Pat Nevin joined Nathan Murphy to discuss the sectarian abuse aimed at John McGinn during Aston Villa's 3-0 defeat to Chelsea on Saturday.
Nevin is a former Chelsea and Scotland player who works in media and with the London-based club.
"The fact that those words were actually said, I don't care who it is, who it's aimed at, it doesn't matter. It is utterly and completely unacceptable," Nevin said.
Although he doesn't tweet a lot, Nevin's anger pushed him to express his reaction publicly as soon as he saw the video.
I’ve just received video of vile sectarian comments aimed at the fabulous John McGinn at Stamford Bridge. Heading there now for tomorrow’s game and will talk to the club. You get vile abuse from many fans of many clubs, but this is NO excuse! I hope and expect investigations!
— Pat Nevin (@PatNevin) September 13, 2021
Nevin has no doubt that Chelsea will react appropriately.
"The club will do the right thing. I know what Chelsea are like. They will get right on top if it, they will say all the right things and they will do the right things to try and find out who this human being is."
He has already spoken to a representative from Chelsea who confirmed that the club has spoken to Aston Villa.
"You're always going to have these people. They're going to exist in society. But they're not welcome. They're not welcome at football clubs...I can tell you for sure, that guy is being searched and searched and searched for right now.
If it's possible to find him they will."
While understanding it's impossible to change everyone, Nevin believes we are going in the right direction.
"We just need to keep on top of it all the time. It's a million times better than it used to be, but it's still not good enough so we keep on fighting the good fight. I'm happy with doing that...everything that raises its head, we're on top of it."
Recalling his own experiences as a player, Nevin can relate to McGinn and any other player suffering sectarian abuse. He knew it was wrong when he suffered it but is heartened by the changing approaches to how teams and media handle it.
"I've been talking to a lot of media today and they're all on top if it.
Chelsea didn't contact me because I tweeted. They just contacted me because they knew there was a lot going on with this and they know I'm involved with Scotland. They. Are. Furious. They are steaming with anger purely because they have done so many good things and work so many good areas and then you get the odd lunatics doing this."
The only positive of an incident such as this one is it affords people an opportunity to create a platform to educate the wider public.
"Every time this turns up, talk about it because we can't change it until we keep on talking about it. People like me will keep on coming on and talking about it and we'll do our best for equality and fairness so people will be able to be themselves and walk in a football ground."
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