Why Rafa Benitez needs to lay off Wolves fans and end the Jonjo Shelvey saga

The simple facts – as Newcastle United manager Rafa Benitez revels in dealing – are that Jonjo Shelvey was found guilty by the FA of racially abusing Wolves' Moroccan midfielder Romain Saiss,

He was judged to have called Saiss an 'Arab ****", or words to that effect, with three Wolves players giving evidence that the FA found to be given, unlike that of Newcastle's players, with 'conviction and openness'.

Newcastle appealed the original guilty verdict – but not the five-game ban and £100,000 fine handed to Shelvey.

The 24-year-old England international (who is said to earn £80,000 a week) faced Wolves for the first time since the incident on Saturday. Shelvey, inevitably, was booed every time he touched the ball. He endured the usual chants and catcalls that you'd expect from a baying football crowd.

They chanted that he was racist, and a w****r.

Then Benitez, when asked if Shelvey expected the abuse, replied 'yes' and for some unknown reason added: "One thing the FA has to maybe consider is what the fans were saying."

When asked if the FA should look at it, Benitez replied: "Maybe, to control what the fans say and have more respect."

Sorry Rafa, say that again? Investigate the fans? For what, exactly?

Before that response the issue was a dead one. Shelvey had got through the game, played pretty well and restrained his emotions to directing a kiss towards the Wolves fans at full time. Fair enough, it's over, nothing to see here.

But in calling for the Wolves supporters to be investigated for a couple of terrace chants, the kind that you hear week in, week out at football matches (and indeed far worse than that, let's be honest), Benitez irresponsibly and unnecessary fanned the flames of a sensitive subject.

Would this happen in another walk of life? If a crowd chanted to President Trump that he was a bit of a questionable character, would his response be: "These guys are just losers. Awful, awful people. There's going to be a really big investigation into this, I'm not even kidding. SAD."

Actually he probably would . . . bad example.

But you get the point. To even raise the notion that football's governing body should investigate a couple of chants that weren't of a racist, homophobic or sexist nature is laughable.

Having attended football matches for almost 30 years I can tell you I've heard far more despicable things shouted and sung at players and opposition fans.

That's not to say that what the Wolves fans screamed and sang at Shelvey was right, far from it.

But what was Benitez expecting? Ask Danny Mills, Michael McIndoe or Lee Hughes how they felt about stick they got from Wolves fans. They'll tell you Shelvey, a man proven by football's governing body to have been racist towards a Wolves player, got off pretty lightly.

It's mud-slinging for mud-slinging's sake and Benitez – who has managed Real Madrid, Liverpool and Inter Milan in a distinguished 22-year managerial career – should know better.

The club accepted the five-game punishment and everyone moved on.

Dignity and decorum was called for. The kind you'd expect from someone who's managed at the very top of world football and will have been given far worse abuse himself over the years. Defending your player in public is one thing – to deflect attention elsewhere and show a complete lack of humility is crass.

Not content with saying it once, Benitez reiterated his bizarre comments during his Monday morning press conference.

"The FA investigate other things, maybe they can for this," he said.

It's not just the Newcastle manager who has shown insensitivity and a lack of respect, though.

The club's captain Jamaal Lascelles labelled it 'terrible' that Shelvey was banned in the first place.

He told Shelvey before Saturday's game that he should 'embarrass' Wolves.

"It was terrible what happened to him," Lascelles said of Shelvey's ban. "It should never have happened. Jonjo is not that type of person.

"A few of us told him to keep his head because they (Wolves' players) might try and do it again.

"I just said 'play your football and you can embarrass them by being the best player on the pitch' and that is exactly what he did."

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Lascelles' comments, and those of Benitez, show a breathtaking and classless arrogance and ignorance over the whole saga.

For a club run by Sports Direct billionaire Mike Ashley, a guy who carries wads of £50 notes in his pockets while he visits his employees who are being paid less than the minimum wage, we should perhaps expect nothing less.

As for Wolves – whose manager Paul Lambert took a sage, sensible approach by calmly dismissing Benitez's comments and avoiding more mud-slinging – they are doing a good job of keeping a quiet nobility in a multicultural city where stances like this matter.