As for the "Three Degrees" tag, nobody seems to have had a problem with that?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...ngham-19077873
https://taleoftwohalves.uk/featured/...-three-degrees
https://thesefootballtimes.co/2017/0...ung-black-men/

The fact is, all three players received racist abuse from their own fans. It would have been incredibly easy for Atkinson to drop them, get fans off his and their backs. Instead he persisted playing them based on ability. You seem to want to ignore the importance of that - Atkinson's faith in their abilities told people, "these black players are every bit as good if not better than white players". At that point in football, that was groundbreaking.

Did he pick them because they were good players? Of course he did, would you rather they were picked as "tokens"? Their ability and Atkinson picking them based upon their ability opened the floodgates for many, I've little doubt their play inspired many of the current generation.

None of that would have happened - or more accurately, progress would have been massively delayed - without Atkinson having faith in them.