Modern slavery

Not long ago, FIFA president Sepp Blatter described Manchester United's grip over Cristiano "Crybaby" Ronaldo as "modern slavery": he wants to go play for Real Madrid but United won't release him from his contract. It's a bit of a stretch – a contract is a contract – but it's a justifiable metaphor. It has occured to me in the past that the buying and selling of players by clubs and managers is a little analogous to slavery, although of course the players are well paid. (And what about the player auction that took place before the recent Indian Premier League cricket competition!)

Anyway, one or two black former football players got very cranky, very publicly, at Blatter's turn of phrase, saying how very dare he trivialise the pain felt by descendants of real slaves by using the term to describe these highly-paid celebrities. I guess he was asleep during the dozens of English lessons where they learned about metaphors. Or should I now be on the lookout for people daring to use phrases like "wage slave" or "a slave to process", and adjectives like "slavishly"? Idiot.