I'm not excusing him!!!! I called him a c**t on the first page. But people like yourself pick on the minor issues.
I say it how it is. He was a c**t for driving over the limit but he never went out to kill the 2 kids did he?
As for Hughes, hes just a wanker of the highest order. Driving sniffed up from the pub at 1 in the morning and leaving the scene. McCormick was twice over, 20 years back everyone coming back from pub was more then that!!
I wont be either, genuinley nice lad who made a massive, massive mistake, one that i know will haunt him for the rest of his life.
Some of these posts have been a tough read, so credit to those who have discussed their personal tradegies, this subject is closer to home for some than others so this could'nt have been easy to write for some of you.
It looks like we all agree that the 3 years was / is no-way near enough for what he did. So, we have a problem with the system that the UK has for drink drivers, and most serious crimes to be honest, how many times have you read about something and thought, 'bloody hell, is that all?' at the sentance.
I feel that the powers that be who run our game though, have a responsibility to the fans and public to have the powers to say who can and can't play football for a club in the 92.
Its hard to take that although he has served the sentance, he is allowed to continue his priveledged career as a professional footballer. Football is surely a different profession in that they are becoming more and more roles models for our kids and have a duty to behave themselves. If he had been a brickie or whatever, no doubt walk into another job doing that when he came out of prison.
Lets say, like in boxing, players have a licence/contract not only with their club, but the F.A too? They are all in the PFA and have a duty to behave in accordance with their contracts with the PFA, so how about they have the authority to say, 'look, ok, you've served your time, but given the nature of the job as a footballer, who kids look upto, the media circus surrounding our game, given what you did we've revoked your licence'
This would stop any club being able to sign him and although he would be out of prison, could not carry on having a career in such a high profile sport, where he could be plastered all over the back pages for the affected families to see all the while
I suppose it is because of his job. As Astute said earlier if he was returning to a job in Tescos there would be no problem. Basically, all he's lost is three years of liberty while his victims have lost their lives. That is the be all and end all.
While all lags obviously should be allowed to get on with their lives afterwards, the attitude that annoyed me on here was the ''but, he said he was sorry'' and ''he's a nice bloke'' quotes. That will cut no ice with his family who are the only people who matter here.
Trouble is, footballers are becoming very bad role models for our children. Just don't buy this role model argument to be honest.
Role models? Who? Wayne Rooney? Joey Barton? Diouf? Drogba? Terry? Ashley Cole? Jermaine Pennant? Marlon King? Titus Bramble? There are so many footballers misbehaving and not living lives that warrant them even being considered for one second as role models.
The days of footballers as good role models has long, long gone.
Just think it's a duff argument. A better argument is of professional footballers being in the limelight and important part of modern day culture.
The same as I did when we signed Marlon King.
I neither applauded him or booed him.
So how would everybody feel then if we signed him?????????????
he has a legal right to resume his career but i wish him no luck whatsoever and refuse to "leave it out" because it was a mistake,only a weak chav with no morals could believe deciding to drink drive is just a simple mistake.
I am new to this forum (one post on the boardroom page), so I will try to be circumspect, but I feel I must make a statement here.
Firstly, let me say that I know and understand losing children due to the mistakes of others. I have lost two daughters. I say this not to gain sympathy but to provide evidence of my understanding when I say I understand the pain of loss.
My daughters did not need to die - it was two different mistakes at two different times by doctors who were "experts" in their fields and who made basic errors that resulted in the deaths of my daughters. I am over 60 years old now and it is nearly 40 years since these events, but the pain will always be there.
But perhaps time and age lend me a perspective that is not yet present in many of you "youngsters" on this forum, and perhaps many of you have not yet lived long enough to realise that we all make mistakes and do things that we later regret - sometimes till the day we die. Some mistakes are big, some illegal, some small with little in the way of consequences that yet loom large in our own conscienses.
I have made many mistakes in my 60+ years, many of which I regret. You will all make mistakes if you haven't already. If you are very lucky, those mistakes will not cost anyone their lives. If you are very lucky, you will never find yourselves in a position where your decisions will inevitably hurt people.
When you understand that we are only human, perhaps you will be a little more tolerant and lenient towards the mistakes of other people. The mistakes I have made in my life have occasionally caused people emotional hurt. The mistakes other people have made have cost me two daughters, and yet I cannot hate these people, I do not want to kill them and I do not wish them evil or bad thoughts for the rest of their lives. They are human and they made mistakes and that cost lives. To me, not having an incubator ready when a woman is having a premature birth under difficult circumstances is a terrible error for a specialist university hospital to make, and a daughter died because of that error, and to me such a basic error by a seasoned professional medical team is much worse than a silly young man getting behind the wheel of a car under the influence of alcohol.
While I did and still do blame the medical professional for their blatant errors, I did not and I do not wish to see them prosecuted, even though they caused my daughters death through sheer negligence. I did not and I do not desire them to be punished - they made a mistake - as we all do. I got lucky - my mistakes never killed anyone - theirs did. Should I hate them for that? Should I want to kill them for that? Nothing will bring my daughters back.
From what I am reading, there seem to be two points that are upsetting some on this forum. The fact that the sentence was too short and the fact that he will be allowed to play football again.
So sorry for those that disagree, but this young man served the sentence that the justice system of the country in which he committed the crime gave him, including any reduction in time served for good behaviour. To blame this silly boy for the length of the sentence he served is folly - blame the system, not the one sentenced.
Secondly, why on Earth should this lad not return to playing football? It is his profession for goodness sake! Is this jealousy speaking here that he will potentially earn more than most of us ever will and you feel he shouldn't because he made a mistake? And of course it makes a difference if he genuinely admits his mistake, regrets the consequences of his actions and is willing to do all he can to make up for it and help other people to avoid making the same or similar tragic and stupid mistake that he made.
And to openly state that you personally would be willing to kill him if given 5 minutes alone with him is not only incredibly stupid but is probably also actionable under the laws that you so cry out against as being inadequate.
To you that are so unforgiving, I can only hope that you or your children or your close friends or relatives do not make a stupid mistake in your lives and find yourselves on the other side of this argument wishing for forgiveness for your stupidity that some are not willing to give you.
For those of you that have also suffered tradgedy, I am sorry for your losses and the consequences that were caused by the mistakes of others. But I refuse to be a victim and I long ago forgave those that caused me so much pain and loss. I forgave those that did this to me and my wife and their brothers and sisters, and perhaps those who have reacted so violently to this tradgedy should remember that it did not happen to them, they were not involved, they do not know the full story and it is for the people that suffered tradgedy to forgive or not forgive, to take veangance or not take veangance. I would hesitate before being so veangefull towards a silly youth who's bad mistake caused so much damage to others than you yourselves.
I am not religous, but it does not take religion to forgive those that cause you so much hurt, and it does not require religion to realise that we all make mistakes and should consider ourselves fortunate that the mistakes we have made and the mistakes that we will inevitably make do not result in such tradgedy. Remeber that the next time you are, for instance, driving, and for just an instant let yourself be distracted by your child in the back seat. You just got lucky that your split second of inatention did not result in you killing that woman and her child in the pushchair at the side of the road.
And would I have this young man playing for our beloved and sadly beset club. If his remorse is genuine, then why on Earth not?
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