I don't get your take on Crafton, who's been banging on about all sorts of issues and barely anyone reads or reacts if they do. The backlash has been there all this time, I've read it on here and elsewhere, you mention Greenwood and the reaction is a fierce no for 18 months from a vocal and sizable chunk of the fanbase, feck all to do with Crafton or Riley.
Arnautovic was linked with us but due to the backlash he was dropped. That's not a Crafton creation, it's just how it is with a club like United and other large companies have to bow down as well to public pressure to remove people for opinions or previous acts that come to light innocent or not in the US and UK, I'm sure you seen it. No one cares in Italy about Arnautovic, I doubt anyone would've cared if he signed for a smaller club in England.
Like it or not United is treated differently due to size and exposure. I don't doubt MG will find a club no problem with little to no backlash, I can even see him staying in England or coming back to England soon. There's a lot of room for PR by him and his new club. Probably best to see another country away from the spotlight and who knows may not want to come back.
I’ve already stated my views on Crafton/The Athletic but in the very post you quote I say I’m perfectly fine with this reaction if it be dealt out evenly in other instances. Never in the history of football has a club been manipulated to deal with a player in this way & that is my issue.
Using Reddit/forums then upscaling the extreme takes, both ways, on them to an entire fanbase tells us nothing about how sizeable support is in either direction. Again, if you’ve read my posts as you claim, you’ll have seen me acknowledge that there has been a constant demand to discuss by people on these mediums, I simply don’t think these voices are a representation of either side in any meaningful number. More United fans don’t use internet forums & Reddit than do, if we took Redcafe as the authority on United Marcus Rashford would be playing elsewhere & Saint-Maxim would be our LW.
As for United being treated differently due to size & exposure, that’s the problem. United are the only part of this whole thing that stand to lose anything. MG has the pick of the rest of the football world bar 1 club, the football world who seem not to care half as much as people on here do because they never have done have a run at one of football’s premier talents at a cut price & United get what exactly? To say we did the ‘right’ thing whilst football has never been about doing so before & will not be again in the future. We’re continually told by rival fans & journalists how not special we are, how we’re just another club, so ask yourself what’s changed here.
Comparing Arnautovic to Greenwood is a case of Apples to Oranges.
It’s really interesting actually! Twitter want him hung drawn and quartered, Facebook pretty unanimously want him brought back, Daily Mail comments generally on the side of he should be forgiven!
In this situation the ones screaming the loudest tend to be the do-gooders, holier than though, never made a mistake in their lives types.This type of person likes to appear that way to cover up their own faults and raise their consonance levels!
I suspect that there are a silent majority that believe he should be given another chance/ given the opportunity to become a better person- but daren’t say so due to the pit bulls waiting to jump all over them for expressing a view!
For the bolded part.
Online you find the extremes, fanatics who sit one way or the next on things generally at polar opposites. Those people sign up to forums/reddit & spend countless hours debating away about things they generally have little influence over. Like us lot on here.
You then have the true majority who sit in the middle & rarely if ever have their voices heard. They go to/watch games to be entertained, they don’t take to protests en masse or spend hours online debating things, they use it as an escape.
We’ve become the only football club in history to impose sanctions on itself in a free market, reminds me of something else daft from around 2016.
My guess (and what I'd think is also probable) is she went to sleep at her friend's house after an incident, and her friend took her phone and uploaded the pics and audio while she slept as she "had enough" and decided she had to post it on her behalf.
Mistakes from Greenwood would be getting in fights in a toxic relationship probably, leading to them having a falling out and this stuff being posted.
If I had to guess what really happened here, based on Uniteds statement, Greenwoods statement, the case, pictures, parent reactions, all the talk that happened from the start or even before this all came out for how they were as a couple, etc.... I'd guess it was a very toxic relationship from both, they'd probably hit each other on occasion when having heated arguments, it went too far, they had a fall out, she went to her friends to not be alone, her friend decided enough was enough and posted the proof on her social media. A bit later they get back together... Here's hoping they went to therapy and are moving forward happily and not continuing a toxic relationship.
Ref the bolded part. From what I remember the pictures appeared online, as if she was hacked/someone whistleblew. I keep reading people saying she did this but I always thought it was someone who had access & had had enough.
Makes little difference but she didn’t start this has always been how I’ve seen it, so any negative comments towards her are even more callous.
I have a question, doesn't Crafton himself know less than the club? yet he made gigantic statements?
Why is he milking this story now? The club made the right decision and decided to part ways with the player.
He’s continuing to milk it because it’s a hit job.
This is the problem with bowing to outside pressure when making difficult decisions. It's never enough
I've nothing against Riley but she probably feels empowered now and that she has some level of influence, whether her views had any bearing at all on the outcome so is now using her position again.
One thing she should be called out on though is the idea that not condemning something equates to justification and even encouragement of it. The club should be the ones to call her out on this but I doubt they will.
This has happened a lot on this forum.
Personally I’ve acknowledged MG’s transgressions multiple times but because I don’t think condemning him to the exit was the best solution multiple posters have pretended I have ok’d the actions. Not just happened to me either.