Glazer family ‘decide’ Greenwood future but ‘complete silence’ hinders Man Utd ‘redemption path’

The Mailbox reckons there’s a “path back” for Mason Greenwood and the media are “incredibly arrogant” for telling Man Utd what do to…

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

Greenwood defence
The media and woke people’s narrative about Greenwood and what Man Utd have to do is incredibly arrogant and just as wrong as anything Utd may or may not do.

This narrative that Greenwood is being favoured for a comeback because he is a quality forward and Man Utd need one of those. This narrative is also that this young lad has to be thrown away for what he has apparently done despite the media not having all the evidence and that he was not even prosecuted. Greenwood has been on public trial in the media for a year or so, he has pretty much had a public sentence handed down to him regardless. To assume Man Utd are just going to make a decision because the lad can play football and might be worth a few quid is quite disrespectful to a club/business the size of Utd.

If Utd make a decision based purely on the media recommendation and the path of least backlash then surely that is completely wrong too? Should every decision be made simply on what the media thinks? Please No.

Greenwood is a young man who has been employed by Man Utd for some time. Utd have a responsibility to rehabilitate him and in doing that, they need to have some say on whether that rehabilitation is best spent at Utd or elsewhere. Maybe Utd have failed a rich young man and not raised him as well as they could. But when your child screws up you don’t just throw them away. Well I don’t, maybe you do?

If Utd decide to keep him and provide a reasonable explanation as to why they chose that option then I will support the club and the player. I’d also have thought the player would want to hide abroad but utd has been his family for 14 of his 21 years on this earth so maybe he wants and needs that structure to have any chance of getting through what is going to continue to be very tough for him.

Also, while the media build him up to be the world star that he at no point ever got to, there’s more chance that he won’t even get in the Utd first team or any other major first team again. However, I think the lad deserves a second chance to get on with his life and try and make a living in his chosen profession that he has been playing at utd since age 7. Whether that is at Utd or elsewhere, we’ll see.

No doubt I’ll get some backlash for painting Greenwood as the victim (definitely not my intention), but all those who just want him banished forever should think about whether that is fair. He’s clearly made up with his partner, he’s suffered the media abuse and public trial for a year. What more does he need to do be able to get on with his life? He would have been better off having been convicted than have his case dismissed – he’d probably have gotten community service, suspended from playing for 6 months, been back to football long ago, terrace chants would have died down and the media would have long forgotten.

How about we wait and see what Utd actually decide before crucifying them and the player?
Jon, Cape Town

Greenwood silence
I’ll confess to having a slight dichotomy over the Mason Greenwood situation. Clearly, the conversation that led to all this is just appalling. There is no doubt – really – that the way he spoke to his girlfriend is utterly disgusting, and it’s indefensible. And all the people declaring him to be innocent, well, he isn’t, but as things stand he has not been found guilty of a crime. That doesn’t mean he is innocent. I don’t get how people don’t understand this.

The real problem, going forward, is the complete silence from Greenwood and his representatives. It seems to me that there is a way back, a redemptive path, but in order for this to happen, there has to be an acknowledgement of wrongdoing on Greenwood’s part. Clearly, Team Greenwood have decided that they are not going to do this, but without it, it is hard to have even an iota of sympathy for a stupid, callow young man who has clearly not been brought up to respect women.

However, an acceptance that his language and behaviour are not acceptable, and an acknowledgement that he behaved poorly and that he has grown, well, this would at least be a step in the right direction. It could lead to a wider conversation where progress could be made, and in challenging certain prevailing attitudes towards women (seriously, we see this all over the comments section where the usual suspects are treating this topic like it’s a right larf), then things could improve.

But clearly, Greenwood is not prepared to admit that he did something wrong, which is a bizarre stance to take since everyone (with a brain) knows he did.

Manchester United have handled this appallingly, have advised Greenwood appallingly, and they have a huge role to play in the dreadful manner in which this is playing out. They can’t win now. Either Greenwood plays for them, which will be a PR disaster, doomed to failure, or they lose a bright footballing prospect. And they only have their impotent response to blame.

My dichotomy is because there are many in the game – big name players that I won’t name, but we all know who they are – who have been accused of worse offences than Greenwood, but have completely gotten away with it. And here we have a naive, stupid, working class footballer at the start of his career, found guilty of nothing, who may have ruined his career permanently, before it really got started. There is something wrong with that picture too. On so many levels, he has been let down by those around him.

There should be a path back for him. But it has to start with him.
Matthew (I imagine this will be woefully interpreted should it get published)

Glazer’s decision on Greenwood
My name is Mark and here is my assessment of the Greenwood situation at Man United. I don’t believe for one second that the Glazers have delegated the final decision to the CEO Richard Arnold. My read is that they have made the decision already, they appreciate there will be huge negative press regarding his return and RA will have to take the hit. This is not a criticism at all, he is their employee in the role and he who pays the piper calls the tune.

The Glazers are in the middle of a sale process for the asset with an asking price of >£6bn. They would not approve a decision without assessing the commercial damage to the brand by engaging key sponsors and other critical analysis – likely the reason it has all taken so long for the club to finalise.

The timing of the announcement has been made more delicate by the lionesses’ fabulous performance at the world cup. Imagine releasing news of Greenwood’s return the same week that the England Women’s team win the WC.

Now to the more controversial point, United need additional quality in attack and the Glazers have always tried to minimise expenditure with the additional FFP concerns – which appear legitimate – causing further constraints in this window. I think of two movie quotes:

1. Fight club “A x B x C = X and if X is less than the cost of a recall, we don’t do one.”

2. Vanilla Sky “What’s the answer to 99 out of 100 questions? Money…”

The club’s owners don’t give a fuck about the moral conundrum, they care about the bottom line.

And yet more controversial I myself take a simple view: the alleged injured party in this case has withdrawn the allegations and had a baby with the accused. They appear happy and to be getting on with their lives. What was submitted in the public domain was a frankly confusing audio and admittedly shocking photographs, the true story behind which only a small number of people know and all of them have apparently decided to move on from.

I wish them both well and hope that if he returns he can cope with the spotlight and that it doesn’t cause too much harm and distress to any people that were not involved.

Just my honest take.
Mark O

READ MORE: Why are Manchester United so willing to degrade themselves for Mason Greenwood?

Transfer day
Most Americans are sick of election cycles which can last for months if not years. In Britain, an election is called, and six weeks later, bosh, it’s all sorted out.

Conversely, I imagine most fans of the EPL are sick of the endless transfer speculation. I know journalists need to fill pages but I don’t how these drawn-out sagas benefit the players or the teams preparing for the season.

Why not take a leaf out of the U.S. draft system for transfers? It could go something like this…

At the end of the season for 2 or 4 weeks, prospective buying clubs formally register interest in players. These clubs either flat-out refuse any offers or set a price target or range with a minimum reserve price like an auction.

On draft day, players are chosen randomly or in price order, again like an auction, and the bidding starts. Imagine how exciting it would be! “Liverpool have opened the bidding for Toney at 40m. Wait, Spurs have now entered a bid for 45m, etc.”

I realize the idea has a lot of holes. Do all the top 5 leagues join in at once of a different league every day? How are personal terms resolved? However, once sorted, players can actually enjoy a vacation and clubs can better prepare their pre-seasons. And it would make for riveting watching.
Adidasmufc (Except if Chelsea bought everyone!)

Infantino
No one should really pay Infantino or anything he says or does any attention, but his comments about equality in FIFA really ground my gears.

He said Women needed to “push the doors” to seek more equality and that;

“With men, with Fifa, you will find open doors. Just push the doors,”

The if the door’s open it doesn’t need to be fucking pushed now does it.

It could well be a case of English not being his first language but I’m not giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Will (It’s OK, he has four daughters so he can’t possibly be a misogynist right?)

Enough with the bellyaching already!
So, players are moving to Saudi for exponential wages, and yeah, there are human-right concerns, sportswashing, and whatnot! How is it any different from any other profession?

I know people going to the US for huge pay in the IT industry, and America doesn’t quite shine as a beacon of human rights, does it? And there was definitely no ‘sky-is-falling-on-our-heads’ kind of reaction when Messi moved to the US, was there? I can drone on and on (like the US does).

Also, why shouldn’t the European elite move to other leagues when every other league is watched like a hawk by premier league scouts? When English League can scout Japan, why can’t the Saudi League poach in Europe? It’s quite straightforward, isn’t it?

Of course, there would be other readers who would vehemently disagree with me, but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Anand 

More Maguire…
The recent letters from Manchester United supporters whining that Harry McGuire won’t do what he’s told are collectively the funniest thing I’ve read here in years. The entitlement and utter lack of self-awareness they express is just so on-brand. Please keep them coming.
Chris C, Took Army DC

Chelsea spending
To everyone saying FFP rules aren’t being broken and nothing untoward is going on at Chelsea, why aren’t all the other premier league clubs putting their new players on 8 year+ contracts and spending vast sums on average players.
Is it that Chelsea have super clever accountants, or perhaps something actually isn’t quite right…
Zak

READ MORE: The most expensive Premier League teenagers ever… Martial finally dislodged by Chelsea signing