Manchester United 21/22

Americas different though.

Ched evans is an example even after he was found to be innocent he got zero chance.

Fair point. We will see

To be honest there was huge outrage when Gazza beat his wife (1997 or so)

As you say though social media hugely ampiflies the outrage & that isn’t a bad thing

Greenwood will be sacked as the clubs today have huge sponsorship

It could be a few years before he kicks a ball at a high level

The Ryan giggs case too. He’s still attending games and at official club events.

The club is a mess.

This is also evidence in the public domain which makes it much more damning. It’s probably not brilliant for the greater society pursuing justice but in this case it will be far more straightforward for fans of Manchester United or other teams to judge him rather than reading court transcripts etc.

He can’t survive that and play on I don’t think. And shouldn’t.

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He’ll probably be suspended until a trial delivers a sentence.

Mendy is still on City’s book.

The truth about these things is it depends who you are. If you’re Kobe, Shaq or Ronaldo, you’ll probably get away with it because these are global superstars who have armies of fans on social media who will go out to bat for them. Paddy Jackson, Ched Evans and Mason Greenwood are dispensable. And especially when there is audio and photographs, as in the case of the latter.

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If it’s true (and in fairness he’s still innocent) but he should go to jail

While they’re under no obligation, be great if the club offered the young lady the use of professional services to help her deal with this ordeal.

Oh absolutely.

I agree with all that. However, greenwood is potentially a global superstar. That’s why I cant see them sacking him.

There was a thing few years ago about him kidnapping a young one wasn’t there?

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Nah think people were saying it was him when Mendy or Sigurdsson was arrested.

No smoke without fire as they say.

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Yeah that sprung to mind.

Paddy Jackson probably would have been Ireland’s first choice out half by now if what happened hadn’t happened. But he was still dispensable and the cost/benefit calculations for the IRFU in terms of their image were clear.

Mason Greenwood is not a global superstar. He is dispensable. Manchester United can just go out and sign another non-toxic player. The court of public opinion is the most important adjudicator when it comes to the question of whether he will play for Manchester United again.

As has been said, the Giggs issue and the Ronaldo issue are going to rear their heads. The public discussion about all this is likely to very badly damage Manchester United’s image. The one thing that is most easily available to them to salvage it is to deal severely with Greenwood.

I think with the NFL, there’s a sort of thing where the rest of the world looks on at it and sort of sees it as a grotesque celebration of decadence and depravity, devoid of morals. English football is sort of going that way too, not least with despotic states buying clubs etc. and gambling advertising everywhere, but I think the cultural climate in England is different and probably less tolerant of something like what Greenwood has been caught doing here, or at least I don’t think there is a section of society that is so far down the rabbit hole that they will defend the indefensible when it is so public and obvious. I could be wrong but I don’t think so. This is disastrous in terms of image for Manchester United because 50% of society is female and will quite understandably be looking very closely at how Manchester United react.

Nevertheless I do think there will be side narratives that come out of this, as in the race aspect which will be seized upon by the inevitable bad actors. If Greenwood is punished by United, black people will look on and ask why Ronaldo is still free to play.

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The club should do the right thing for the right reasons but I feel they’ll do the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Never said Greenwood was a global superstar but he potentially is, herein lies the problem Utd face. The Paddy Jackson comparison is not a good one. Id say hardly anyone outside of rugby followers would have heard of Jackson. Same not true of Greenwood, where football has a global audience.

Before the trial, Jackson was not a household name in Irish society. He would have been known to rugby fans and to some general floating sports followers. After the trial, everybody in Ireland had heard about him and he was poison.

Greenwood would be known to football followers but again not a household name. That will change now for all the wrong reasons.

It’s OJ Simpson syndrome. Few people outside the US had heard of Simpson before that car chase. Suddenly he was notorious worldwide. When somebody in the public eye is involved in something that goes nuclear like the Greenwood audio and the abuse photo is doing, they assume a totally different persona in the eyes of the public, which affects the calculations of sponsors and the club.

This is a massive onslaught of circumstances with which Manchester United’s wish to develop and use Greenwood as a footballer simply cannot contend. He has turned to poison in an instant.

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