Of Blackpool chairman Karl Oyston’s recent contentious Twitter correspondence with Seasiders fan Steve Smith, the Daily Mail’s Patrick Collins opines the former’s “departure will not come a moment too soon”.
‘Are you sure we’ve met?’ asks Oyston. ‘I would have remembered such a massive retard.’ He calls him ‘an intellectual cripple’ and tells him to ‘enjoy the rest of your special needs day out’.
He adds: ‘Stop texting f******, you shouldn’t have ever started as you are one tiresome f***** that should spot trains not watch football. Get a life and consider yourself banned from the stadium.’
There is more in similar vein, but you get the drift.
Oyston’s reaction to the publication of the texts was entirely predictable. He made a self-serving apology — ‘I regret stooping to the level of those threatening and abusing my family’ — and he announced he would be making a donation to Blackpool’s Community Trust, which works with organisations supporting disabled people. Money solves everything, you see; fill a few pockets and people forget.
I fancy the Oyston’s know that the game is up, that they have known it since Tuesday evening, when their shirt sponsors Wonga said of Karl’s texts: ‘The comments were unacceptable, something we’ll be making clear to the club.’
A lecture on morality from a legalised loan shark, there can be no more humiliating chastisement.