Pat Nevin stood up to the National Front when he was a Chelsea player, got threatened for it and met some of his haters face to face behind his club’s back.
But try calling him brave and he bristles. “I wasn’t brave. I hate being called that,” is his response. “The brave people were the black lads who had to stand up to that. They were in danger. Not me, I was a Chelsea player and I was white.” Nevin is nearly 60 and age hasn’t mellowed him when it comes to raging against injustice.
It was one of the aspects of his personality that made him stand out from the crowd as a football player – he was affectionately called Weirdo by his team-mates at Stamford Bridge – and for a 19-year-old having moved down to London from Glasgow to call out a large section of his club’s own support within months was certainly different. It was the early 80s and Chelsea had just signed their first black player, winger Paul Canoville, with whom Nevin struck up a friendship through their shared love of music. And when racist abuse rained down on Canoville in a match against Crystal Palace, the young Scot wasn’t having it.
