Originally Posted by
EalingGreen
I have never asserted or (intentionally) used the term "scumbag" for DG.
If it pleases you, I will rephrase to make it crystal clear what I was attempting to say, as follows:
"Anyhow, although Gibson is not a 'scumbag', do you recognise this description of him from a certain other website the other day?"
I have also amended the post on OWC to a verbatim reproduction of your original observation on DG from here, without further comment by me.
I was NOT putting/attempting to put words in your mouth. I will accept that you felt the "scumbag" remark could be interpreted as being ascribed to you; then again, it could just as easily be interpreted otherwise.
I suspect you are being sensitive about this because having defended DG on a point of principle etc, it doesn't look so good for your case if he appears to be a bit of an arsehole* in practice.
* - I was actually going to use the phrase "feet of clay", but from the way he pings in the odd long shot, in between ambling around the centre circle in slow motion, I suspect "feet of lead" might be more apt...
I have no idea about your ban/suspension, or Predator's.
However, I will make the following contextual observation
Now that this Eligibility dispute is finally settled, the eventual outcome has had an incendiary effect in NI football, with eg Coaches finding that under-age teams are being strained along IFA/FAI lines (or Unionist/Nationalist, even Prod/Taig, if you prefer). I personally find this absolutely deplorable, and an entirely predictable consequence of the FAI pushing a policy which even Brian Kerr now describes as "unfair, seedy and predatory".
In the OWC context, this has led to a situation whereby everytime a 7 year old score a hat-trick in a Primary school kickaround, there is specualtion as to whether he is fully committed to the IFA, or might lean towards the FAI etc.
Worse, it has provoked the more extreme posters on both sides of the debate (NOT you or "Predator" btw) to post some pretty incendiary remarks, leading to edits/deletions/warnings by the Mods. (I myself fell foul of this unwittingly)
If nothing else, some of the players referred to may have relatives etc who will read it, and the Press has been long-known to browse the site for juicy bits of dirt to dish. As a result, a policy has had to be implemented banning any speculation of the "Is he a Prod or RC" variety.
The two "need not" be contradictory; however, that does not preclude the possibility that they may be contradictory.
Anyhow, whether you accept it or not, you know fine well the point I was trying to make i.e. at one point DG asserted that his switch was personal (an argument with a coach), at another he said it was a matter of principle ("always wanted to play for ROI").
If it really was the latter, why did he ever agree to play for NI in the first place? After all, there had been several other Derry youngsters who'd played for the ROI before him and seeing as he was on MU's books, he would certainly have been of interest to them.
Unless, of course, he was content to use the IFA to further his career, in tandem with MU etc, until circumstances forced him to reveal his true intentions and he left us in the lurch (but only after having occupied a place in our team that other kids would die for).
Either way, it stinks (imo) both in what it says about the individual concerned, but also the way it politicises football in NI, at a time when many good people, of all backgrounds, are working so damned hard to keep politics out of the game.
Spare us the amateur sociology lesson.
A member amongst several thousand of a football website used an offensive term in a thread containing hundreds of posts over the course of 100 pages+
OK, the Mods might have cracked down on it etc, but you only need eg go onto any Spurs website, type in "Sol Campbell" (or even a mere "Judas") and see what you get - I guarantee that "scumbag" is positively mild by comparison with the rest of what's there.
Therefore I suggest you stop obsessing with the symptoms and start addressing the disease, which is that with football in NI always having wrestled with problems deriving from general society, at a time when both society and NI football were making encouraging progress to treat the disease, the action of the FAI in insisting on implementing their fortuitously-acquired right to pick NI-born players has only served to pour poison back into the wound.
Shame on them and all who would defend them.
P.S. As I type this, the 1 o'clock headlines are concentrating on that ****headed "Pastor" out in the US who wants to burn Korans. Under US Law, his Constitutional Right to Freedom of Speech and Conscience permits him to do so, but does anyone other than a complete bigot/moron feel he should enforce that right?
P.P.S. Before you get off on one, that last P.S. (above) is NOT to be read as calling you "a complete bigot/moron"...