Women's Football/Mark Sampson

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

Seen her day? She's 30 now and was 29 when she was dropped. She's younger than Jodie Taylor and scored more goals than her (in fact more goals than anyone) in the league last season. It's a bit weird they suddenly decided she'd "seen her day" immediately after talking to the FA about Sampson.

Also, the Sampson and the FA have never claimed she was past it, the reason given was "un-lioness" behaviour.

Considering the celebrations by the team after the goal, and the subsequent tweets/comments etc made by Aluko afterwards, do you not get the feeling that Aluko isn't particularly well liked or respected within the dressing room by the other players?

Could it be that Sampson sacrificed Aluko for team morale/unity rather than having an individual axe to grind with her?
Irrespective of talent/goal scoring ability it could just be that sidelining Aluko was done in his view to benefit the team as a whole?

 

[Blue Hefner]

Considering the celebrations by the team after the goal, and the subsequent tweets/comments etc made by Aluko afterwards, do you not get the feeling that Aluko isn't particularly well liked or respected within the dressing room by the other players?

Could it be that Sampson sacrificed Aluko for team morale/unity rather than having an individual axe to grind with her?
Irrespective of talent/goal scoring ability it could just be that sidelining Aluko was done in his view to benefit the team as a whole?

Forgive me if I've got timelines wrong here but doesn't your argument fall down because they were shit in the Euros(apparently)?

 

[MarsLlama]

Seen her day? She's 30 now and was 29 when she was dropped. She's younger than Jodie Taylor and scored more goals than her (in fact more goals than anyone) in the league last season. It's a bit weird they suddenly decided she'd "seen her day" immediately after talking to the FA about Sampson. She wasn't even the one who contacted the FA, they asked her. She'd probably still have been sitting on all of this if they hadn't invited her to take part in an exercise that was clearly designed to ease their own consciences, except they clearly didn't like the answers they got. Also, the Sampson and the FA have never claimed she was past it, the reason given was "un-lioness" behaviour.

Based on what I gather about her character and reputation in the dressing room, 'un-lioness' behavior could refer to a complaint but could also easily refer to other forms of poor behavior out of the management's control.

I just find it fundamentally unlikely that an England national team football manager working for the FA in 2017 is a racist. I struggle to understand how anyone connected with the sport in this country at all manages to be racist considering how many black players and other race players there are. Aluko is not the only non-Caucasian player he works with, not by a long stretch, and none of the others (including Nikita Parris) seem to have any issues with him.

I also feel like if this was the man's game and a disliked player (let's say Diego Costa) came out and said he was being bullied by his manager while the rest of the squad supported their boss, nobody would have any problems assuming Costa was in the wrong.

I'm not saying Sampson didn't deserve to be fired, but racially abusing Aluko? I just don't buy it.

 

[malg]

You'd never get these shenanigans in the men's game.

 

[MarsLlama]

By the way, is it wrong that I find the 'Super White Army' banner ironically funny?

 

[Ghandi's Flip Flops]

Forgive me if I've got timelines wrong here but doesn't your argument fall down because they were shit in the Euros(apparently)?

Only with the benefit of hindsight.

Just asking if Sampson made a judgement call that he thought the team would compete better without Aluko in the squad.
It wouldn't be the first time in football that a teams best player has been sacrified (ala Kinkladze) for better team unity/ less toxicity in the dressing room.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Why even say these things when you haven't bothered to check facts? She wasn't past it or not good enough, she was a full member of the squad, with a great scoring record who has since won the golden boot. She was dropped AFTER making the claims IN CONFIDENCE after being invited by the FA to take part in a review.

Exactly. She always looked a fine inside forward when she came on as sub in the games i saw for England. Great control,neat passing,knew where the goal was and industrious ,discilplined,a real team player..i dont know enough about womens football to suggest she should have started those games,but i was always more than a little Suprised that this experienced speedy,busy forward was overlooked for a starting position , often in favour of players from City who,imo,didnt look in the same class.Again,i may be way off the mark here....But it does now all sort of make sense why the player was always sub.
It must have been a very difficult time for all parties concerned with the burgeoning attention given to Womens football,iincreased media attemtion,a real feeling that NOW is the time for their team to make a real stand,and slice of their own history...Top marks to any player who whilst believing rightly or wrongly that their coach is not fully supportive,chooses to bite her lip and keep it down,for the good of the team.

 

[KS55]

Was he interfering with bristols?

 

[kaz7]

Why is this so hard to believe? in school only certain kids get bullied and in the work place only some people get bullied or harrassed by their bosses,him being nice to the others does not mean he wasn't racist or picked on her for whatever reason,they paid her 80 grand for a reason,to shut her up maybe

 

[mrbelfry]

I just find it fundamentally unlikely that an England national team football manager working for the FA in 2017 is a racist. I struggle to understand how anyone connected with the sport in this country at all manages to be racist considering how many black players and other race players there are.

I think this is incredibly naive and partly explains institutionalised racism. You can't imagine it happens so when you hear about it you instantly dismiss it. People can very easily hold a racist attitude towards a group of people but exclude people from those stereotypes if they know them ie all united fans are lazy, obnoxious, loud mouth, glory hunting wastes of skin EXCEPT for the one that runs the corner shop. Aluko can be a prickly, obnoxious big mouth AND being racially abused - the two aren't mutually exclusive