Kenny Dalglish failed to condemn the behaviour of one of his players today, namely Luis Suarez who having received an eight-match ban for racially abusing Patrice Evra refused to shake the hands of the aggrieved players hand during Liverpool’s clash with Manchester United.

Instead, he launched an attack on the media and other things.

That a man like the great Kenny can not see that something is wrong here, is perhaps a sign of the times, for when Kenny himself was player racism was just part of the game and as video footage of Stuart Pearce racially abusing Paul Ince showed just one of those things.

24-hour media has nothing to do with this, nor has any repetition, it is attitudes and, though I hate to say this, a man who can inspire a team like Liverpool has fallen short.

He only had to look at Rio Ferdinand’s reaction to Suarez’s behaviour and to listen Sir Alex Ferguson’s post match reaction to know this country is at a watershed when it comes to dealing with racism and football.