In your own opinion, with the evidence available to you at the moment, do you think he is guilty or not guilty?
I hear you and can accept your argument.......however your son will still possibly see him playing the beloved game but for someone else. So in reality all your son is going to see is a young lad being given a chance to rehabilitate by someone else. The only change is the colour of his shirt. Yes he may learn that his club sacked him for his wrong doing. He will not see anything different about the whole thing though. Now, if he was to learn that the lads career went totally out of the window because of what he did, then yes a very strong message will be sent out. Otherwise though there is so very little for a youngster to learn from courts handing out the sentences they do these days!!!! We will have to wait and see what actually happened and maybe then have this conversation again based on what we know rather than speculation......
When the Dave Jones fiasco happened my missus said he was guilty because of the look in his eyes, fortunately for Lee it will be the legal system which will be deciding his fate and not her.
I have no idea. All I have is forum talk and a big bandage on his wrist. I have seen no evidence. I hope he is innocent and proved so.
I'm sorry, but really we have no evidence either way really, except for hearsay evidence, which is pretty poor evidence at the best of times.
Very interesting posts, great to hear some reasoned argument. My two-penneth; The legal process will produce a verdict in due course. If he's not proven guilty "beyond reasonable doubt", then we all breath a sigh of relief and move on. If he is found guilty I do not think that the sentence handed out is actually important at all, except to the extent that should he be imprisoned he will be in breach of his contract by not turning up for work at the start of pre-season. It is also utterly irrelevant whether we are blessed with easy replacements or not, or whether the player concerned was the best or least able in the squad. Professional organisations need to have a consistent policy, or they lack any credibility, and open themselves up to legal challenge. On the subject of the legal situation, assuming that he is able to turn up for training, I am sure that every players contract will have a clause in it allowing the club to terminate said contract if the player, "brings the club into disrepute." That decision will be NC and the Liebherr Family's. If they decide that he cannot stay, I would expect him to be transfer-listed, rather than released. It would send the message about expected standards, but not simply gift him a big signing on payday elsewhere. If they are prepared to let him stay, I would expect a great deal of contrition, and perhaps an extra load of time "donated" to the Saints Foundation in gratitude. To be honest, I am struggling to know what should happen for the best if the worst should happen. I would hate to see him go, but would respect the club for taking a stand.
Exactly WS. He's one of our best and most commited players, is popular with the fans and I'd hate him to think he's guilty of what he's being accused of, but until this comes to trial and the court decides we can only guess what, if any punishment he'll get and what the club will do regarding his future. If we lose him then NA & NC will need to have a replacement ready.
It's his first offence, so IF he is found guilty, I would imagine a custiodial sentence is very unlikely.
I will wish him all the best in court! However IF ... there is conclusive evidence of him attacking someone then they have to throw the book at him, and give the same judgement as anyone would recieve if we did it. ...Let hope he was as not as stupid as some are making out! Good Luck Lee!
Hey Jen, good to see you've moved here from 606 Just a quick question, if Barnard has assaulted someone who meant a lot to you (Boyfriend, father, friend, ect), would you be saying the same? Would you think this would be an acceptable level of punishment, especially for somebody who should be a role model to the younger generation of football fan, or does the annonimity of the victim make the suggest action less?
Jake, the "friend, boyfriend, father", whatever is irrelevant. It seems reading on here that most Saints fans won't condone the crime IF he is found guilty. It doesn't matter who he is, who he is mates with, related to, or how good a player he is; if he is guilty, he is guilty. Not everyone agrees, but despite how much I like him as a player, he should be gone if found guilty.
Spot on regarding the condemnation.........The only disagreement in my eyes is what to do with him should he be found guilty. That debate has hardly started yet on that point.
Come on Beddytare. Me, you, pipes, slippers, dominos.... half a light ale. See you in the legion at 11 and we'll get a cab home at about 6pm in time for ham, egg and chips! By then we'll have put the world to rights I'm sure
