A funnily delivered line from Dolf in that film, sums up Johnsons bank balance in a few months time... "Its emptaaaay, its emptaaay"
Apologies if posted three days ago but can't be arsed to trawl through. Slightly inflammatory take on things http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/.../sad-tale-of-adam-johnson-and-sunderland-afc/ Never start an article with “I told you so”. At least that’s what “The Guardian” said to me when I first started writing “The Secret Footballer” columns for the paper. Eighteen months ago, I wrote an article about Sunderland in which I said: “There are problems at Sunderland – big problems. They have too many players who do not have enough respect for the game. It is no secret in football circles that there is a drinking culture at Sunderland that extends right through the core of the team.” I was hammered by Sunderland fans for that article but it’s absolutely true. To this day, I still get weekly pictures of the Sunderland players out and about on the piss. And I also get the stories that go with those pictures. Adam Johnson, the England and Sunderland winger, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of sexual activity with a girl under 16. He was immediately suspended by his club. I rang a friend who used to play with Johnson and the first thing he said to me, before he’d even said “hello”, was: “It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it?” He didn’t say that in relation to the accusation that Johnson had had sexual activity with an underage girl, he said it because we both know that the players at Sunderland are renowned in the game for their nocturnal activities. Regardless of whether or not the Johnson allegation turns out be true, the frequency of the nights out on Wearside from certain Sunderland players was always going to snag one of them. “They were out again at the weekend,” my friend said. “At the end of the night, they took birds back to ******’s house but he’d gone back first so was in the middle of it with his one. The others had to go a hotel.” It happens most weekends, with a little hardcore group of players that are occasionally joined by other members of the squad. But the allegation against Johnson is just that at this stage, an allegation. It is also worth pointing out that the 15-year-old girl in question was said to be boasting about their alleged “relationship” to her friends and on social media. The defence of Johnson, 27, by the mother of his girlfriend, Stacey Flounders, has been robust. “They are still very close and are absolutely still together,” she said. “He is 100 per cent innocent and we will stand by him. He hasn’t been found guilty of anything. He is a great lad and has not done anything wrong. This is a horrible situation.” Over the years, I have seen a lot of this sort of thing squashed in the womb, if that’s the turn of phrase I’m after. There have been accusations against players at every club that I’ve played; sometimes they’re true but very often they’re complete and utter bullshit. There have been accusations against players at every club that I’ve played For Johnson’s sake and everybody involved, I hope this falls into the latter category. I hope this is a girl who has made up a story up for attention; I hope that a claim reported by the media that Johnson had posed in pictures with the girl, if true, served as the starting point for her to fabricate a relationship. That’s what I hope. But that may not be the truth of it. However, at this stage of an ongoing police investigation, nobody really knows for sure. On Friday, my friend called again and, this time, he picked up the conversation with the air of a man who has seen everything in football and, as a result, would not be in the least bit surprised if this allegation turned out to be true. “Mate,” he began, “I just heard from a mate who’s spoken to his missus. Apparently, he’s retreated to a dark place, not talking to anyone. Listen, I don’t think he’s ever gonna play football again.” I pressed him a little and asked what had been said that made him so sure, pointing out that the family were being publicly supportive. “Yeah, they were,” he said, “but that was on Monday. It’s Friday today. I asked my mate what the latest is and he just said: ‘he’s f*****’.” The amount of negative stories that I hear coming out of Sunderland always outweighs anything coming out of almost any other Premier League club. Sometimes they make the Press, in a lot of cases they don’t. Something seems to happen to players when they move to the Stadium of Light. In the meantime, all we can do is wait for the outcome of the Johnson investigation and the inevitability of another negative headline to come out of Sunderland AFC concerning another of their players. Unless, of course, this most unsavoury of incidents can serve as a wake-up call to the squad. I won’t hold my breath. Not that there is any sympathy from those involved in football when these stories come along. In fact, quite the opposite, which most of the time is a bit rich to be honest. We’re not all saints, and we’re definitely a target in certain quarters, but we’re also capable of doing some bloody stupid things at times We’re also capable of doing some bloody stupid things at times “Mate, you know they found a loaded gun in his [Johnson's] house, don’t ya?” my friend said. “Cops took it away, though, and all his cars for forensics. Poor f***** can’t even shoot himself.” At which point, he burst out laughing. It would appear that the “loaded gun” was, in fact, a blank firing pistol that does not require a licence to own … but still. Welcome to the dark, dark humour of English football, where nothing, it seems, is off limits. Read more at http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/...hnson-and-sunderland-afc/#aqyps4RSrBmPBZ1V.99
Just heard his bail's been extended, 23rd April .......... there'll be hell on if no charges are forthcoming.
It's the club's choice, nowt to do with the police ........ play him and suspend him if he's charged imo.
I agree Smug, back the lad and play him. He loves a derby. Let's be frank, he's not being accused of any real deviancy, at worst he's been a bit naive. Even if he's done it, seems he didn't do it knowingly. Is stupidity a crime? We need the lad.
It's not a vicious rape, it's not serial victims, it's not proven ........ there's nothing to stop him playing imo.
Couldn't be the Newcastle friendly police force dragging it out surely? They can lift phone calls, text, social media. Unless they communicated in smoke signals this could be tied up in 2-3 days, surely? ****ers
You know Frost is a fictional character, right? Ha. Joking aside mate, seems a piss take, this was either open or shut, the harm this is doing the lad mentally, especially if false, is bullshit.
They've got **** all. This should be thrown out now. Good old Durham Police are winning him the case on their own. Raiding the AoL weeks after raiding his home instead of at the same time is incredibly bad policing. They're clutching now and all they're doing is guaranteeing AJ a bigger pay out of what is ultimately a tax payers money. They're so desperate to take extra precautions to cover their arse 'just in case' that all good sense police practices have gone out the window. Just drop this bollocks so he can get back to playing.
Unless the club are certain something terrible has happened they should take this opportunity to say 'enough's enough'.
That`s my concern. There was no messing about. The suspension was immediate. Unless it`s standard procedure of course.
As with the vast majority of these "celeb scandals", there's 2 week coverage of news of old news that last year's news ate for breakfast and **** out, then 6 months later a bare footnote on page 37 of their innocence with surface, with, I might add, no shred of apology for what is tantamount to slander. If he hasn't done it, then the girl should be put in prison for a few years and forced to pay damages out of the pittance she'll get bagging groceries for the rest of her life. If he's guilty, then he should rightly be put away to play left wing in the clink.
TBH, even if he's guilty it probably won't mean jail time. If he's guilty then he deserves punishment but he's being punished before he's even been charged, let alone convicted.
He hasn't done it though obviously. They haven't even got enough to charge him which doesn't take much more than a bit of circumstantial evidence and gut feeling from the CP. Got the worst team for the job with Durham Police. ****ing useless and budgetless.
