominence. They use it very well because they know not everyone gives a shit what you lot are banging on about, but as long as you bang on about it their name is out there which to them is a win. It's a classic example of a business model that can survive off bad publicity.

[Spike]

Is it really a case of racism though? Drama with athletes is low-hanging fruit for the media, it's always easier to get a snowball rolling down a hill than starting a new one. You could say his fate was sealed once he made it big and they found out he was pumping out kids like tomorrow (which for reason is something that people look down upon).

Though I don't really know the gestalt of the English media (it could be racism, I don't know) but I think they just like having particular targets, especially young men. Otherwise wouldn't they be all up Dele Alli, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Fabian Delph, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jesse Lingard, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Danny Welbeck, and Marcus Rashford's cases as well?

And as Kitchen Sales said, they probably want it to look like there is a slight hint of racist reporting in their stories to drum up the discussion they are racist. If anything we are helping them just by talking about them in this thread.

[Dan+]

I couldn't say for sure it's race but I also won't rule it out. The singling out of him is absolutely ridiculous and I hope the FA / Southgate have defended him. I'm fed up of the FA being spineless in these situations which in turn leads to more of these virtue signallers thinking they've got power over them.

It's a weird tattoo to get given his reasons in my eyes but each to their own.

[Danny]

8 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

Sheffield United's badge has black in it 

I agree its unnessecary media sensationalism. What I don't agree with is it's got anything to do with the colour of his skin. There's several young successful black people who don't get targetted by the media. Anthony Joshua being the most prominent example.

Anthony Joshua is a boxer, boxers get more respect than footballers. You never hear someone say "a solider should get paid the same as a boxer". Boxers are also a lot more prominent and AJ is the most prominent of them all right now. Sterling is just a young footballer and one of many, so easy to attack him.

Ever since Sterling's emergence as a young prospect on the national stage he has been targeted by news outlets, that simply doesn't happen to our other footballers. Sterling is young, black, successful and has a kid young, that's all they needed to start it all.

He's also an easier target as his move from Liverpool to Man City caused a stupid amount of attention whereas other prominent young black footballers in the country are already at a big club.

[Smiley Culture]

It would be too obvious almost if The Sun targeted all Black English players but picking one, especially someone as disliked by fans as Sterling (though he’s clearly a player you hate but you’d love at your own team type) is fine and gives them enough room to claim it’s not racial. 

I’d love it if Gareth Southgate come out and had a bit of a rant at the state of the media in this country and how every tournament, the media pick a scapegoat, sometimes more than one, in the build up to a tournament and try and create some form of drama out of them when really, the media should be the ones drumming up support for the country and the national team. It’s embarrassing from them, does nothing but bad for the national set-up and is actually quite harmful to a players health and well-being having seen people like Robert Enke, Gary Speed and Dermot Drummy take their own lives whilst Aaron Lennon has struggled with mental health.