Sheaf Saint

Pannick on the streets of London?

There is that option, aye. But have you ever been there? No thanks.

We did beat them. I think that's rather the point.

Absolutely this.

The time has come for you to finally come down off that fence my friend. I know it's scary, breaking the habit of a lifetime. But we're all here to support you. You got this!

Yeah I'm minded to apply a general rule here, as is true in all walks of life, that if incompetence appears to be a reasonable explanation for something then it's almost guaranteed to be the right one. Especially when SR are involved.

Ha! A dark thought just crossed my mind about the next wave of Tonda-face AI head swapping, but I'm guessing even ChatGPT would consider that to be crossing a line of good taste 🤣

I take your point. But the reason most people were expecting a more lenient ruling is because the full facts of what had gone on weren't known. Once the extent of his involvement became evident, I don't think there was ever any possible alternative to expulsion. It's possible that a better legal team might have succeeded in avoiding that, on some kind of technicality perhaps. But it probably would have required an undertaking by the club to clean house and dismiss everyone involved. So even then, we'd have had no choice but to sack him anyway.

If SR care about rebuilding the club's reputation, they simply have to. And soon. Waiting for the inevitable ban he will get from the FA and saying "we had no choice" won't wash.

Well no, because if we'd got away with it then that would have meant him being cleared of any wrongdoing. Once it came to light what had happened and how he had acted then getting away with it was no longer possible.

I can't wait for the Panorama investigation, complete with pixelated analysts being interviewed and voiced by an actor. You know it's coming.

We naively and arrogantly believed we would just get a fine if we complied. What I cannot get my head round is us accepting the additional charges being brought on a Sunday, leaving us 48 hours before the hearing. Serious alarm bells should have been ringing by this point, but it seems our legal team were asleep at the wheel.

I don't think that's how 'taking the bullet' works. Unless our management are so mind-bogglingly inept that they can't even do that right.

Yep. They are either complicit, incompetent, or both (most likely). In either case, they need to go.

This is what happens when you promote the dry cleaning delivery boy above his station.