Mason Greenwood | Officially a Marseille player

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It’s not even mental gymnastics it’s quite simple. There is a privilege that goes with status it’s not new and it not hard to comprehend. Women have always had this ‘pretty privilege’ and people of status tend to get away with things the normal man wouldn’t. Ever read about Henry VIII.

I understand we are in an era where we are all trying to make the world right and all but I was just pointing out the inconsistency that remain and will always remain to an extent.

Flair play the right thing was done based on what we perceived to be true. But I’m pretty sure not too far in the future something similar will happen to someone who you don’t care about or that impacts you directly I.e. the football club you support and you won’t have the same energy or seek to ask the same question about equality.

But hey as I said at the start it’s just life and I for one won’t judge.
Fair post and it took me a while to get your point, but that's on me.
 
Rachel Riley still not happy after threatening to ‘abandon’ Utd if she didn’t get the outcome she wanted…

BBC - Rachel Riley now accuses Man Utd of gaslighting

Although the club could clearly have handled this entire episode better, Im struggling to understand what exactly the likes of Rachel Riley want at this point - they are already letting Greenwood go, despite internal investigation showing he's not commited any crime.

If that's not enough, then what is?!
 
Riley had the platform and GUTS to speak out as a UNITED FAN like many of us who had the same feelings , unlike the other pundits like Neville that has come out with ''the right decision'' AFTER the statement he was leaving.... the type of people who are getting mad at her on here rather than the people behind this mess justity we have the worst social media fanbase in the world.
 
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Rachel Riley said she was a "United fan, since before she was born". I thought she was a mathematician? They deal in numbers, statistics and logic.
 
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.
 
Perhaps it was an issue with not clarifying/qualifying the term' proof' - the key point is that there'll never be sufficient evidence (as in, formally, abstractly 'never enough', rather than some particular threshold) to change the minds of people who've decided that he's guilty. Hence the extreme example.

So, it would be equivalent to someone being found with drugs in a side pocket of their rucksack at the airport, claiming that they had no knowledge of drugs being placed in their bag, and then a cctv file emerging that showed the drugs being planted... then some second person, confronted with the video, still claiming that the first person was guilty of smuggling, with this claim being justified by (a) the exonerating CCTV was someone faked or (b) it was a 'set-up with an accomplice to create an alibi' without having other evidence to support either claim. Both of those statements might refer to something actually true but are pure conjecture in terms of the basis for arriving at that claim regardless, and that person wouldn't be justified in claiming 'I know they created an alibi'. The denial moves from reasonable interpretation of evidence to exposing something biased or pathological about the second person insisting upon it in the face of new evidence.

We don't have evidence of 'evidence' being manufactured in quite the same explicit way, but we do have doubt, not only over whether MG was guilty of the accused offences but also whether he was guilty of verbal abuse; I think he probably did engage in verbally abusive , misogynistic behaviour, taking all the public evidence into account, but I don't have enough evidence to determine if this is true and the severity of this, beyond a recording whose creation has been exposed to a kind of radical doubt. Everyone should be agnostic on this issue, to the extent that they're thinking about it at all.

Other posters have also pointed out throughout this discussion following the withdrawal of charges and release of new information regarding the evidence, that those continuing to make judgements were justifying these on the basis of 'facts' which were themselves based upon an evidence that had been deemed to be unreliable. There are still questions about whether this non- reliability is just 'additional context' (regarding the audio file; the claim from the former accuser was that the photos were mocked, 'Amber Heard style'. as other people have described it), related to a 'game', or were tampered with digitally. This is also in the face of verbal statements that physical abuse didn't take place, of support from the family regarding these claims, of the accuser being willingly involved once again with MG in a long-term relationship (including raising a family) and the framing of the public statements regarding the withdrawal by CPS of the case - not only did the witness withdraw but the evidence itself was brought into question to an extent that a prosecution would not succeed. This is the same evidence that large numbers of people here assert is incontestable.

People making statements that they 'know' what happened isn't just dumb, but actively offensive. It's basically bare-faced public lying, it cheapens public conversation/discourse, and its disheartening.

If you witness abuse, never remain silent. After reviewing the pictures with bruises, video of her bleeding, and audio evidence she presented, I am convinced that he is indeed abusive. The extent of the abuse might be unclear, but I wholeheartedly believe her initial account and response. Having grown up in an abusive household characterized by violence and turmoil, I can personally relate to this situation. My mother defended her abuser to both our family and the authorities. She even reported him to the police at one point, only to later recant her statement. You think he was prosecuted when she did that? It's worth noting that my mother continued to have children with him during the abuse, she eventually gathered enough courage to leave but that was years later.

It is more plausible that the girl recanted her story and chose to defend him, a pattern frequently observed among abused women. This seems more probable than the assumption that every single picture, video, and audio has been fabricated and deliberately misrepresented. Because of this the authorities are unable to proceed with prosecution since the sole witness has now recanted, asserting that no wrongdoing took place and the club can confidently assert his innocence based on this development.
 
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The parents of the "alleged victim " did not dispute the findings of the internal inquiry and they have allowed their daughter to stay with Mason. Surely they know more about what story that any of us. That probably shows there is more to the story than what us the public know.

The media and social media have played a significant role in fuelling outrage in.this case. When Mandy was accused of rape non of this happened. Ronaldo admitted in court to some troubling allegations but people sing his name today
You do realize their daughter is an adult and her parents have no power to "allow" her to do or not do anything
 
The clubs best course of action would be to respond to any questions on this with "the matter is closed and we are now focussing on the football"

Take control and draw a line under it.
 
Yeah, the role play stuff doesn’t wash at all. The only mitigation I could imagine in terms of the “new material” referred to by the CPS would be if the recording goes on a bit longer and she tells him to go feck himself a bit more firmly and he backs down. +/- some sort of apology. If this comes out to support him then he’d have to rule out any possibility that the audio was faked/manipulated or that the whole thing was actually role play. And that would copper fasten the damage to his reputation. So the ongoing uncertainty about this additional evidence suits him. Even if it means the end of his United career.

That's a pretty interesting theory actually, it would fit in with the statement the club made as well.
 
Rachel Riley still not happy after threatening to ‘abandon’ Utd if she didn’t get the outcome she wanted…

BBC - Rachel Riley now accuses Man Utd of gaslighting
There was never any winning for the club. That's the exact problem with bowing to the outcry. Nothing the club does will ever be enough for a certain crowd who are an extremely vocal minority. What should have happened was they should have taken the best course of action for the football team- be that him staying or leaving. They clearly haven't done that however, because they by all accounts were planning on reintegrating him into the squad.
 
Although the club could clearly have handled this entire episode better, Im struggling to understand what exactly the likes of Rachel Riley want at this point - they are already letting Greenwood go, despite internal investigation showing he's not commited any crime.

If that's not enough, then what is?!

To enhance her profile present herself as a leading light on women's right. In other words self indulgence.
 
She does not need to. But she she is talking crap. She is self indulgent and using this case for her own ends. She is not a legal expert and should not be using her so called celebrity to hold the club to ransom.

If she feels that strongly, why she does not do some representation for women's refuge or other abuse charities?
Carl Anka stole a march on that media play.
It’s not even mental gymnastics it’s quite simple. There is a privilege that goes with status it’s not new and it not hard to comprehend. Women have always had this ‘pretty privilege’ and people of status tend to get away with things the normal man wouldn’t. Ever read about Henry VIII.

I understand we are in an era where we are all trying to make the world right and all but I was just pointing out the inconsistency that remain and will always remain to an extent.

Flair play the right thing was done based on what we perceived to be true. But I’m pretty sure not too far in the future something similar will happen to someone who you don’t care about or that impacts you directly I.e. the football club you support and you won’t have the same energy or seek to ask the same question about equality.

But hey as I said at the start it’s just life and I for one won’t judge.
Good post.

Bolded part is pretty much what I’ve been pointing at since the story broke. Being a Manchester United supporter shouldn’t make this story more of an issue for people but countless posters have admitted as much.

The question is. If people don’t want MG to play for United because of what he did [which is a fair position to have], why are they okay with him playing at all? We’re all a part of the football community, no?
The media is bow creating false transfer stories yo random clubs then a few hours later they contact the clubs to confirm their made up stories. The clubs officially deny the transfer rumours thereby creating a vicious cycle of negative news about Mason to.gove impression that no one wants to sign him.

When.he is eventually signed they will hound that club and create lots of negative stories about it. A Greenwood watch cannot be ruled out
The media will lose steam once the next story comes out & he’ll be allowed to move on with little fanfare. The big story has broke, they’ll be looking for the next one now.
 
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Riley had the platform and GUTS to speak out as a UNITED FAN like many of us who had the same feelings , unlike the other pundits like Neville that has come out with ''the right decision'' AFTER the statement he was leaving.... the type of people who are getting mad at her on here rather than the people behind this mess justity we have the worst social media fanbase in the world.

Dude she's the personification of the selective outrage going around. I'm happy she's using her platform and guts to speak out. She could've also used her platform to speak out against Ronaldo. At the very least she could've refrained from doing his goal celebrations and tweeting that not wetting herself when she found herself in a bar with him is probably her greatest achievement.
 
This whole debacle is down to the front office not understanding the UK. In American football they would unilaterally make a decision and say he is innocent trust us and he is back in the side and American football fans in the States will for the most part go “alright that’s a few extra wins”. However, they fail to realize supporters want and have more of a voice in the UK and they once again failed to listen to that voice until after word leaked he was coming back. Just my thought from the States.

Then they panicked changed course but assured us he is innocent to try and save some value in the transfer market.

In these situations the clubs need to take a strong stance, either he is innocent here is why, and he has our backing, or say we have no faith in the player and he is gone, then reach a deal to terminate his contract. The front office chose the middle which just opens them to criticism from all sides.
 
Although the club could clearly have handled this entire episode better, Im struggling to understand what exactly the likes of Rachel Riley want at this point - they are already letting Greenwood go, despite internal investigation showing he's not commited any crime.

If that's not enough, then what is?!

The club should fire Arnold, just for the silly "open letter". What does the following mean?

"While we were unable to access certain evidence for reasons we respect, the evidence we did collate led us to conclude that Mason did not commit the acts he was charged with".

Greenwood said terrible things, they are on tape, we have heard them... what does it mean "he did not commit the acts"? Arnold should have terminated Greenwood's contract (paid him in full and released him) just for the things Greenwood said in that tape. Arnold should have done this long time ago. If he has evidence that it wasn't Greenwood who said those things, if it was a case of "deep fake" or something else, then he should tell us about it.

As it is, I simply do not believe Arnold. In my opinion, he is just a spineless accountant who is still trying to make money, he is trying to exonerate Greenwood in order to sell him for a few million. The club should just pay Greenwood the rest of his contract and release him. It is that simple. There is no other solution. We cannot make money off Greenwood, we lost, it's over. Trying to spin this and trying to make money in this situation, just makes us bigger losers.
 
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The club should fire Arnold, just for the silly "open letter". What does the following mean?

"While we were unable to access certain evidence for reasons we respect, the evidence we did collate led us to conclude that Mason did not commit the acts he was charged with".

Greenwood said terrible things, they are on tape, we have heard them... what does it mean "he did not commit the acts"?

Has anyone asked Arnold if the girlfriend gave herself a bloody lip?
 
There was never any winning for the club. That's the exact problem with bowing to the outcry. Nothing the club does will ever be enough for a certain crowd who are an extremely vocal minority. What should have happened was they should have taken the best course of action for the football team- be that him staying or leaving. They clearly haven't done that however, because they by all accounts were planning on reintegrating him into the squad.
Sums it up perfectly.
Dude she's the personification of the selective outrage going around. I'm happy she's using her platform and guts to speak out. She could've also used her platform to speak out against Ronaldo. At the very least she could've refrained from doing his goal celebrations and tweeting that not wetting herself when she found herself in a bar with him is probably her greatest achievement.
That’s the issue when people idolise false prophets.
 
Laughable people trying to deconstruct the form of Arnold's letter or deriving moral precepts from 'what definitely happened' without it ever passing their minds that the evidence they're basing these arguments on has been discredited by...everyone who knows more than them. I.e. not some other poster, not me, not some journalist even but...the CPS; the club that spent months trying to work out exactly what might have happened in order that they couldn't be deemed negligent or held culpable if new evidence suddenly emerged or another incident happened after they'd decided to retain MG's registration and make him available for selection etc; the accusers family.

I'm quite open to the possibility new facts may emerge at some point to indicate he was guilty of some or all of the charge, but that doesn't make the foundations of anyone's claims here based on the actual 'facts' as they stand. It's not a virtuous position to be casually myopic - no-one here can claim to have a proper lens by which to view that previous evidence and come to any judgement... and all this recourse to 'common sense' and 'claims are bullshit' and 'people are just defending him, they've got no backbone' is just an exercise in revelling in dumbness and reaction by people who, in some cases at least, should probably know better.
 
Will definitely play for England again.

Definitely? He wasn't getting into the team before he beat his girlfriend who says he's going to come back at the same level after all this time off?
 
I could definitely see role-play as a possible explanation when it happened, albeit an unlikely one

but if they had a seemingly innocent explanation how did it even get this far? Why wouldn't one of them come out and explain it now that the criminal investigation is over? It makes no sense for it to the role-play at this point
 
Edit on defamatory comments
Fuxking hell, people making out SAF wouldn’t have accepted it :lol:
He’d have used it as the biggest “us against them” imaginable, no chance in the World he’d have allowed the press and pressure to lose him a top player and goalscorer, he’d have got 99% of fans onside with a everyone versus us mentality.

No chance in the world 99% of fans would stand behind a [person charged with sexual offences] and [alleged] woman beater no matter who Alex Ferguson is or was, what are you smoking?

Scouse level of delusion here, reminds me of the Suarez and Evra incident but a lot more tragic and embarrassing for the people backing a bloke because he's good at football.

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I could definitely see role-play as a possible explanation when it happened, albeit an unlikely one

but if they had a seemingly innocent explanation how did it even get this far? Why wouldn't one of them come out and explain it now that the criminal investigation is over? It makes no sense for it to the role-play at this point
Exactly. The accuser would have come out very, very early on, or at the very least gone to the press. The fact she hasn't speaks volumes.
 
That statement really is confusing. He didn’t commit the crimes he was accused of, we’ve found him innocent of that…but we’re sacking him anyway? Surely if he didn’t do any of it then you keep him? You sack him if he did commit the crimes? This clubs ability to lurch from one disaster to another really is unparalleled.
 
And potentially throw the mother of his child and future wife under the bus?

He most certainly should not do that.

That's fair enough, but they must then also accept he's going to remain guilty of those original charges in the eyes of the public and so he'll find it difficult getting work in this country and probably many others.

I guess we'll have to see what clubs are willing to take the criticism of taking him on, and whether that country is a good place for them to live.

At this stage it's conceivable that he doesn't get a new club, as time passes it'll get harder and harder. If he's guilty then he's got off lightly, if he's innocent (not just not guilty) and if it's important to his family for him to have a football career, then they've got to think about presenting something convincing to the public jury.
 
Exactly. The accuser would have come out very, very early on, or at the very least gone to the press. The fact she hasn't speaks volumes.
She was trying to get them to drop the charges in April of 2022, and it still went on for 9 more months. If the longer recording offered some kind of context in which Mason's words to her were acceptable, if they had a believable alternate explanation or even evidence of his innocence, then surely they would have handed that over then, and the charges would be dropped in short order.

Arnold mentions the longer recording in his open letter, but doesn't give it as a reason. "They offered an alternative explanation for the words spoken, and also the full recording was longer". Okay and what did the longer recording tell him? I'm guessing absolutely nothing, because otherwise he would have stated it plainly. No, the longer recording was mentioned because he knew a lot of people would assume that it must offer some mitigating, or even exonerating, context.
 
I get the criticism, but United made the right call in the end. Process was not ideal but it's not like Greenwood was playing in the interim. We don't have the facts and the case seems odd and definitely not black or white.

Neville, Riley and all the rest don't have all the facts. Did they want the club to publicly condemn Greenwood? Are they not playing judge, jury and executioner with their statements? Their criticism doesn't help at all.

It's so infuriating how any bit of news related to us is like open-season to criticise the club and ownership.

What is the track record for rape, assault and treatment of women in the countries that own City and Newcastle? Will Neville and Riley distance themselves from the club if we're bought by Qatar? Why isn't that highlighted more? Oh no, carry on, don't talk about that.

I know it's unrelated, but still.
 
That statement really is confusing. He didn’t commit the crimes he was accused of, we’ve found him innocent of that…but we’re sacking him anyway? Surely if he didn’t do any of it then you keep him? You sack him if he did commit the crimes? This clubs ability to lurch from one disaster to another really is unparalleled.

I think it’s clear that the club wanted to bring Greenwood back but bowed to the outside pressure. My instinct is to rip the club for that, but the people making the decision always had to decide what is in the best interest of the club. That’s the bottom line decision here. And deciding that the backlash from reinstating Greenwood would be too damaging to the club is understandable. I will save my ire for those who have shrieked that the only right and moral choice was to kick Greenwood out of the club. What they’re saying is that Mason Greenwood is irredeemable. As if they have all the information to make that decision. They've succeeded in branding him as an abuser for life and probably effectively ending his career.

There’s been talk on The Athletic about the club owing a duty of care to the supporters as well as Greenwood. Please. United deciding that Greenwood cannot be a United player will deeply impact and maybe end his ability to play football at the highest level. This is a young man with a new child, who has been at the club since he was a small child himself. No degree of upset felt by any fan of the club means a damn thing in comparison.
 
Why are Crafton stories taken as Gospel? The club released a statement explaining the process they undertook considering all options and it makes sense. Why is Crafton more believable than the club?
 
The difference for Arsenal is the evidence is out of sight, out of mind, and people are more agnostic and accepting as a result.

I believe you're the 4th difference person I ask this, could you please dm me the evidence against our player? People keep repeating this but I'm yet to see it. And I'm asking genuinely, I want to make my mind about him but can't find this evidence online.
 
Why are Crafton stories taken as Gospel? The club released a statement explaining the process they undertook considering all options and it makes sense. Why is Crafton more believable than the club?
Because he’s been briefed by those people and they know more than an Arnold. He’ll have ‘sources’ a usual, It’s typical media stuff and he’s certainly milking it for all it’s worth.
What a shite show for the manager and the players, all over every back page. Should have been dealt with a month ago at least. Every man and his dog is now piling in on the club.
Even after Greenwood is gone, he’ll always be referred to as ex Manchester United player by the media as it generates clicks.
 
Because she’s not a Brighton supporter?
who gives a shit about what club she supports....she's a woman and using the club as the reason to speak out only proves the point that this kid has been tried and convicted by the public simply b/c he plays for United and he's English
 
who gives a shit about what club she supports....she's a woman and using the club as the reason to speak out only proves the point that this kid has been tried and convicted by the public simply b/c he plays for United and he's English

Rachel Riley gives a shit about what club Rachel Riley supports. She's not going to say that she'll stop supporting Brighton, because she doesn't support Brighton. This shouldn't be complicated, even for you.
 
Although the club could clearly have handled this entire episode better, Im struggling to understand what exactly the likes of Rachel Riley want at this point - they are already letting Greenwood go, despite internal investigation showing he's not commited any crime.

If that's not enough, then what is?!
It’s weird. The people who were adamant that Greenwood needs to go regardless of any club investigation that seemingly is unimportant, got the outcome they wanted but are still whining that it isn’t enough. Because apparently United is a random twitter account that makes it’s mind up based on whims and fancies.

I do agree that it’s a bizarre statement - but not because it empowers abusers or some bullshit like that. The decision is strong enough a signal against that, as is the rest of the statements. It’s bizarre because going purely by it, it seems Greenwood should not have been let go but was due to media pressure. If anything her still criticising them despite the decision shows exactly why they came to this incoherent conclusion.
 
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