I am all shook up over that news.Originally Posted by TheOneWhoKnocks
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892/...s?ICID=HP_BN_8
Not integral to Deila's plans and monitored by a plethora of Premier League and Championship teams according to this report.
Interestingly, Hooper bagged 19 league goals in 2012/2013 for Celtic. Stokes managed 20 in 2013/2014 and performed quite well in Champions League outings and is 6 months Hooper's junior.
Not that Hooper's move was a resounding success, but when I saw that a few PL clubs were interested, I had my doubts. Maybe it is realistic. Realistic or not, I'd love to see Stokes have a second go at the Premiership.
Dropping last season's top scorer is a bold move for a new manager. Particularly for a manager who fails to attain the imperative Champions League qualification.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
this is sort of interesting, from a report FourFourTwo on players who made their Arsenal debut in the League Cup: http://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/...nts?page=0%2C4
Anthony Stokes: Adopted by his aunt and uncle Joan and John Stokes at three years old, Stokes played for the Shelbourne youth team before appearing on Arsenal's long-standing Irish scouting radar in 2003. Made his debut for the reserves at the tender age of 15. A successful loan spell with Falkirk in 2006, where he scored 14 goals in 16 SPL games, saw him sign for Sunderland in a £2 million deal. After struggling with only three goals in 36 appearances for the Black Cats he moved north of the border once more when Hibernian signed him for £500k. Celtic paid £1.2 million for his services on the back of 22 goals in his only season in Edinburgh. Capped six times by the Republic of Ireland.
Stokes on goal drought
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/footba...ught-1-3558406
https://vine.co/v/OmjXxV3rn9O
Beautiful assist against Dinamo Zagreb.
I understand Stokes is to stand trial for alleged assault from the 11th of May next year. The trial may last up to three weeks.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...celtic-4556726
Rangers fan threatens to stab Stokes and blow up his dad after Celtic and Rangers are drawn together in cup.
Stokes reported this to the Scottish Police, the fan apologised and it's been resolved: https://twitter.com/stoksey10/status...26449655615488
Regards the tweet I got last night, the boy who sent it got in touch and apologised so that's it done! We all make stupid mistakes we regret
An even younger lad has just been sentenced to life in prison today for stabbing his teacher to death in Leeds. In the weeks and months leading up to the killing, he had posted about stabbing her several times on Facebook, but that, and several other warning signs, were ignored.
Neil Lennon has been assaulted several times. Gary Deegan had his jaw broken in an unprovoked attack. Darren O'Dea has been threatened with a kneecapping. Foran and Doran were assaulted and had sectarian abuse lobbed at them. Bullets have been sent/intercepted to several of Celtic's Irish players in the mail. Several people have threatened to send anthrax to Irish players in the mail. I haven't even mentioned the attacks on Celtic's foreign players (Zaluska, Boruc) and the racist abuse against their own players (Maurice Edu).
I don't think you can take things like this as "banter" in this day and age. A fan made it onto the pitch and made physical contact with Lennon at a Hearts game. What if he had a knife?
A serious message needs to be sent that things like this - not to mention the libellous comments about Stokes' father - will not be taken lightly.
A more serious display of remorse would have been to apologise to Stokes before he deleted his account and tried to cover his tracks.
It's 2014 like. These things happen in Ireland but if they happened on such a recurring basis as they do over there, I would be ashamed and embarrassed.
If the guy had a knife? He didn't; you're blowing that incident ever so slightly out of proportion, I think...
Sectarianism from "both sides" is a big problem in Scotland and the Scottish police are well aware of it. They deal with such trouble as you've outlined above as most other European police forces would. Are you trying to imply there's some anti-Irish bias in the Scottish justice system?
Yes. I'm more than aware he didn't have a knife. He could have had a knife though. There are plenty of people who make terroristic threats online, aren't followed up on, and go on to act on them. There are plenty of idiots who make terroristic threats online with no intention of following through on them. How do you make the separation? I'm not calling for a life sentence but, yes, if I threatened to stab someone and blow someone up, I would fully be expecting to see serious consequences.
I'm not implying there is any bias. But it is worrying how Richie Foran is victimised for being assaulted and, similarly, Gary Deegan's attacker got away scot free with his unprovoked assault.
And yes. Aware that sectarianism is a problem on both sides but I would love to see how many Rangers players are attacked on the street, in nightclubs, have bullets sent to them and have sectarian abuse lobbed at them and compare the statistics.
Seriously like. I even said "these things happen in Ireland" in the previous post but, again, choose to take whatever you want from what I say.
Last edited by TheOneWhoKnocks; 03/11/2014 at 2:45 PM.
I hadn't a huge deal of time when I posted earlier, but a few points as those posts just read like Daily Mail articles...
What does the Leeds stabbing have to do with anything here at all? How should the postings have been acted upon by the authorities exactly? Most of the seemingly threatening bile posted online is fairly empty bravado and b*llocks. In certain exceptional cases, you may have some very deranged and troubled souls actually act out their published threats, but it is certainly unusual rather than the norm. How do you respond to the phenomenon in a proportionate manner? What are these serious consequences you expect to see dished out on the basis of the mere expression of threatening words, presumably irrespective of whether or not the likelihood of an actual attack as "threatened" is deemed to be slim?
Maurice Edu played for Rangers. Are you implying, by your use of "their own", that Rangers fans are a threat and are to blame for the aforementioned examples of wrongdoing you mention or who are you blaming there exactly? I don't think the origins of the posted bullets were ever proven, were they? You're just assuming they were posted by Rangers fans, aren't you?
Who, besides a sectarian lughead or a psychopath, might tolerate as banter the examples you have outlined above? The Scottish government, police and judiciary certainly don't, or at least I don't get the impression that they have much time for aggressive sectarian conduct anyway. What is this more serious message you expect to be sent out? In fact, some think the Scottish government has gone too far in criminalising football fans; significant numbers of Scottish football fans have suffered under the SNP's Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act of 2012 with the act being seen as far too culturally restrictive and socially detrimental to many who simply want to celebrate their heritage through song and the like. Maybe that sort of draconian legislation is right up your alley?...
What if the guy who attacked Lennon had a chainsaw? What if he had a bomb? What if he had a gun and went on a shooting spree inside the stadium? They're all "what ifs" and are based upon fiction rather than reality, just like the scenario you concocted where Lennon's pitch-invading attacker has a knife in order to add wind to this bizarre moral panic you're trying to stir. Why not deal with facts rather than resorting to fantasy and the blowing of things stupidly out of proportion? Barring this utterly bizarre story that almost beggars belief because it is so unusual and unprecedented, of how many isolated stabbing incidents are you aware that have occurred on the pitch inside packed football stadiums? I'm guessing probably about none.
Why are you getting so bothered and indignant about a clown spouting clearly-fantasy sectarian crap on Twitter? Idiots exist and, yes, lots of them do use Twitter. In spite of the tweet, I think we can be pretty sure of two things; Stokes will not get stabbed, nor will his father get bombed. The authorities obviously view the situation similarly.
What were the libelous comments about Stokes' father?
Do those things you mention occur more in Scotland? Have you the facts and figures? Scotland has a significant sectarianism problem that nobody is denying, but plenty of nasty things also happen in Ireland in 2014. Sectarianism is still a big problem in the north. Those Scottish examples you mention are media fodder because they happen to involve high profile personalities.
Richie Foran wasn't victimised for being assaulted. He was admonished for his disproportionate response, or for assaulting his attacker in return, in other words. Sounds a bit sh*tty given he was attacked first maybe, but he has a history of aggression and trouble-making, so how sure can you be that he was an angel in the incident?
Was Gary Deegan's broken jaw unprovoked? John Hall (who happened to be a Hibs fan, but didn't recognise Deegan) claimed in court that Deegan had been threatening him after Hall told Deegan off for p*ssing in public and that he responded with the jaw-breaking punch in self-defence. The jury, who were able to review the incident with the assistance of CCTV footage, seemingly agreed with Hall's version of events and cleared him of an assault charge.
It's for posts like the above, full of such guff, empty rhetoric and loose "facts", that people assume you must be on a wind-up. Do you bother checking up the veracity of your claims at all? It's not that I'm trying to take whatever I want from what you say. I'm just trying to understand your point a bit better. What is it exactly?
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 04/11/2014 at 1:02 AM.
It seems like Stokes has done well to defuse this. The guy obviously went over the line saying something he didn't mean, and he's really upset by the fallout from something he didn't mean to be taken seriously. Hopefully he's learned a lesson. All is well.
Think he's trying to say there's some not very nice people in Scotland, including plenty of anti-Irish haters. Whether it's worse than what's happened in the North is a very moot point, but a lot of the anti-Irish views are very similar in both places.
Though, 'luckily' Scotland has not generally followed up with the same levels of associated violence...
And actually what Chas.D. has said too.
You wrote 11 paragraphs so you must be right Danny.
One of your more amusing posts...
You suggest Foran's response to being followed, punched, given sectarian abuse and trying to mediate a fight was inappropriate yet breaking someone's jaw because they are urinating in public is an appropriate response? If the latter was true, then there would be a lot of young Irish adults getting broken jaws every night of the week.
The lad's comments about Stokes were libellous because he insinuated that Stokes' father is an IRA sympathiser.
Who knows whether his tweet was
Serious or not? Do you suggest threats like that are to be ignored? He didn't show genuine remorse. He only apologised after his efforts to cover his tracks failed and he was bricking it that he'd go to prison.
Scotland has made progress with sectarianism but recent events have proven that there is a long way to go before it's eradicated.
Celtic and Rangers continue to be reprimanded because of sectarian chanting and political protests.
And on a final note, bullets in the mail have been intercepted and several death threats have been aimed at Celtic's NI contingent.
But sure there is no "intent" or "malice" so what harm?
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