JJ, presumably you think 'monkey' must be racist because the player is black. Hodgson drew the analogy of the astronaut being useless or superfluous except to feed the monkey in the spacecraft; a reference to an old joke, based on a real monkey and a real astronaut in a real situation. The monkey in the spacecraft was the only really important element in the enterprise, without him or her the whole thing wouldn't be a success and utterly pointless. Hodgson was asked what he thought of the performance of one particular player and he replied that [like the astronaut] he was only there to feed [i.e get passes to] the monkey, the winger Townsend. As Townsend was the star performer twice, that joke had particular resonance, for he was the key to victories twice, the only important one, far more important than his team mate.
Now what is racist in that ? Would it be insulting if Townsend were white, Rooney say, in that situation ? Well, yes, but only to the other player, the one jokingly belittled by the manager, as though he had no other role or importance than that.