Yeh we should probably have this conversation tomorrow when you open the paper and see I was telling the truth.
Okay, I'm going to be a smart arse for a second. If The Sun fabricated a story about Andy Carroll beating someone up, and there was no truth in it whatsoever, he would sue their arses off for defamation. If NorthernIrishSaint is making this up, though I'm sure he isn't, then it's the same thing - Carroll could take action against him for defamation (though realistically this story would have to get a lot bigger before he starts to give a ****). What I'm trying to say is that people cannot make up stories like this and get away with it, not even the biggest and most morally ambiguous newspapers. If The Sun does print it, then you can be almost certain it's at least partly true, unless of course it is quickly followed by one of the most open-and-shut libel cases in history.
NIS I don't doubt you are posting in good faith and I agree you have no reason to make this up. But I don't know you and to me, you are just some bloke on the Internet posting a rumour that may or may not be true. I am not going to judge Carrol on this either way until I read the story in full and at least get some idea of the facts. There probably was a fight and if there was, the other chap probably came off worse - I would Imagine Carrol is quite a handful. But who knows why there was a fight? It may have been the Irish bloke that kicked off? The problem is, if it is only The Sun reporting it, I imagine the story will be quite biased in favour of one of their own reporters. I will wait and see what tomorrow brings.
At this juncture I would suppose that there has been an "incident" at the West Ham Xmas party in Dublin in the same way that there was an "incident" (reported by a newspaper) with a group of people that included Rickie Lambert at a pub last year... In that instance, Rickie was ushered away from any trouble by friends and not involved in the fracas. Now we don't know exactly the circumstances under which the fracas occured in Dublin, only that a named player has been implicated in it, so it is too early to assume the guilt of anyone, or indeed if it is a fabrication of the truth, we just don't know.
I'm sorry. I got frustrated at having to repeatedly tell you that I don't know for a fact that there was a fight. Everyone else seemed to understand. You seem to have grasped it now which is good
I would have grasped it a lot quicker if you'd simply explained what you meant and left out the abuse, thanks. My original point, which you seem to have missed, was that you were basing your defence of him on just as much conjecture as others.
Well yes. My defence of him was all based on theory and "what if's". I never implied I knew anything about the situation. You seem to have picked up on something that no one else did. The OP said there was a fight and I basically said "maybe the other bloke started it". You took that as me confirming there was a fight for some reason. I was fast asleep at home when it allegedly occurred so I know no more than of you. JS, of course I hope it isn't true. But even if it is I will want to know the situation rather than just the photographers side of the story, which, I fear will be all The Sun goes with.
http://www.kumb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=142350&start=2220 Woohoo! You're famous on KUMB now. Apparently there's some proper bellends on here!
Haha, just read that comment: "By the way, that Saint's forum has some proper bellends on it." He's not wrong, but I do wonder which bellends he's referring to.
For the record this is my take on it:- If I was a tipsy professional footballer, I'd want to hit reporters/photographers from The Sun. A reporter from the Sun is going to make a right meal of even being grazed by someone that earns what Andy Carroll does. It's probably going to turn out to be a mountain out of a molehill. I would have to question the wisdom of taking a team on a Xmas pissup to Dublin mid-season though, do we do this? Apologies if we do, but it just seems to have "potential for trouble" written all over it!
Well said Sir. I have to agree it does seem strange, especially during a run of difficult fixtures. I have no problem with the players having a drink and a night out with 7 days before the next game but I don't see why it had to be a lads weekend in Dublin!
Call me smug, but you certainly won't see the Saints team flying off somewhere for a lads' weekend mid-season. Shouldn't be happening.
Do you know that for sure? I think most clubs players have some kind of Christmas drinks night? They do usually end up like this though.
Most clubs have xmas parties during the season (obviously it doesn't make sense to do it in the summer), and now is a good time to do it with a slight gap in the fixture list. It wouldn't surprise me at all if our boys did something similar (minus the fisticuffs of course).
I wouldn't criticise them for having one night out in Southampton/London, but this is a busy period and they need to be working hard, rather than flying all the way to Ireland.
I would imagine they were back in Training today with a good detox and will be back to 100% condition by tomorrow. We don't play til 4pm Sunday so I doubt very much it would have any bad effect on them. The morale boost and team bonding is probably actually beneficial usually I would say.
