I think when you talk about his family you're being inadvertently a little unfair. It fairness to you I took the same view myself from the start. Could not believe that his family were feeding this fantasy by going along with it. But whilst everything Otis and Nick have said is in its own way correct, it disregards the nature of the human condition as witnessed by their own eyes on this forum, on Facebook and various other places. The condition being that some human beings, maybe even all of them will believe anything if they WANT to believe it enough. They will exaggerate in their own minds evidence that supports what they want to believe and completely diminish the evidence to the contrary. You've seen that for yourselves first hand.
Lets be clear. This whole thing, when you consider the weight of evidence has ALWAYS been an obvious lie. Otis has said as much. From that first interview it didn't add up. No evidence in its favour has EVER been presented that you could call irrefutable and huge swathes of evidence have shown it to be garbage. Not yesterday. Not over Christmas. But from the beginning.
And yet hundreds of Coventry fans, maybe thousands decided that it was true. Why? On what basis? Because they wanted it to be. They dismissed things like the fact that he had apparently won the biggest online poker jackpot in the history of ever without anyone ever having heard of him as if a fact like that was irrelevant and hung on to things like "he says he has a wealth manager" as if that was the ultimate smoking gun of legitimacy. By any sane rational that's ridiculous. Garry Hoffman saying he’d seen enough to suggest he was legitimate became irrefutable proof in some people’s heads and yet how was Hoffman in any better a position to assess this man’s wealth than anyone else? Being an ex-director of Barclays doesn’t give you access to everyone’s bank accounts. People looked for the smallest morsel of suggestion that it wasn’t DEFINITELY a lie and called that evidence that it was the truth. A lady commenting on his Facebook suggested that the infamous 2 minute trip to Amsterdam was possible if he posted before he left but it didn’t actually upload until he got home due to his roaming not working. This is possible, but was it more likely than the fact that he’d just made it up? Was it evidence of anything? Of course not. But it wasn't just one person or a few people. Hundreds went along. Because they wanted it to be true. Let's be honest, had it not been for something absolutely irrefutable i.e. an independent, respectable party coming out and saying "no, I did not write that email", they'd still believe it today in spite of the mounting evidence. The Hoffman "breaking ties" story wouldn't have been enough. You can guarantee there'd be plenty of "yeah, Dale was sick of them messing around so he's going it alone #backthebid". Some of them.. Some of YOU just wanted it to be true that badly.
Now consider his family. For them this wasn't about him buying a football club. This was their lives changed forever. This was Barn conversions, Range Rovers, an end to money worries and living pay cheque to pay cheque. How desperately would you want to believe that? How easily could you dismiss things like the fact that he's been making up ridiculous stories his entire life and that they've become ever more fantastical. That he apparently has millions of pounds but hasn't bought so much as a nice watch or a new pair of shoes in the 6 months since. You might think you'd call it early, and I myself wanted to bang my head against a brick wall every time I was told another reason why it COULD be true. I found his family’s actions bizarre and blinded by greed and have said as much. But I was being unfair. It was easy for me to subjectively look at this and say "no. That's bullshit" because it didn't affect my life either way. For them, it would be life changing. Like shouting at the screen watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire because you’re 95% sure you know the answer. Being 95% sure is enough when there’s no consequence. Call it greed. Call it wishful thinking. But at the very least it’s human and only in keeping with the way everyone else has behaved around this situation. Had they not, this story would have died at the first “I won £14million playing poker on my laptop in my pants”.
Consider also the alternative to believing it for his Family. This isn’t some stranger on a radio station or a Facebook page. This is their Husband. Their brother. Their Son. For them to accept this was all a lie they have to accept that this person they love and have known in some cases his entire life is either seriously mentally ill (he’s not, or certainly not it in the sense of suffering under a manic delusion) or that he’s so selfish and detached that he’s prepared to make utter fools of them. That he’s prepared to take them on house viewings, to tell them their lives have changed, to set them up for public ridicule when it was all bound to ultimately unravel. Could you make that assessment of someone you love?
Nick, you brought up the example of your own wife and how she would deal with you making these things up. But before she starts dealing with the problem she would have to make the assessment above. She would have to look at you, the man she loves and decide that you are lying directly to her face about something that serves no purpose, that you have nothing to gain from, is going to make you and her and your children figures of fun and will HAVE to eventually unravel, not least when this barn conversion you’re apparently moving to doesn’t appear. And this isn’t an affair or robbing a bank. She’s not just got to admit to herself you’ve lied to her. She’s got to admit you’ve done it for absolutely no gain other than the perceived respect and attention of people you’ve never met. Are you sure she could make that leap. Or would she cling to any possible reason to believe you until it just became absolutely impossible? Even if she was 99% sure it was a lie, are you sure she wouldn’t cling to the 1%?
And finally, having come to those conclusions, what do you do about it? If he’s not a physical danger to himself or others or quite clearly suffering a mental episode how do you stop a grown man doing exactly what he wants? How do you convince a Doctor it’s a lie when no one else seems willing to call it? How do you stop him posting on Facebook or calling a radio station. All you can do his beg him not to but if he insists on continuing the lie then what’s your recourse? Remember, the going along to house viewings was in late August. Well before there was talk of buying a Football club.
Cards on the table, I was with you in thinking his family’s actions through this were pretty reprehensible but when you actually break it down, it isn’t that hard to empathise.
