Is this the end?

[steelydon]

Not sure why my word for ***ual exploiters was censured!

[whosbrianwilson]

This train won't just stop at Crewe.

Bennell sounds an absolute scumbag, but it beggars belief that only he was involved.

[ojprice]

I remain proud to be a supporter through thick and thin. However, I think that the Club was a little slow to react, but the facts needed to be considered fully. I cannot remember either how the Club responded in the 1990s, but it is true that, like the weak commercial skills, the Club is not great at PR at present.

the club didn't respond in 1998 Bowler refused to respond to press enquiries they buried their heads in the sand you can see the chronicle article on twitter from 98

[ojprice]

I'm sorry but that's just complete rubbish. Even opposition players knew it was going on and used to dig Woodward about it during games. The Crewe players all knew it was going on and a group of parents confronted Bennell about it and said they were going to the police. Bennell burst into tears and get this: the parents decided not to pursue it so as not to 'disrupt their children's careers.' Apparently they felt they had 'nipped it in the bud' and they allowed bennell to continue to rape children. The point is if all these people knew how credible do you find it that Dario et al didn't or at least didn't suspect? You might be interested to have a look at Steve walters' twitter and see what he's been retweeting - it's quite clear he felt people knew what was going on.

[thnhouse]

I think for me there’s a number of key points to address, and the first is that the clubs handling of this situation has been poor and has let this escalate into an attack on the club that may well be completely unfair. A full statement condemning the actions of Bennell, acknowledging the bravery of people for coming forwards and then detailing all the safeguards the club have put in place since then and most importantly stating that the club acted as soon as they found out about the allegations against Bennell.

The idea that the club knew about Bennell doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me, Bowler has always struck me as a decent man and Gradi too. I don’t think either of them would have been ok with children getting raped if it meant producing good players, especially been as neither have shown the kind of ambition for Crewe that this would require, our club culture has never been “win at all costs”. They may well have been naive and fallen into the trap of being fooled by a master manipulator, but any suggestion that they knew or would have been complicit in it is a big leap.

Finally I think the Guardian has been poor , sensationalist and it’s a newspaper that I have a lot of respect for. In reality this story should have been the brave actions of a man (whatever his motivations) and a call for better safeguards in an industry that deals with millions of children, whether I feel that so much of every article has been sensationalist and trying to create a scandal out of our club. A club which is so far only guilty of reacting poorly to a situation it was unaware of. I wonder what they will have to say when people come forward who were abused while at Man City and Stoke as seems likely to happen, will the paper be so keen to try and tarnish clubs with much more power and a much better legal team.

[BobScottsFurCoat]

yes the reaction in 1998 was poor but in the fact that it was non-existent but like now, I believe they took that stance because they had nothing more to add. Bowler/Gradi are doing that now because they are worried about anything they say being taken out of context.

plus 1998 was a time where we didn't need a constant gorge-fest of reaction & sensationalism. if people were so disgusted with the club's reaction in 1998, i don't remember them making too much of a fuss about it then??

[Me For Crewe]

Dario has stated that the first he or anybody at the club new of Bennell's crimes was when he was arrested in 1994. Two points, it must be difficult if not impossible to speak on behalf of everybody who worked or was a director of the club back then. Secondly I think that we have a right to know now why Bennell was sacked in 1992 without any explanation. This only flames more suspicions.

[ojprice]

Dario has stated that the first he or anybody at the club new of Bennell's crimes was when he was arrested in 1994. Two points, it must be difficult if not impossible to speak on behalf of everybody who worked or was a director of the club back then. Secondly I think that we have a right to know now why Bennell was sacked in 1992 without any explanation. This only flames more suspicions.

Exactly - they sacked him when he was widely recognised as one of the most talented coaches and scouts in the country - why? Nobody has yet explained how the parents of the kids knew, the kids all knew, even the kids of the opposing teams knew - yet the management knew nothing?? Come on...

[Roebuck]

Exactly - they sacked him when he was widely recognised as one of the most talented coaches and scouts in the country - why? Nobody has yet explained how the parents of the kids knew, the kids all knew, even the kids of the opposing teams knew - yet the management knew nothing?? Come on...

I totally agree, they need to come up with the reasons for his dismissal.

But, regarding the parents, from recent press reports Bennell persuaded the only ones that apparently knew about it to bury it. One set of parents even gave him their blessing to marry their daughter. That's the measure of what we're dealing with here.

[ojprice]

I totally agree, they need to come up with the reasons for his dismissal.

But, regarding the parents, from recent press reports Bennell persuaded the only ones that apparently knew about it to bury it. One set of parents even gave him their blessing to marry their daughter. That's the measure of what we're dealing with here.

Yes he persuaded them to bury it because they valued their children's future careers more than they valued their children's childhoods. They are complicit in the abuse of their own children and enabling the future abuse of other children. Woodward claims professionals in the senior team knew about it and mocked him about it. So all these people knew - the parents, the junior players, the senior professionals and Woodward implies other coaches were involved - all these people at the club knew and none of it ever got to the management? One might speculate that it did get to management and that's why he was sacked but the police were not informed because that would have been regarded as contrary to the club's interests.