Posts Tagged ‘Hindsight’

Jury clears Gerrard of affray

• Liverpool star ‘unwise’ to get involved, judge says
• Fans gather outside court to cheer ‘Stevie G’ verdict

It took a jury less than 90 minutes today to clear Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard of affray even though he admitted punching a man three times in a bar.

Gerrard maintained that he had acted in self-defence during the brawl at the Lounge Inn in Southport last December, which was triggered by a row over control of music.

Gerrard, 29, had wanted to pick the music in the bar, but Marcus McGee, who was in charge of the CD player, refused his request. The trial was told that although McGee, 34, did not throw any punches, the player believed he was about to be hit.

Earlier in the evening, the England international and his friends had seemed to be in high spirits, singing and dancing as they celebrated a crushing victory over Newcastle United.

Minutes after he had been rebuffed by McGee, the footballer approached him as he sat on a barstool. John Doran, Gerrard’s friend, elbowed McGee in the face, making him reel backwards and forwards. Fearing that he was about to be attacked, Gerrard landed three uppercuts on his face.

During the trial, he apologised for what had happened. Around 100 supporters gathered outside court today and cheered as Gerrard left the building.

Gerrard said: “I would like to put this case behind me now and I am really looking forward to the season ahead and concentrating on football now.”

Judge Henry Globe, recorder of Liverpool, told Liverpool crown court after the verdict that the football player “could walk away with his reputation intact”.

The judge told Gerrard that in hindsight it “may have been unwise of you” to approach Marcus McGee following the trivial disagreement.

“However, that is far from saying you were criminally responsible for the violence that thereafter erupted.”

The judge said when the violence commenced the victim and his partner Gina Lond, who was standing nearby, thought that Gerrard had started it. Gerrard himself had initially thought McGee was the first person to deliver a blow.

“The CCTV evidence obtained later demonstrated conclusively that you were all mistaken,” the judge noted. The judge said the verdict was credible and the jury had demonstrably paid close attention to the full facts of the case.

Six of Gerrard’s friends, two of whom are Accrington Stanley players, will be sentenced next month after pleading guilty to charges of affray or threatening behaviour in connection with the brawl.

Having twice rejected the lure of Chelsea’s riches, “Stevie G”, as he is universally known to the red half of Liverpool, epitomises the one-club player, the local boy made good who has tried to maintain his links to the Bluebell estate in Huyton, where he grew up.

During the trial he appeared to well up as a statement from Kenny Dalglish was read out in court. “He is a very humble man,” the former Liverpool star said, who was “not the archetypal footballer” and had “never forgotten his roots”.

But the England midfielder’s evident puzzlement, then anger, at the man who, in the words of the prosecution, dared to “say no” to Steven Gerrard betrayed the fact he could never be one of the lads.

Jon Holmes, the veteran football agent whose clients have included David Beckham, said: “Their relationship with their community and the world they’re from has changed enormously. The irony is that Gerrard is probably better connected to his community than others.”

Former Chelsea player Pat Nevin said that there have always been punch-ups and drunken incidents involving playersdown the years, but in the past they were less likely to make the papers.

“It existed when I was playing and probably before that. You had those whose heads were turned by the fame and the money, even when the money was just twice the average wage,” he said.

“You also have to think about the way society treats these players. They are treated like gods and they are ordinary people. If you treat them like gods you will be disappointed.”

Newcastle’s Owen deal defended by Shepherd

• Former chairman defiant over £17m signing four years ago
• ‘Everybody said it was a fantastic deal at the time’

The former Newcastle United chairman Freddy Shepherd has hit back at claims that he should never have signed Michael Owen. The out-of-contract 29-year-old former England international will leave the club for free next week, four years after arriving in a £17m transfer deal.

However, injuries have limited him to just 79 appearances and critics insist his spell on Tyneside has been nothing short of disastrous. But Shepherd, the man who brokered a deal he believed would rival the capture of Alan Shearer nine years earlier, remains defiant.

“Hindsight is a great management tool – everybody’s wise after the event,” he told the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. “It’s very easy for people to say signing Michael Owen was a disaster, but everybody said it was a fantastic deal at the time.

“There were no dissenters back then. The clamour for him to sign was immense, and I didn’t hear any complaints from the thousands who turned up to welcome him on the day he arrived.”

Hull City and Stoke City are the only two clubs to have publicly confirmed their interest in signing Owen, who is desperate to resurrect his international career after falling out of favour with the England manager Fabio Capello.

But Shepherd is adamant no one could have foreseen the two serious injuries which have blighted his time on Tyneside. “At the time we signed him, his goals-per-game stats were about the best in the business and his pedigree second to none,” he said.

“Plus, he had had no career-threatening injuries and we had his fitness stringently checked out, as Real Madrid had a year before. Yes, things didn’t turn out anything like we hoped and expected they would. But nobody – and I mean nobody – saw it coming.”

Daniel Levy’s year as told to Rob Bagchi

Dear Supporter,

What an eventful year 2008 has been for all of us connected with Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, much like 2007, 2004, 2003 and 2001 in some ways but once again we have moved quickly to resolve problems that arose, none of them of our making of course. We have faced key challenges and witnessed several sea changes but at all times we have made judgment calls in the best interests of the club without the benefit of hindsight, for we are all at the mercy of an uncertain future, with the sole purpose of rowing with the tide and achieving the results Spurs deserve as the best-run club in the country.

For these reasons I do not intend to dwell on past issues, or "mistakes" as they are impertinently termed by those unaware of all the facts for reasons of practical and commercial sensitivity. Whenever I have been confronted by a situation in which I played absolutely no part in creating, I have not shirked from my duty to make tough decisions and reluctantly sacrifice some personnel who have not been able to meet our exceptional standards.

Among them have been George, Glenn, Martin and Juande and I think you know me well enough to accept that it gave me no pleasure whatsoever to conclude that these men had exhausted your goodwill and patience by their inability to live up to our great traditions of winning the Cup when the year ends in one and providing inspiration to the Rockney Cockerels, Chas & Dave, to use their muse to celebrate our deeds. Although we chopped it off the badge in a bold and dynamic makeover for reasons I am not at liberty to divulge, our motto remains audere est facere, to dare is to do. Whenever a change had to be made, it was my guide, just as it was for Big Chiv, Maxi Miller, Freundy and other heroes of the past 35 years. I dared do it and thus it was done.

And to all those critics who say my actions are tantamount to flushing the chain to make my own mess disappear I say this: How can you blame me if what I did was what I thought was right at the time? It may seem I rigidly insisted on a continental template for seven years, only to discard it at the seventh sign of trouble but you do not have all the facts at your disposal. I may have hand-picked all my managers but I relied on the expert advice of the people I hand-picked to counsel me. If I have to admit to a fault, perhaps I have been too trusting, yet surely you do not seek to blame me for that.

There is another pernicious myth that I am keen to address, namely that the decisions to sell Michael Carrick, Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov were my responsibility. No one enjoys the publicity of being put in such a position less than me but once their minds had been made up there was nothing to be done. The only option was to secure the maximum return. I was in the invidious position of inviting people to call my bluff while the other parties held the aces. But what a price they paid when they finally called it.

I was also accused of brinkmanship, of holding out to bump up the price and doing a deal too late for us to bring in viable replacements. This was decidedly not the case. Take the example of Manchester United's approach for our staff Christmas party. In November they faxed through an offer for the turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, wine, crackers and tree. I refused, saying we had a contract with the comestibles and ornamentations which we expected them to honour and that we were not the sort of small-time club that could be bullied into making a deal.

But United's friends in the press got wind of this development and we faced fervent speculation. I held firm, threatening to report them to the relevant authorities. Then an hour before the party was due to start they proposed a cash deal of staggering proportions. I said to Harry, "I rely on your advice on footballing matters, what should we do?" He said that it was attractive but that we can't eat cash and despite them upping the offer to include a tin of spaghetti hoops for the guests to compensate us for the fact that the shops had shut, we turned them down.

There, in a nutshell, is the man we have appointed, a man of judgment and great humour behind whom we stand even though he says he prefers us where he can see us. Let us use that spirit to pull together to build a team worthy of the board that seeks only to serve it. It's time to dare again.

Yours, Daniel

As told to Rob Bagchi

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Football: Obafemi Martins says sorry for reaction

Obafemi Martins has apologised to Joe Kinnear after stomping down the tunnel following his substitution during Saturday's 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough but remains baffled by the Newcastle United manager's decision to withdraw him.

"I was absolutely gutted at being hauled off," said the striker, who was replaced by Mark Viduka during the second half. "It was all down to sheer disappointment. Like any other player I am always most disappointed when I am substituted.

"But I'm sorry if what I did was a problem and, in hindsight, perhaps it was wrong of me to go into the dressing room and not go on the bench. I was feeling good and felt as though I could score and I still do not know why I was called off.

"It wasn't a surprise that Mark Viduka was brought on but I was hoping to play alongside him and Michael Owen. When the three of us were used together last season we had a fair amount of success."

As the FA yesterday launched an investigation into Islamophobic chants briefly directed at Middlesbrough's Egypt striker Mido by Newcastle fans, Piara Power, the national coordinator of the anti-racism campaign Kick it Out, demanded firm action. "We need Cleveland police to take this by the scruff of the neck because it's a criminal offence," he said. "I don't think the FA have any option but to bring charges against Newcastle. We are working with Newcastle and will be pressing home to them the need to look at the issue of Islamophobia."

An FA spokesman said: "Our position on these matters always is that any individuals who are identified and found guilty of discriminatory chanting, we will be calling for them to be banned. The responsibility lies with the police and the clubs to identify individuals responsible. We'll be liaising with them to make sure that happens." Cleveland police have confirmed 14 arrests were made at the fixture, 11 of which were inside the stadium. However, they have not said whether any were related to the offensive chanting.

Stephen Carr, the former Newcastle, Tottenham Hotspur and Republic of Ireland right-back, has retired. The 32-year-old failed to find a new club after leaving Newcastle at the end of last season. Carr won 44 international caps but suffered a series of injuries.

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