KIT SHOT SO OFF TARGET PR own-goals will sink power bid
THE problem for some people who have a bit of a past is that it can come back to haunt them.
Like Dave Kitson, for example, who is now being visited by ghosts from a previous life as he bids to start a footballing revolution within the inner sanctum of the Professional Footballers’ Association.
He wants to topple Gordon Taylor and replace him as chief executive of the players’ union – a position Taylor has held for a staggering 38 years.
Given how unpopular the union chief (below) now is, having become one of the fattest cats in football, you’d think the mission to take him down would be an open goal to the journeyman striker.
But somehow Kitson, whose campaign is being backed by PR guru David Bick, has made the crucial mistake of going into battle looking more like Judas Iscariot than Che Guevara or Mahatma Gandhi.
A trip back in time reveals a man, in Kitson, who betrayed his own profession with an infamous radio interview in which he blissfully exposed himself as a hypocrite at best, and racist at worst.
In December 2018 he was asked about the racist abuse being dished out to Raheem Sterling, but accused him and other footballers, including black ones, of bringing it on themselves.
He said: “I do believe that players make themselves a target. I just think that we have a duty of care to ourselves as footballers, to be a little bit careful with social media, and the way we portray ourselves.
“Jealousy is an awful thing amongst the human race. I trawled through Raheem Sterling’s Instagram feed to find that a lot of what he put on in his early days has now been deleted.
“And it was, ‘Look at my cars, look at my house, look at this bathroom, look at this, look at that, look at me.’
“That’s going to antagonise people.”
The following day Tyrone Mings was supposed to be going on the same radio station, but refused out of principle because he was so disgusted with what Kitson had said.
‘Trawl’ through Kitson’s own social media history and you will find a collection of crude posts almost as subtle as the number of flash cars he’s owned down the years.
One is of a black Ferrari including the letters ‘BEL’ on his number plate.
How appropriate. Another is of ‘theboykitson’ sitting down between two more Ferraris, or him lounging on the back of a speeding boat leaving Mallorca, or of the sunset in Dubai with the message ‘S**t view, hate it here.’
But it gets worse.
Posts from 2013 and 2014 also saw him compare a black Tesco worker to Danny Welbeck. For the record, Kitson used to work in Sainsbury’s.
Is anyone reading this column feeling ‘antagonised’ yet?
Steven Reid is. The Scotland coach shot down Kitson, while Rio Ferdinand simply said, ‘Wow.’ Sam Allardyce also waded in, labelling Kitson’s campaign as ‘Embarrassing.’
Other than Kitson himself, who thinks it’s a good idea for someone like him to be head of the players’ union? Answers on a postage stamp, please.
The PFA needs a wind of change to blow through it, but all Kitson’s pitch does is question the integrity of the new brigade attempting to usurp the old one.
Kitson is fighting a losing battle. But whose fault is that?
After all, you have really brought it all on yourself mate.