I just posted a long Twitter thread about this in response to a tweet from Ahsan when that succinct summary would have done the job better! Anyway, here's what I posted (edited to put it into the form of a BM post rather than a Twitter thread but otherwise unchanged):
City's handling of it has been shocking. I'm, let's say, not enamoured of Pep and Bernardo's attitudes but I also understand that if you've grown up in a culture where that's considered normal, that's how you think. I see it all the time in Russia where otherwise sophisticated, intelligent and fundamentally decent people express views about race and sexuality that horrify me. But then, when I was a kid in 1970s Britain, offensive racial stereotypes were everywhere and if they were still regarded as acceptable in our society, then I’d probably see nothing wrong with them, either. It’s a question of education, and neither Pep nor Bernardo has had that, regrettably.
When an issue such as this blows up, it’s incumbent on the club to know that Pep will want to defend his player but if he does so by expressing his sincerely held views, they’re going to play badly with a lot of people in the country where he currently lives and works. Even for those Blues who, unlike me, see this along the lines of ‘PC gone mad’ must surely recognise that this week the club has given the media not just a stick to beat us with but a fucking great tree. And yet it was all so avoidable.
All it would have taken would have been: (i) an early statement emphasising that no offence was intended but apologising for that caused and stating that the club would educate Bernardo in terms of what is/isn’t acceptable in this context; and (ii) either refusing to let Pep answer questions at all, or if he really insists on saying something, let it be utterly anodyne along the lines of, “Bernardo’s a great guy, he definitely didn’t intend any offence but we’re very sorry for any that was caused.”
The club’s silence has engendered an environment in which Pep has been left to dig himself, Bernardo and the club into an ever bigger hole when it was in the club’s power to defuse the problem before the current maelstrom gathered pace. I don’t blame Pep or Bernardo for that – they don’t really understand what they’re dealing with, so they needed the club to help guide them through and they’ve been given absolutely fuck all support.
For a club that likes to regard itself as so professionally run, it’s been amateurish. If you’d told me seven days ago that, this issue having arisen, MCFC would handle it the way we have, I simply wouldn’t have believed it and the situation is now irretrievable. We might lose one of our top players to a ban, while both he and Pep have been subject to vast media criticism (and social media hysteria). They’ll be finding it a very unpleasant experience and the worst-case scenario is that it could have an impact on their desire to remain at the club. That’s not an overreaction: if you live in a country where you’re vilified without really understanding why, then the natural response is to think about going somewhere more in tune with your outlook.
As I say, it was all avoidable. I don’t like to call for people to lose their jobs, because we all make mistakes in our professional lives. But the rank ineptitude of City’s PR in this episode has been so fucking stark that it really suggests that some people working in that area at the club aren’t fit to hold the positions they do. As I type this, I’m angrier at the club than I have been for a long time.
