Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Warburton fury at ‘moronic cowards’ baiting his players
OSAYI-SAMUEL THE LATEST VICTIM OF VILE ABUSE, AND RANGERS BOSS SAYS HE IS FAR FROM ALONE
MARK WARBURTON has hit out at the abuse of young players on social media – and labelled the culprits “moronic cowards”.
Queens Park Rangers are working with Instagram and the police to try to identify who was re sp on si bl e for posting racist and violent comments aimed at forward Bright OsayiSamuel after Saturday’s draw at Norwich and have threatened court action.
The sickening incident came in the same week that Bournemouth striker Junior Stani slas had racist slurs and threats of violence directed at him and his family on Twitter, and called for those who post abuse on s o c i a l medi a to be punished.
Rangers boss Warbur ton i nsi st ed Osayi-samuel, 22, had not been affected by the abuse.
He added: “Genuine QPR supporters would be mortified if they could read what a young player has to receive.
“If you could see what s o me p e o p l e w r i t e , i t ’s outrageous. I could tell you about messages I’ve received that are moronic beyond belief.
“They would never say it to you in the street. They are moronic cowards who hide behind a keyboard and they feel they have a right to abuse players and staff.
“It was terrible for Bright, terrible for Stanislas. But every player and every staff member unfortunately has to receive it, whether it is a basic “F*** off ”, to what Bright received, which was absolutely stomach sickening.
We say they’re strong characters. But they should not have to receive bile of that nature.
“We get letters and posts, you just delete them. The older you get the thicker your skin gets. You just block people off.”
Rangers host Fulham in the FA Cup today, which will be a welcome break from a dismal run in the Championship of no wins in nine matches to slip to within two points of the relegation zone.
Th e re a re su g ge st i o n s Warburton’s job is at risk, but h e sai d: “Th ere’s alway s speculation. All you can do is the best you can. You can’t ignore the fact we’ve let ourselves down in terms of p er formances not b eing turned into points. The league table doesn’t lie. The only people who can move us up the table are us as a group of players and staff.”
Fulham manager Scott
Parker is hoping to have back some of the six players who tested positive for Covid-19 last week, forcing Premier League fixtures with Tottenham and Burnley to be called off.
He said: “We have had a rough time but we are slowly getting people back.
“The focus this year is the league and being competitive. But we have had two weeks off, so we need to get back up to speed.
“We can use the squad, give p eople games and keep developing as a team.”
‘They would never say it to you in the street. They are cowards who hide behind a keyboard. It’s terrible for Bright’