End of Season awards: more airbrushing

[Balham]

United's End of Season awards were handed out on Saturday.

Winners were:
Goal of the Season: Nick Montgomery (v Tranmere)
Young Player of the Year: Harry Maguire
Community Player of the Year: Harry Maguire
Achievement of the Year: Danny Wilson
Innovation: Westfield Health & Gilders Group
"Main Playing Award": the Sheffield United first team.

http://www.sufc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10418~2755031,00.html

I think I detect another airbrushing of Ched Evans from the club's history books. I can almost see the panic when they realised that our Player of the Year is currently incarcerated.

That said, giving Player of the Year to the whole first team is a little bit desperate.

 

[Kenilworth]

It's a PR nightmare isn't it?

Wonder if our sentence in the third division will outlast Ched's?

 

[Darren]

United's End of Season awards were handed out on Saturday.

Winners were:
Goal of the Season: Nick Montgomery (v Tranmere)
Young Player of the Year: Harry Maguire
Community Player of the Year: Harry Maguire
Achievement of the Year: Danny Wilson
Innovation: Westfield Health & Gilders Group
"Main Playing Award": the Sheffield United first team.

http://www.sufc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10418~2755031,00.html

I think I detect another airbrushing of Ched Evans from the club's history books. I can almost see the panic when they realised that our Player of the Year is currently incarcerated.

That said, giving Player of the Year to the whole first team is a little bit desperate.

So we don't have a player of the year this year? For God's sake....

If Evans won the vote (as I assume he did), the club could have got in touch with him and said "look Ched, we have stood by you even when you were convicted, now you need to help us. You have won the POY vote, but we want you to say that given all the circumstances, you waive your right to the award and would like it to go to the runner up" . I am sure he would agree to that.

 

[JohnDenver]

Innovation?

Well that wins the award for the most self-congratulatory bullshit of an award.

 

[Kenilworth]

Probably the fact that we have not named a PoY indicates support for Ched.
Naming someone else in his place would be airbrushing.
The alternative they have used shows some initiative not to eradicate Ched from the picture, subtle without being provocative

 

[Rodders]

Totally understand why the club have done it but could they not have given it to 2nd place - who would've known?

 

[Worksop II]

The Club are trying to keep everyone happy, probably end up with no one being happy

 

[VespaBlade]

Well if Ched won Player of the Year and can't bloody well be bothered to turn up to collect it then Feck him

 

[BornOnShorehamStreet]

"Ched can't be with us today but we have a video link to......"

 

[Latters]

Probably the fact that we have not named a PoY indicates support for Ched.
Naming someone else in his place would be airbrushing.
The alternative they have used shows some initiative not to eradicate Ched from the picture, subtle without being provocative

Well it's provoked me into thinking what a bag of fucking dog shit. He either won Player of the Year, which he clearly was, or he didn't. To just pretend the award doesn't exist is simply laughable. Get his name back in the records. As somebody else has said, Mike Tyson still goes down in history as one of the best heavyweight boxers there's been and was undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, despite being convicted of rape.

 

[broomhillblade]

Ched Evans has disappeared from the Player Profiles on the Official site.

"Just bringing the list up to date" they might say. If so, why does it show Monty on loan to Millwall and Hoskins still with us?

I must re-read George Orwell's '1984'. The bit about the Ministry of Truth.

 

[Darren]

Ched Evans has disappeared from the Player Profiles on the Official site.

"Just bringing the list up to date" they might say. If so, why does it show Monty on loan to Millwall and Hoskins still with us?

I must re-read George Orwell's '1984'. The bit about the Ministry of Truth.

If we go up, I look foward to seeing the souvenir booklet we will no doubt produce. Here's a draft of two sections I saw.

"28th March 2012: United took a lead in the first half against local rivals Chesterfield, with a goal from Lee Williamson. The Spirities equalised before half time, but in a rampant second half United overewhelmed them to win 4-1"

10th April 2012: backed by thousands of travelling supporters, United put on a stunning display to win 5-2 at Rochdale, McDonald, Williamson and Doyle getting the pick of the goals".

Etc, etc

 

[Highbury_Blade]

Hartlepool v Sheffield Utd.

A nervous display saw Sheffield Utd take the three points, but only after a second half penalty from [REDACTED]

 

[MunXy]

"many great goals this season from a great goal scorer CLASSIFIED, having scored 35 goals for the blades, CLASSIFIED look destined to take player of the year until REMOVED FOR LEGAL REASONS
yeh i can definately see it happening, some VERY creative editing

MunXy

 

[Worksop_Blade]

 

[super_pig]

fact is.. like it or not.. Ched Evans 'is' player of the year.. in the meantime he may be a convicted felon (under appeal) and he might have been in the Hitler youth as well but he is 'still' player of the year.

 

[Darren]

It's a bizarre idea that if anyone does something wrong it automatically negates their other achievements. Philip Larkin may have been a racist bigot, but he was also a great poet, Gary Glitter may be a paedophile but he made some classic seventies pop etc etc.

When the PFA choose their team of the year, they are choosing the best eleven players in that division that year. They are not passing any judgment on the moral or law abiding character of the people in the team. Ditto with United's player of the year award. If Ched won it, he won it. He may be our best player of the season and a rapist. The two things are not incompatible.

 

[Ted Danson]

It's a bizarre idea that if anyone does something wrong it automatically negates their other achievements. Philip Larkin may have been a racist bigot, but he was also a great poet, Gary Glitter may be a paedophile but he made some classic seventies pop etc etc.

On radio 2 the other month Tony Blackburn was doing a rundown of the top 50 on that date in the 70's, played every song in full with along explanation of each one, got to no2 and he managed to mutter very quickly 'garry glitter no2 AND number one is' Just seems strange to me to completely avoid these things, if anything mentioning people like that makes people think about what they did wrong and its better to discuss things than just pretend they didnt happen

 

[Darren]

On radio 2 the other month Tony Blackburn was doing a rundown of the top 50 on that date in the 70's, played every song in full with along explanation of each one, got to no2 and he managed to mutter very quickly 'garry glitter no2 AND number one is' Just seems strange to me to completely avoid these things, if anything mentioning people like that makes people think about what they did wrong and its better to discuss things than just pretend they didnt happen

Interesting, I think it is also depends on what your crime is. Jonathan Aitken and Jeffrey Archer both did time for perjury, yet no-one completely ignores them and tries to airbrush their achievements. Aitken for one, if often brought up on news programmes whenever an item of the state of the prisons comes up.

Would we have a (reformed) sex offender on TV if there was an item about how to combat sex offending? Unlikely I think.

 

[Ted Danson]

Thats a good point as there's no end of TV progs that have reformed car thieves as their experts on car alarms or reformed burglars talking about home security and no one bats an eyelid. Saying that though they normally show you how they used to break in and I wouldnt want to see Gary Glitters guide to peading. It does seem to be the only crime that the stigma outlasts the punishment

 

[Darren]

Thats a good point as there's no end of TV progs that have reformed car thieves as their experts on car alarms or reformed burglars talking about home security and no one bats an eyelid. Saying that though they normally show you how they used to break in and I wouldnt want to see Gary Glitters guide to peading. It does seem to be the only crime that the stigma outlasts the punishment

Its also only relatively recently that paediphilia has attracted such stigma. Non-custodial sentences for sex with minors were not uncommon in the 70's; now any kind of touching of a child inapproriately, however fleeting would see you sent down.

There's a whole Ph.D thesis there...

 

[shorehamview]

It's a bizarre idea that if anyone does something wrong it automatically negates their other achievements. Philip Larkin may have been a racist bigot, but he was also a great poet, Gary Glitter may be a paedophile but he made some classic seventies pop etc etc.

Mussolini may well have been a fascist dictator but he managed to get the trains to run on time. Well, one of them anyway.

And that Robert Mugabe. Sure, he's totally knackered his country up, but he's rocking the silly moustache look like a good 'un.

As for Adolf Hitler, well, he may have caused the death of millions and been the leader of one of the most evil regimes in history, but he inspired the VW Beetle, so good for him. And goose stepping, and quite possibly First Buses, although I might have to look that one up.

So they weren't all bad, were they?

 

[mpjacko]

It's like the petition the school teacher has set up. Instead of trying to get CE name taken off and claiming at footballers are role models, why doesn't he and other teachers use Ched as an example. Instead of getting someone else to deal with the issue, why don't they take time to explain to children / teenagers what rape is and how it affects people. I think that would be more constructive than getting his name taken of the team of the year and pretending that his season never happened.

 

[Highbury_Blade]

The problem is some adults aren't mature enough to discuss the nuances of the ched case, so Christ knows what having that conversation with a bunch of 13 year olds would be like.

 

[bladeinspaceandtime]

As for Adolf Hitler, well, he may have caused the death of millions and been the leader of one of the most evil regimes in history, but he inspired the VW Beetle, so good for him. And goose stepping, and quite possibly First Buses, although I might have to look that one up.

So they weren't all bad, were they?

I bet Hitler wouldn't be happy having his name associated with the abomination otherwise known as First Buses!

 

[Balham]

This may be a new record for Godwin's Law on this forum: 22 posts. shorehamview is the winner!

 

[Darren]

Mussolini may well have been a fascist dictator but he managed to get the trains to run on time. Well, one of them anyway.

And that Robert Mugabe. Sure, he's totally knackered his country up, but he's rocking the silly moustache look like a good 'un.

As for Adolf Hitler, well, he may have caused the death of millions and been the leader of one of the most evil regimes in history, but he inspired the VW Beetle, so good for him. And goose stepping, and quite possibly First Buses, although I might have to look that one up.

So they weren't all bad, were they?

I suppose my point holds about activity that is not integral to the their wrongdoing. Thus the three people you mention were/are politicans and I think we can take their political record as a whole when judging whether they were good or bad at politics.

Glitter and Larkin were a musician (using the term in its lossest sense) and a poet. Evans is a footballer. Their wrongdoing was not part and parcel of their music, poetry or football. Hence I think we can judge the said music, poetry and football on its own merits, without focusing on the character of the person who created these things.

In one of his essays George Orwell makes the point that, if Shakespeare came back to life and we discovered his favourite activity was raping little girls in railway carriages, would we let him carry on doing it in the hope that he might write another "King Lear" . Of course we wouldn't, but in no way would his character have any bearing on any artistic judgments we might make on the first "King Lear".

 

[Jim Chimmerney]

In this case, by the letter of the law Ched's a rapist but quite clearly, as the judge said, he's not a threat to society. He'll have to carry the title of 'rapist' with him for the rest of his life although I think a large amount of people will always have a certain amount of sympathy for him. In footballing terms Lee Hughes managed to re-start his career having committed a far worse crime all beit at the later stages of his career in the lower leagues. Considering he'll only be 25 when he gets out, there'll be plenty of managers willing to forgive and forget IMO. Whether the clubs fans will is another matter.

 

[JohnDenver]

Whether the clubs fans will is another matter.

If he scores goals they'll forgive anything. No crime too great...

 

[Blade2092]

Even if there was hard solid evidence for Ched being an extremely violent, thuggish rapist, he'd still be forgiven by people in a few years. Look at the likes of Chris Brown. He beat his girlfriend to a pulp, there was hard evidence for it, he didn't go to prison, and his music career has gone absolutely through the roof without him showing any signs of remorse whatsoever. He even won a bloody grammy and nobody (to my knowledge) suggested it to be taken off him. Society is utterly depressing.