It’s Just Banter/ Leroy Rosenior

Leroy Rosenior’s autobiography will be of interest beyond the supporters of the 3 clubs he played for – Fulham, QPR and West Ham and the three he managed Bristol City, Torquay and Brentford. Born in Sierra Leone, whom he later managed for 2 games, growing up in Brixton in the sixties and seventies, he has much to say how black people and footballers were treated

Fulham fans will remember Leroy affectionately as a bustling centre forward and one of the few goods memories after Malcolm MacDonald’s promotion side of the early 1980s was broken up. Leroy had 3 spells at Fulham and later his son Liam was signed as a capable right back. He is now at Brighton.

As a player he had to hear 5000 Leeds fans shout “Sieg Heil”. At another Fulham away game – he does not mention the team but I am pretty sure I know its identity – he and another black forward were subjected to revolting personal abuse on the pitch. There are those who criticise the modern game for the excessive ticket pricing, the wages of the players, selling its soul to SKY and BT, but it’s in a much healthier state when such racist abuse is now a criminal offence.

I found Leroy less convincing on the 4% representation of black coaches and his advocacy of the Rooney rule, the compulsory interviewing of black candidate in the NFL. Paul Ince, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbank and Terry Connor all failed at bigger clubs, the first two having enjoyed great initial success. Perhaps Leroy is right that a white manager would get yet more chances but Chris Hughton was a glowing success at Birmingham, Newcastle, Norwich and now Brighton which illustrates that a black manager can achieve and consistently get positions. My sadness is that guys like Garth Crooks and Leroy, so articulate, did not work at clubs in other capacities as coaches. Leroy would make a great football director at Fulham with his knowledge of the Championship, his fluency honed by media work and as Fulham legend still warmly remembered.