I periodically make the mistake of buying the Mail on Sunday in which the esteemed Patrick Collins (self-appointed keeper of the holy morals of Charlton Athletic and the Labour Party) writes. In his sermon today he preaches that, as a Charlton fan, he would "rather be relegated than be saved by a thug" (aka Ben Thatcher). He had similar views about Bowyer when there was a prospect of Curbs buying him last season.
I know it is difficult for someone as holy as thou to tolerate him representing their club but, believe it or not PC (there's a ironic set of initials for you), this particular long-standing Charlton fan, while finding Thatcher's past misdemeanours thoroughly distasteful and expecting the club to have zero tolerance of any repeat, would prefer at this stage to trust Alan Pardew's judgement than be quite so sanctimonious and pompous about the matter as you. It was of course Pardew that brought Bowyer back to London, at least to date without exhibiting the unbridled thuggery predicted by you.
But then I guess for you PC its like the Tories, once a bastard always a bastard!
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If he were a Guardian/Observer writer I might be persuaded to take him seriously until then...
Have you got a link to that Collins' article?
"Charlton fans are a tolerant bunch. When Iain Dowie was appointed manager they muttered their misgivings and hoped for the best. When he proved spectacularly hopeless they got behind poor, earnest Les Reed. When that experiment failed they convinced themselves that Alan Pardew was just the man. Well, last week Pardew paid £500,000 for Ben Thatcher, the player who famously smashed his elbow into the throat of Portsmouth's Pedro Mendes, "I think he's the sort of character we're going to need," said Pardew. Perhaps. Personally, I would rather be relegated than be saved by a thug. You see tolerance has its limits. Even for Charlton fans."
see you soon.
Personally, i don't think he will be the only one having misgivings about signing Thatcher, particularly in some of the elder generation that Collins is.
95% though i think will give him support, which is a lot more than some other players get from the crowd !
I agree with AFKA, it's partly a generational thing. There's also the issue that it might be considered to make us look hypocritical, having roundly condemned Pat Van Den Hauwe and Kevin Muscat (to name but two) in the past. A similar debate's been going on on the Charlton mailing list, which was vigorously contested on both sides, with some surprising people agreeing with each other. Me, I'm prepared to give Thatcher the benefit of the doubt, as long as he doesn't do it again.
Of course he's entitled to his views but "knob" is about right.
I disagree with both of them but it is an interesting point. Would we mind having Kevin Muscat? For me that would be wrong but I don't have a problem with Thatcher (other than him being an ex-spanner of course).
Bowyer is a much more clear cut case. He is a convicted racist. No way would I be happy to have him at our club - it is completely at odds with our community stance, and whatever the footballing reasons, I see no way that we could justify it.
Hopefully on signing he was informed that his "robust" style of play won't be tolerated.
I agree with your comments about Bowyer, but bear in mind it wasn't that long ago we had di Canio who has publically expressed a liking for Benito Mussolini and went to flash fascist salutes at Lazio.
Sport and politics, eh, a dangerous combination...
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Bowyer
...he was accused over a racial incident in a McDonald's in London, apparently telling the shop's Asian staff to "I don't want to be served by no Paki"
After an incident outside a Leeds city centre nightclub, Bowyer was accused of involvement in the assault of the student Safraz Najeib. Bowyer was found not guilty of affray and grievous bodily harm with intent, but teammate Jonathan Woodgate was found guilty of affray and ordered to serve 100 hours' community service.[4]
Perhaps the most amusing of Bowyer's various racially motivated incidents was the December 19 2001, when the Mirror newspaper published front page, which next to an image of Bowyer's head exclaimed: "I'm the victim... wails boozing, pot smoking, violent, RACIST, cowardly, unapologetic, lying, odious transfer-listed Lee Bowyer (now try and sue us you little scum bag).
So you could probably get away with calling him a reputed rascist, but not a convicted one.