I actually thought it was someone like Panorama that did the piece, but I'm stretching my memory now.
Dario Gradi visited the parents of a Chelsea youth team player to “smooth over” a complaint of sexual assault against chief scout Eddie Heath, it has been claimed. The former player, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told The Independent that then-assistant manager Mr Gradi was sent to the family’s home by Chelsea following the complaint against Heath when the pair worked at the club in the early 1970s. He said Mr Gradi, who was in his thirties at the time, was at the house for an hour and seemed to indicate in the conversation that he knew Heath was “closer” to boys than he should have been. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-alexandra-smoothed-over-claims-a7453151.html Not looking good for Gradi
Gutted. I met this guy and worked with him a number of times. One of the good guys. Sure he thought he was doing the right thing, but how wrong can you be
I said to my Crewe supporting mate this afternoon that I really hope Dario doesn't come out of this having done anything wrong. I've always held his Creee career up as a marvelous thing Then I saw them try and interview him at the gates of Crewe trading ground and I felt he handled that wrong. Now this.
I am confused, so if this came up before how come I have read quotes from Lawrie etc as if it's the first they've heard about it? How come the person in question hasn't been named if he's been accused before? I'm guessing if I wanted to a few goes on Google will reveal all? Seems a bit odd.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...oyee-accused-of-abuse-still-works-in-football http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...tml?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490 Seems as if the Club did what they could at the time, perhaps they could have done more?
What is clear is that often the kids know about strange behaviour, but keep it quiet and try to avoid being alone with the person concerned. Children find it hard to talk to adults....nothing new about that. One lad said the Chelsea coach targeted single mothers as they often welcomed help with lifts home....I've been there...always glad when someone said they'd do the pick ups. And can you imagine a lad telling his Mum so she charged down the club and humiliated him (as he would see it)....no, I can't either.
It does. I may have the wrong person, but I am 100% sure that Dean Radford has come out about it publicly before. I remember watching him in tears on the television. What I can't remember and can't be 100% sure is if the coach was named back then. Google isn't helping. I googled the coach's name and not a lot comes up about him. I googled Radford last week plus key phrases and nothing came up. Now would be different of course due to this weeks interviews. I am amazed that Lawrie has made that statement.
That second article has a quote from Franny Benali saying he knows who the coach was and that comments were made. I was there when Franny was and it must be the coach I was referring to.
My Brother here in Guernsey was going to make a coaching video with a coach from Saints and was excited at the prospect but it fell through , when I asked him what happened he told me the coach left under a cloud of allegations and Dave Merrington had given the coach a lot of grief am wondering if it's the same one
I'm wondering if it's the same name I've had mentioned to me... If you google the name followed by 'Southampton' are a couple of the top results a Saintsweb thread from 2010 and a fansonline thread which is more recent (where people quite clearly don't care about naming him) ? EDIT: Just looked again and it also turns up a recent echo article unrelated to this story where someone has named him...
Also looks like he registered his own soccer academy in the mid-late 80's... that's ****ing terrifying
Yes he did and it carried a lot of kudos. Players in the area would be referred to as having come from the ** Academy.
I guess you are keeping the name secret is for the same reason that Saints didn't take more punitive action, accusing is easy, proving is the difficult part.
This. Not only could you get yourself in trouble but also the site owners. The mods will (or should) delete any comment naming the bloke (at present anyway). It's out there if you look hard enough anyway... I even made a hint in an earlier post.
