It would, in the words of Manchester United, “be most appropriate” for Greenwood to resume his career away from Old Trafford.
In the eyes of others, it’s not appropriate for Greenwood to resume his career full stop. “Some survivors are telling us they don’t want to see him playing football again, they don’t want to see him cheered by football fans again, and we completely understand that,” Teresa Parker, a spokesperson for the charity Women’s Aid, tells
The Athletic.
For clubs, there are all sorts of moral dilemmas to consider when thinking about signing Greenwood and in the majority of cases there will be little inclination for owners, executives, sporting directors and managers to spend any time having those conversations. When a member of staff at a top European club recently floated the possibility of signing Greenwood on loan, before United released their statement at the start of the week, it was dismissed out of hand.
Richard Arnold, United’s chief executive officer, explained in an open letter to supporters how the case “has provoked strong opinions, and it is my responsibility to minimise any distraction to the unity we are seeking within the club”. Arnold has essentially outlined what every club will experience if they try to sign Greenwood this summer – a public outcry, intense media coverage and, internally, the sort of reaction that risks upsetting supporters, staff and, in some cases, players, too.
Yet the reality is that someone somewhere is sure to sign Greenwood and that in itself fuels a tricky debate about what is – to borrow Manchester United’s word – “appropriate” for a footballer who has been through trial by social media but not convicted of any offence in a court of law. The circumstances of Greenwood’s case are highly unusual in that respect, bearing in mind that the public were able to sit as judge and jury 19 months ago after seeing and hearing the images and audio that were released on social media.
Court was the place for Greenwood to be ‘cleared’ and there are people with lifelong experience of the criminal justice system, as well as a love of football, who think it would have been far better for Greenwood (as well as victims of violence) had he gone through that legal process rather than be in the position he finds himself now.
In fact, the debate is a minefield. Some people, for example, will argue that the audio and images are evidence enough and that Greenwood has no right to enjoy the privileged life of a professional footballer as a result. Others will question the logic of giving a man a second chance in life provided he works as an electrician and doesn’t pull on a pair of football boots again.
“I think 95 per cent of clubs will say, ‘This is a poisoned chalice, I’m not going to go anywhere near him’,” Sean Bai, former director general of
Valencia, tells
The Athletic. “But there might be clubs who say, ‘We are a club that are convinced we can successfully rehabilitate him and he can become an ambassador against the things he has committed’. The most powerful message is always from those who have committed an offence and then they turn around and say, ‘Hey, that is wrong and I’m going to stand up for this cause’. But, of course, I think we all probably agree that the chance of that is quite small.”
Again, the fact Greenwood has not committed a crime makes the subject of rehabilitation, and punishment for that matter, more complicated than it otherwise would be. In short, Greenwood’s story has no closure.
“I think it’s the right thing for him to leave Manchester United, but I do think he should be given the opportunity to play again,” says a therapist who is on the Sporting Chance network and asked to remain anonymous given the nature of his work.
“How much does someone need to be punished before everyone says, ‘OK, get on with your life’. Some people will never allow it. Some people will accept it. I think he should have a chance to have another career, but it has to come from him to know that he’s done something wrong. He needs to process whatever has got him to that stage. My suggestion would be therapy.
Society has changed a lot over the past few decades. In March 1999, Graham Rix was sentenced to 12 months in prison for having sex with an underage girl. Rix was
Chelsea’s youth team coach at the time and was reinstated at the club upon his release six months later, becoming first-team coach under Gianluca Vialli. Even allowing for the fact Rix admitted his offence, regretted his actions and served his time in prison, it seems unthinkable now that a Premier League club would make the same decision as Chelsea did back then and also that there would be so little reaction in the outside world. Indeed, when Rix
gave an interview to the Independent in 2013 and reflected on the fact he had also managed
Portsmouth, Oxford and
Hearts after returning to work for Chelsea, the thrust of that piece was that it was much harder for him to get a job a decade or so later than it had been upon his release. In other words, society was no longer so forgiving and tolerant. Another way of looking at it would be to say that football clubs had started – and ‘started’ is the key word – to move with the times.
Fast forward another 10 years and, for better or worse (and plenty would say worse), the court of social media sits in judgment 24/7. In the case of Greenwood, social media provided a platform for the audio and images to be released that exposed his alleged behaviour, but it was also a place for the Manchester United players who were representing
England at the Women’s World Cup to be abused when it was reported they would be consulted on whether Greenwood should play for the club again.
There is no easy answer to the question of where all of this leaves Greenwood right now. You get the impression that English football would be happy for him to be someone else’s problem. Picking up on the talk of Greenwood potentially moving to Italy – a leading football agent says: “It’s so xenophobic, it’s like, ‘Ah well, the Italians are OK with that?’”
It is hard to believe that anyone is ‘OK with that’, but that doesn’t mean Greenwood should never play football again.
“I think if you come back into a role where you’re going to be idolised by many young fans and hero-worshipped, what does that mean to the club and what does that mean to the industry? So I think it’s not a case that there’s no way he can be rehabilitated, but it’s (more) what is appropriate?” explains Parker.
. I went to watch Stockport play at home against some team with Lee Hughes in it. He was getting fecking dogs abuse from everyone in the ground for the first 20 minutes. I was sitting near to the goal and towards the end of the game this 80+ year old fella slowly struggles to get up. After 10 seconds or so he's up on his feet, the place is dead quiet and he screams at the top of his lungs " Lee Hughes ya fookin knobhead". Sits back down and gets a round of applause.