Neanderthal Lads belong to the past

TWO years ago the self-styled Football Lads Alliance clashed with police, in London, as they protested “returning jihadists, AWOL migrants, rape gangs and groomers”.

Last Saturday they were doing it again, this time supposedly defending Churchill’s statue (below) from Black Lives Matter protesters, and when they found none, having pitched battles with the police instead.

They sang their songs about In-ger-land, 10 German Bombers, not surrendering to the IRA, and they even had time to tell Churchill he was one of their own. Which must have been a low point for the war leader who stood up to fascist aggression, not celebrated it.

But, like the Tottenham fan jailed for urinating on fallen PC Keith Palmer’s memorial plaque, they could not be less representative of today’s fan bases, where there is a growing desire to unite, not divide, communities.

It wasn’t just Marcus Rashford helping the poor during this pandemic but the likes of Fans Supporting Foodbanks, who as well as supplying meals to hungry families, produced and distributed nationwide, more than 40,000 PPE visors for care workers.

They are increasingly the modern face of organised supporters, not the white supremacist thugs who hide behind a football fan identity to pursue their cowardly ends.

Like the snarling Neanderthals many resemble, evolution has left them behind.

EDINSON CAVANI and Thiago Silva are becoming free agents. Normally there would be a queue of Premier League clubs offering them one-year deals, despite being 33 and 35 respectively.

But this summer how do clubs tell their players they need to defer wages and then offer £200,000£300,000 a week to someone whose best days are behind him? Unless they accept their big pay-days are behind them, the reality check for legends could be sobering.