Good piece and great writing as always! I'm consistently impressed with how well you convey thoughts whilst still communicating in a way that's easy to read and understand. Bravo
Can we talk about the appointment of Jonathan Woodgate? He was convicted in a racist attack as a player at Leeds. I know football sanitises reputations but really?
The thing is that it's not as clear as that. I'm normally the first to voice doubts about players/coaches who have racist and sexual abuse incidents in their past. I did not want Ronaldo at the club. I never wanted Greenwood back. I did not want United to touch Marko Arnautovic.
BUT ... his conviction was the affray part. Not the GBH. And so that makes it murky. We don't really know what happened and I think I'm right in saying the victim didn't point to Woodgate as the one saying something racist.
Still not a great look is it that he was involved.
From what I’ve read (and remember) he was convicted for affray in a racist attack (and the victim, sarfraz najeeb, doesn’t know which of the gang who kicked him unconscious was calling him the p word). His sentence was pretty lenient (he got less than Eric did for kicking out racism).
Lee Bowyer got sued subsequently and paid to settle (£170k reportedly) and seems to have been the nastier piece of work (with prior) but it seemed Woodgate also had some prior history of violence (if not racism directly).
I don’t remember him being that contrite and he never did or said anything publicly which I think redeemed him (aside from talking about racism from fans being unacceptable when he became a manager - again without any reference to his own or his mates behaviour).
I haven’t had a chance to listen to your most recent pod (I’m still catching up with the hours of content you have produced over the last week!), by the way great work it’s appreciated and this wasn’t a dig at you (or team) as you’ve always been fair in calling out the wrong ‘uns.
I’m just a bit saddened that Carrick has brought into our club someone who wasn’t needed with a back story he has never apologised for. I don’t even think he’ll add a great deal and just shows a huge blind spot.
I just lost my reply to your post so apologies if this comes through twice.
Reading back the coverage, it seems the CPS decided to not prosecute the racist part of it, presumably for lack of evidence bar the victim's statement (not saying he lied at all) ... and just prosecute for the violence. Which doesn't leave us any clearer at all. It's not comfortable and very ambiguous. Afterwards Woodgate was put up by Leeds as their Kick It Out rep, which is a very cynical thing to do indeed.
The officer investigating was convinced that that was enough to make this a racially aggravated offence but as you say the CPS didn’t charge him with it. We have to remember this was only 2-3 years after a racially aggravated offence had been legislated so some wariness back then but I’m sure this would get prosecuted today.
In any case I don’t see any public contrition so would want him away from our club. Not that Ratcliffe and co care I suppose..
Good piece and great writing as always! I'm consistently impressed with how well you convey thoughts whilst still communicating in a way that's easy to read and understand. Bravo
Can we talk about the appointment of Jonathan Woodgate? He was convicted in a racist attack as a player at Leeds. I know football sanitises reputations but really?
We have just recorded an episode adding that in.
The thing is that it's not as clear as that. I'm normally the first to voice doubts about players/coaches who have racist and sexual abuse incidents in their past. I did not want Ronaldo at the club. I never wanted Greenwood back. I did not want United to touch Marko Arnautovic.
BUT ... his conviction was the affray part. Not the GBH. And so that makes it murky. We don't really know what happened and I think I'm right in saying the victim didn't point to Woodgate as the one saying something racist.
Still not a great look is it that he was involved.
From what I’ve read (and remember) he was convicted for affray in a racist attack (and the victim, sarfraz najeeb, doesn’t know which of the gang who kicked him unconscious was calling him the p word). His sentence was pretty lenient (he got less than Eric did for kicking out racism).
Lee Bowyer got sued subsequently and paid to settle (£170k reportedly) and seems to have been the nastier piece of work (with prior) but it seemed Woodgate also had some prior history of violence (if not racism directly).
I don’t remember him being that contrite and he never did or said anything publicly which I think redeemed him (aside from talking about racism from fans being unacceptable when he became a manager - again without any reference to his own or his mates behaviour).
I haven’t had a chance to listen to your most recent pod (I’m still catching up with the hours of content you have produced over the last week!), by the way great work it’s appreciated and this wasn’t a dig at you (or team) as you’ve always been fair in calling out the wrong ‘uns.
I’m just a bit saddened that Carrick has brought into our club someone who wasn’t needed with a back story he has never apologised for. I don’t even think he’ll add a great deal and just shows a huge blind spot.
I just lost my reply to your post so apologies if this comes through twice.
Reading back the coverage, it seems the CPS decided to not prosecute the racist part of it, presumably for lack of evidence bar the victim's statement (not saying he lied at all) ... and just prosecute for the violence. Which doesn't leave us any clearer at all. It's not comfortable and very ambiguous. Afterwards Woodgate was put up by Leeds as their Kick It Out rep, which is a very cynical thing to do indeed.
The officer investigating was convinced that that was enough to make this a racially aggravated offence but as you say the CPS didn’t charge him with it. We have to remember this was only 2-3 years after a racially aggravated offence had been legislated so some wariness back then but I’m sure this would get prosecuted today.
In any case I don’t see any public contrition so would want him away from our club. Not that Ratcliffe and co care I suppose..