Wokesters suggest England boss Southgate neglected ‘duty of care’ to black players in bizarre posts after Euro 2020 penalty misses

Wokesters on the internet have accused England national team manager Gareth Southgate of supposedly shunning a 'duty of care' he had towards a trio of black players when picking his penalty takers in the Euro 2020 final.

Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka all missed their spot kicks in Sunday's shootout to hand Italy their second Euros crown at Wembley.

As Italy celebrated their 3-2 win from 12 yards out, the mixed race and black trio were racially abused in shocking developments condemned by the FA and the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Members of the public have also had their say on the matter on social media, and while many were quite level-headed in their criticism, others seem to be barking up the wrong tree altogether.

As part of a string of tweets criticizing the manager, a page called the Black Girls Book Club is all Grown Up said: "To be honest Gareth Southgate had a duty of care to strategize properly knowing how this loss could impact his black players."

Yet whereas the majority thought that Southgate should have protected the trio better due to their young ages ranging from 19 to 23, hardly anyone brought race into it. 

"Very good point," said another person, who mentioned a thread elsewhere where it was suggested the move "was deliberate in the event that if the outcome was a loss the blame would be with them".

"There's no hope for you," she was bluntly told, while someone else remarked: "Give me strength".

Sancho and Rashford both missed their penalties. © Reuters

A separate post meanwhile defended Southgate on racial grounds, writing: "Bless Southgate, we know what he tried to do. He wanted the nation to see the impact of black players and make it undeniable. Stakes were really high but we see it.

"[I] genuinely believe he wanted them to be heroes… he of all people would not want to lose on penalties."

"I don’t think Southgate meant to throw the black players under the bus," another party said along similar lines. 

"Not that I’m a football expert but [it's] just how he’s treated them up until this point. I think he just really believed in them and thought, if they did score, it would’ve been really great for the country to see it."

Perhaps more to the point, it was asked: "How are people saying Southgate set up the black players? Do you have a brain or what?"