LIKE. in fact, F'kin like.
Printable View
What utter horse manure. Offensive horse manure at that. If anyone at the club is proved to be guilty of anything then there will be no shortage of loyal supporters calling for action against the guilty. But let us wait while things take their course and not believe all the crap coming from the BBC and the Daily Mail.
You make a fair point, ojprice - if it were now. We are talking about a time before safeguarding was being taken entirely seriously in social services and in schools, let alone, sports clubs. Like it or not, if you're going to be judgemental on all this - and you clearly are - then you have to consider the time in which all this happened; it was simply different. Obviously that doesn't make the crimes any less serious. Did Hamilton Smith go to the police? We don't know. Did any of those officials up in Manchester, who refused to start a game while Bennell was present, go to the police? We don't know. Did the family of the youth player at Chelsea go to the police? We don't know. In such a climate, what do you think the Crewe board would've done, faced with such allegations - you could call it hearsay perhaps - against one of their employees (not should've done)?
I wouldn't even answer ojprick, he an obvious plant to cause debate, just his debate is utter shyte and I do hope who runs these sites goes through with checking ip addresses to see if the mods are up to no good, as has been promised.
So the meeting about wether to fire Bennell had already taken place and the directors (Darios Bosses) had decided not to fire him, without any input by Gradi. I'd love for you to tell me how that makes it false??
No one is accusing Dario of having the correct opinion about Bennell, what you're accusing him off is a cover up, which when he's not there for the abuse, the informing of the director, the original meeting and the decision about firing him, it's is a little hard to believe ??
The Chelsea story is pretty much the exact same thing, the abuse is committed, the letter is sent to the club, the club decide what to do, the only involvement we're aware of Gradi having is being dispatched to speak to the parents. It's a fairly safe bet that as a young man taking his first steps into professional coaching he didn't have much input of the outcome in this situation.
Oh no they don't follow the scandal nearly as much as I have, they pick up on the BBC sport/sky sports etc. However they are massive football fans and do go on our twitter/site ever since this scandal has happened. However they are entitled to their opinion that they were shocked that our whole social media pages are purely focusing on the fact the club is being "Victimised" by the media. I personally don't care about how bad our image is becoming. Quite frankly our club deserves it, terrible response from the club to the victims. Our club is being investigated by the FA, FIFA, Cheshire police, Internally and by the media. Yet our fans think this is wrong. Dario himself has got stuff to answer for, hes being personally investigated by the FA for the rumours that have come about. Innocent till proven guilty by law, yes. But by life, if your innocent youre innocent before and after a trial. If your guilty you're guilty before and after a trial, that saying used out of context. Hounded by the media????? If Our club was hounded by the media, it wouldnt be one guy chasing after Dario with 3 cameramen, it would be 50 - 60 people swarming the ground and anyone associated with the club. Please please please can we stop this ideology that the club and Dario is somehow a victim in all of this?
I honestly expected and hoped most fans to be more "Jesus this is absolutely appalling" "I am so shocked and horrified the club let this happen and I hope the club knew nothing" "I am so sorry to the victims, I hope its not true, the club needs to respond" and it saddens me, I thought we were better than this.
Here are some facts that Crewe fans are overlooking and I would love a discussion with someone about:
Dario is just a man, not above being treated any differently just because he is a club legend. I am almost certain he is innocent (purely based off the fact I like the guy), but there are rumours that need to be investigated. Crewe fans need to accept that he MIGHT NOT BE INNOCENT. Hard to take, but that is a fact, until it is investigated, Crewe fans need to stop acting like he is squeaky clean because he isnt. (Whether he knew about it or not, kids were abused when he was the manager of the academy, he has to answer for that, as for the other rumours down in London, I think they are lies but no smoke no fire whatever....). The judges/investigations will find out.
IF the club did discuss bennell at board level (which is true In my opinion because why would the director come out and lie?) and all they did was stop kids going to his house, then the club grossly mismanaged that situation and will be punished either by Civil law(compensation) or criminal law.
The abuse happened for years. This is the biggest point for me. If it happened once to one kid, I can accept the club taking almost non of the blame. This happened for years. 4 years , 100s of times to more than one kid. How the heck did Crewe alexandra miss that? Miss it? Horrifically ignorant if anything and ignorance is a breach of duty of care. The club will have to answer for it. IF THE CLUB KNEW OR HEARD OF AND DID NOTHING.....that is something our club deserves nothing but to fold for.
There are some people at the club still here from the days the abuse happened. Which to me is why the club is being cagey as it is. People at our club could be legally involved with everything. Thats why it was easy for Chelsea to come out and say its sorry etc, totally different board/owner. All they had to do was "Sorry, hes some money, we will investigate to make sure it never happens again" and done and dusted.
I really want a discussion with a single Crewe fan on social media, debating all these facts/rumours and what they could mean, whether they believe them or not. I want to know what the fans are feeling about every rumour/media release, player statement and how they feel about the abuse kids recieved whilst they played for the club. I want to know what could happen to the club and how the club can move forward, if it can. What should Bowler do? Resign? not resign? what about Dario etc. Yet every f**king thread/post/tweet is about how the media is bullying us. Its like we dont care about the victims at all. Surely they are the points this forum needs to address over the media?
Am I being stupid or what?
No you actually understand the seriousness of what's happened and the important issues to be addressed. The other posters focusing on media conspiracies are suffering from cognitive dissonance caused by a) tribal loyalty b) lack of moral courage and c) lack of intellect.