BBassic
I changed this.
- Jul 28, 2011
- 12,347
In miserable but entirely unsurprising news, rumours abound that Mason Greenwood could indeed be returning to Manchester United's playing squad.
As decisions goes it's pretty awful. But as mentioned already not at all surprising. Jonathan Liew wrote an excellent piece in the Guardian about it the other day, simply stating that in the end the market forces of capitalism will always win the day.
Regardless I urge people to go and read the transcript that's out there. It's harrowing and disgusting but people need to read it and think about whether he should be wearing that shirt again. Whether it's right that survivors of sexual assault who are Manchester United season ticket holders are now being asked, if not to cheer for him, then to pretend nothing has happened because he kick ball good.
Let's not forget the utter cowardice of the United owners saying they want input from the women's team which has ended up putting a target on the backs of players such as Mary Earps, who have reportedly been targeted by Mason Greenwood supporting trolls demanding they support his return.
Which is exactly what you need when you're preparing for a World Cup Final.
I feel like the last couple of years or so has left football as a "thing" looking pretty unpleasant.
A quick list off the top of my head:
The culture that until recently allowed absolute scum like Barry Bennell to get away with being absolute scum for so long.
Oil states and oligarchs purchasing community assets and turning them into tools to sportswash away reprehensible human rights abuses.
Racism and homophobia both continuing to be a thing despite the knees and the rainbow laces. Almost as if gestures are mostly meaningless when faced with entrenched hatred. (note - I agree with the knee and the rainbow laces campaign - they are good things - if nothing else they make it easy to identify racists and homophobes)
Miscreants continually getting away with being miscreants because they kick ball good.
The endless stream of piss that is online football discourse. We saw this on these hallowed pages during the Caicedo saga with Chelsea fans and with Leeds fans during the Ben White saga. Not to mention Twitter / X, Reddit and the shouting mouths on YouTube.
Money. Just money. The pursuit of it, the accumulation of it, the disproportionate distribution of it, the misuse of it chasing the Premier League dream, the avoidance of paying it (for example, the case of Cardiff City who have spent four years fighting, unsuccessfully, to not pay a transfer fee for a dead man who died on a plane as he was on his way to kick a ball for them). Money is, probably, at the root of all the problems with football, really. Except possibly the ones that concern child abuse and sexual assault.
The super league which everything thinks is dead but behind the scenes is abso-f**king-lutely not. See also, money. See also also, plans for Saudi Arabian teams to participate in the Champions League.
This Greenwood bullshit.
Fabrizio Romano. Gambling sponsorships (and pillocks like known gambling addict Paul Merson advertising Sky Bet) Parasitic agents. Mercenary players. Incompetent referees. FFP. VAR.
Football increasingly feels like the bloated corpse of a whale washed up on one of our gloriously polluted beaches. You're sure the whale is about to explode but instead it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You think "Oh this is it, this is definitely the thing that's going to make the whole thing go pop" and then it isn't and we're outraged for a bit and then someone kicks ball good and we're all ok about it again until the next thing happens and every time the decaying whale gets a bit bigger but doesn't go bang.
I'm finding it hard reconciling the idea that this game we grew up playing, this game that allows us to come together and forget whatever needs to be forgotten just for a bit, this wonderful bonkers game my Dad introduced me to when I was five years old standing on the terrace at the Goldstone isn't actually that game anymore.
I think maybe that game is actually dead, slowly rotting away, in the belly of the whale.
As decisions goes it's pretty awful. But as mentioned already not at all surprising. Jonathan Liew wrote an excellent piece in the Guardian about it the other day, simply stating that in the end the market forces of capitalism will always win the day.
Regardless I urge people to go and read the transcript that's out there. It's harrowing and disgusting but people need to read it and think about whether he should be wearing that shirt again. Whether it's right that survivors of sexual assault who are Manchester United season ticket holders are now being asked, if not to cheer for him, then to pretend nothing has happened because he kick ball good.
Let's not forget the utter cowardice of the United owners saying they want input from the women's team which has ended up putting a target on the backs of players such as Mary Earps, who have reportedly been targeted by Mason Greenwood supporting trolls demanding they support his return.
Which is exactly what you need when you're preparing for a World Cup Final.
I feel like the last couple of years or so has left football as a "thing" looking pretty unpleasant.
A quick list off the top of my head:
The culture that until recently allowed absolute scum like Barry Bennell to get away with being absolute scum for so long.
Oil states and oligarchs purchasing community assets and turning them into tools to sportswash away reprehensible human rights abuses.
Racism and homophobia both continuing to be a thing despite the knees and the rainbow laces. Almost as if gestures are mostly meaningless when faced with entrenched hatred. (note - I agree with the knee and the rainbow laces campaign - they are good things - if nothing else they make it easy to identify racists and homophobes)
Miscreants continually getting away with being miscreants because they kick ball good.
The endless stream of piss that is online football discourse. We saw this on these hallowed pages during the Caicedo saga with Chelsea fans and with Leeds fans during the Ben White saga. Not to mention Twitter / X, Reddit and the shouting mouths on YouTube.
Money. Just money. The pursuit of it, the accumulation of it, the disproportionate distribution of it, the misuse of it chasing the Premier League dream, the avoidance of paying it (for example, the case of Cardiff City who have spent four years fighting, unsuccessfully, to not pay a transfer fee for a dead man who died on a plane as he was on his way to kick a ball for them). Money is, probably, at the root of all the problems with football, really. Except possibly the ones that concern child abuse and sexual assault.
The super league which everything thinks is dead but behind the scenes is abso-f**king-lutely not. See also, money. See also also, plans for Saudi Arabian teams to participate in the Champions League.
This Greenwood bullshit.
Fabrizio Romano. Gambling sponsorships (and pillocks like known gambling addict Paul Merson advertising Sky Bet) Parasitic agents. Mercenary players. Incompetent referees. FFP. VAR.
Football increasingly feels like the bloated corpse of a whale washed up on one of our gloriously polluted beaches. You're sure the whale is about to explode but instead it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You think "Oh this is it, this is definitely the thing that's going to make the whole thing go pop" and then it isn't and we're outraged for a bit and then someone kicks ball good and we're all ok about it again until the next thing happens and every time the decaying whale gets a bit bigger but doesn't go bang.
I'm finding it hard reconciling the idea that this game we grew up playing, this game that allows us to come together and forget whatever needs to be forgotten just for a bit, this wonderful bonkers game my Dad introduced me to when I was five years old standing on the terrace at the Goldstone isn't actually that game anymore.
I think maybe that game is actually dead, slowly rotting away, in the belly of the whale.
