Racism is less of a problem, but black players still face obstacles, writes Paul McGrath

I saw Jason McAteer quoted the other day saying Brian Kerr had an easy task when he came into the Irish job. He just had to "tweak" what Mick had done.

Jason was either having a little joke or he was being very unfair.

I love the football Ireland are playing. I like the players who have come up from Brian's youth teams and I like the decisions he has made. A quiet one right at the start showed what a smart man Brian is. He brought in Chris Hughton.

Chris is one of the finest professionals I have met. A fine football man to have on board anywhere. As a player I remember he always analysed each game. Of the people who were in the squad with me he was the one you would have picked out to go far. He's doing a great job and knowing Chris, he'll be learning.

I'm surprised he hasn't become a manager yet. You see how many managers Spurs have had and how Chris has been there all the way through, and you know that in football everyone knows his abilities. I don't know Chris's situation but it surprises me generally that there aren't more black managers in the game.

Something isn't right, somebody is saying that's high enough for you black lads to go. There are so many black players who would make great managers but they get stopped at a certain level. There's a glass ceiling for guys of our colour.

I was thinking of Chris recently during the fuss over the English team experiencing racism in Spain and the business of Luis Aragones giving Jose Antonio Reyes a mouthful about Thierry Henry. There's a difference between people saying racist things and people acting in a racist way. There'll always be racists on the terrace and on the pitch. There doesn't have to be racism in the way football is run, though.

The Premiership has put such a volume of black players through the system, seen them put themselves on the line week in and week out. It would be nice if they put the words into practice and we saw a black Premiership manager. Guys like Cyril Regis and Chris need to get the opportunities that others get.

Would even Ruud Gullit have been given a chance if he had been raised in the English game instead of arriving as a superstar? It would take a brave chairman, a brave club and a brave black man to make the break. You don't want the pressure of representing every other black manager and knowing - and this is unfair too - people will judge the potential of every other black manager on how you do.

Things change slowly. When I went to Manchester first as a young lad I left behind a city where I had been bashed or abused every day of my life for being the colour I am. Monkey this. Nigger that. I was actually shocked to see so many black faces in Manchester.

I had Ron Atkinson as a manager when I went over first and later at Villa. It's easy to kick Ron but there's a difference between what people say and what they do. There were certain things all right. I didn't have a chip on my shoulder, I might have smacked him if I had. Ron was old school. He said racist things but I don't think he was a racist at all. He had little quirks, things from his upbringing. He never called anyone a nigger until, well until he got caught.

He used to make colour a fun thing. Right, seven-a-side, he'd say occasionally, you coons versus us lot. To be honest I loved it. At Villa we had a good side. Big Cyril, Dalian Atkinson, myself, Dwight Yorke. When the seven-a-side got down to colour we'd wipe the floor with them.

Looking back, it wasn't acceptable but it was done lightly and in a nice way. You knew instinctively he wasn't trying to put you down because you were black. He made training fun.

He shouldn't have said what he did about Marcel Desailly, but only he could have got away with that stuff in training. I loved the man, he was great with me.

People have this opinion that he's a total racist. If he called you a coon the odd time, he never said it in a way that he was talking down to you. There are people in football who would call you a nigger on the field. And there are people who would never use that word but who would be deeply racist. They talk down to you and block off avenues of progress for black players.

It still happens on football pitches, but not as much. What position is the black player in? A forward comes flying at you on the edge of the area and you hear him shouting you're a nigger. So? If you flatten him you're on a red card straight away. You say he called you names. He denies it. You get accused of playing the race card. What manager wouldn't think it's less trouble to have you on the bench?

A couple of times I've had black players calling me a nigger. Howard Gayle who played for Liverpool. I was newly off the plane. We were playing a reserve game. Not sure if it was meant to be a laugh or what.

And Ian Wright! Being on a pitch with Ian was like one of his Saturday TV shows. You had to be mentally very sharp. He would try everything and anything to put you off.

It's changed but it would be great if it changed that bit further up the ladder. I think it's hypocritical of people to be barking at other countries when English football still has such a long way to go. A black chairman, black faces in blazers.

Irish crowds were always good to us as black players. Chris paved the way in that regard. He had to stand up and be counted and he did it with such style and dignity. He was a cracking footballer and a pioneer.

I'm sure away from home he got stick wearing a green jersey. In the early days I'm sure he got a hell of a lot. I had some of it. It's a spur to most black players. It always made us want to to do even better. You don't feel any pain when you're putting in a tackle having heard that from the stand. Great satisfaction in shutting them up.

Leeds was one of the worst. I played in Peter Lorimer's testimonial and couldn't understand it. All evening getting called every racist name under the sun while there were black players on Peter's team. It made me wonder how the lads could play in those conditions. Peter was a lovely man, I admired him and it wasn't his fault. I jumped at the chance to do him a favour.

A few times at Chelsea it was bad too, which saddened me, being a supporter.

It's all slow to move on. I've sat in grounds in the recent past where I've seen people who looked half well-to-do calling out certain things. There'll be kids sitting all around them too.

In my early days in Dublin playing for Dalkey I got called a nigger. I struck out and just walked off the pitch knowing that I'd be asked to walk off a second later. I learned. People learn too. The way Irish people react to me on a daily basis makes me proud and happy. Football has played a part in changing those attitudes.

Chris Hughton was the first of us and the best of us and appreciating his talent was an early sign of how smart a manager Brian Kerr is.

I played against Israel in my second international game many moons ago. We've come a long, long way since then. The game has to follow.