Club statement regarding Barry Bennell's conviction

Usually, no smoke without fire, a scout leader of mine had whispers about his behaviour amongst parents, ten years later I heard he was in prison for abusing kids in his charge.Changed times nowadays which is good for our kids.Never trust anyone was what I was always taught.
 
Apologies if this is a dumb or already answered question (I don't enjoy reading these threads sadly) but why is the trial in Liverpool and not Manchester?
Usually high profile cases are not in areas where crimes were committed to prevent disorder

Gang stuff the same
 
My Sunday league team played his team in 87/88 and I heard parents from our team saying he was a nonce and a pervert. I wonder if said parents regret not coming forward back and reporting it.
And this is one of the points I’m trying to make. People at that level clearly knew something was amiss. Do they not share some responsibility? Did teachers know or have suspicions? Other coaches or parents? Why is it only City, where he was never a full-time employee (although he clearly had some sort of relationship with the club or people in it)?

And the other point, which has also been made, is that times were different back then and attitudes towards this sort of behaviour seem to have drawn a line between ‘strangers’ and people who were trusted. It was like it was almost an occupational hazard of being a kid.
 
And this is one of the points I’m trying to make. People at that level clearly knew something was amiss. Do they not share some responsibility? Did teachers know or have suspicions? Other coaches or parents? Why is it only City, where he was never a full-time employee (although he clearly had some sort of relationship with the club or people in it)?

And the other point, which has also been made, is that times were different back then and attitudes towards this sort of behaviour seem to have drawn a line between ‘strangers’ and people who were trusted. It was like it was almost an occupational hazard of being a kid.

There did seem to be a lot more strange men who liked a cuddle and had doubts about them going back 30 years ago. I was never ever abused thankfully but 3 teachers who taught me and 1 boys brigade leader and 1 bloke on my road who I knew well all jailed for horrendous offences. And yet everyone kind of knew about all of them.
 
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A disgusting, vile and sick bastard.
I hope he gets what is coming to him in prison but no doubt he will be segregated for his own safety.

I hope his victims get some sort of closure knowing that he will never see the outside world again and that he will not be in a position to harm anyone else in the future.
 
And this is one of the points I’m trying to make. People at that level clearly knew something was amiss. Do they not share some responsibility? Did teachers know or have suspicions? Other coaches or parents? Why is it only City, where he was never a full-time employee (although he clearly had some sort of relationship with the club or people in it)?

And the other point, which has also been made, is that times were different back then and attitudes towards this sort of behaviour seem to have drawn a line between ‘strangers’ and people who were trusted. It was like it was almost an occupational hazard of being a kid.

Its been said numerous times already but in those days, the dirty old man and perv was well known to all but it never went further than that.

Times have changed and whilst im pleased the club is investigating and taking it seriously i will be pissed off if we cop for any serious flak over a man everyone seemingly knew was a wrong one, especially when he wasnt even on our payroll.
 
Its been said numerous times already but in those days, the dirty old man and perv was well known to all but it never went further than that.

Times have changed and whilst im pleased the club is investigating and taking it seriously i will be pissed off if we cop for any serious flak over a man everyone seemingly knew was a wrong one, especially when he wasnt even on our payroll.

Did everyone know about him though? If so, surely the parents would hear whispers about him, if so why would they allow their son's to stay at his home? Or go on trips away with him? Either the parents were incredibly reckless, or the rumours about him at the time weren't that strong around the teams he was involved with.
 
Did everyone know about him though? If so, surely the parents would hear whispers about him, if so why would they allow their son's to stay at his home? Or go on trips away with him? Either the parents were incredibly reckless, or the rumours about him at the time weren't that strong around the teams he was involved with.

If media reports are to be believed most are now claiming it was well known what he was doing and that clubs knew all about him.

That's fine but along with the clubs, every other person who knew or had heard also have to take responsibility and if that includes families who still allowed their lads to go then im afraid it applies to them also.

I have 3 boys and a girl and i wouldn't be letting them go anywhere with any rumours of a wrong un being present i can tell you that and most wouldn't.

If City are at fault then fine, we take it on the chin and anyone responsible should be dealt with but im getting the feeling now its going to be a City focused witch hunt with lots of people coming out of the woodwork claiming they knew that we knew about him but that works both ways and the question has to be asked of them, why didn't you say anything?
 
If media reports are to be believed most are now claiming it was well known what he was doing and that clubs knew all about him.

That's fine but along with the clubs, every other person who knew or had heard also have to take responsibility and if that includes families who still allowed their lads to go then im afraid it applies to them also.

I have 3 boys and a girl and i wouldn't be letting them go anywhere with any rumours of a wrong un being present i can tell you that and most wouldn't.

If City are at fault then fine, we take it on the chin and anyone responsible should be dealt with but im getting the feeling now its going to be a City focused witch hunt with lots of people coming out of the woodwork claiming they knew that we knew about him but that works both ways and the question has to be asked of them, why didn't you say anything?

End of the day mate they will have to prove they told somebody, hearsay wont be good enough as evidence against City or City employees- they cant say 40 years later that "we were all talking about him".

Got no issue with people being brought to justice over it but surely it has to be documented?
 
Did everyone know about him though? If so, surely the parents would hear whispers about him, if so why would they allow their son's to stay at his home? Or go on trips away with him? Either the parents were incredibly reckless, or the rumours about him at the time weren't that strong around the teams he was involved with.

The parents of the players didn’t know about Bennel’s “reputation”. I would witness the nonce picking up his free tickets from David on complimentaries and the only talk was about Blue Star and the young players big football prospects etc
 
I think it's now possible to see what potential legal claims against MCFC will be based on and what other questions we may be expected to answer in due course, at least with regard to Bennell. I might try to sketch that out at some point, but it will take a while because it'll be a fairly long post. I disagree with some of the more bullish analyses in this thread, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, I saw a piece by Henry Winter on The Times site today. He's talking about paedophiles shifting online with their grooming tactics, but there were a couple of references I found interesting: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa-must-do-more-to-stop-a-bennell-for-the-digital-age-x6h55jc5w

(The article is behind a paywall but you can register to view two articles for free each week.)

The first was that he referred to Bennell as the "former Crewe Alexandra youth coach and Manchester City scout", which sounds to me as though he's trying to differentiate between employment at Crewe and a looser arrangement with City, scouts (especially in those days) tending not to be employees. I noticed the same formulation in one or two other places as well.

Secondly, City's only mention in addition to the above is an approving short paragraph detailing how Pep spoke "spoke well and movingly about the subject". Crewe, on the other hand, attract the comment below (I've chosen to set it in context rather than just quote the part pertaining to the Cheshire club):

Along with revulsion towards Bennell, and disgust over Crewe’s silence that to some ears borders on the sinister, the overwhelming immediate emotion after the law took its due course in Liverpool yesterday was continued, intense admiration for the survivors.

This bears out what some of us have said about Crewe's approach being the very antithesis of ours. So far at least, it seems a reasonable assumption that we wouldn't have appointed experienced and eminent people to run an independent inquiry and spent a million in the process if we weren't taking matters very seriously.

Crewe, on the other hand, say they're going to hold an inquiry but haven't started yet because the police told them to wait for the end of the criminal proceedings (when City were told no such thing). Yet Crewe at the same time implacably deny that anyone at their club had knowledge of Bennell's activities when that's surely one of the core questions that an inquiry would be seeking to establish. Such a response is an absolute joke.

I was just pleased to note that one of the leading opinion formers among today's football journalists obviously sees this difference.
 
I think it's now possible to see what potential legal claims against MCFC will be based on and what other questions we may be expected to answer in due course, at least with regard to Bennell. I might try to sketch that out at some point, but it will take a while because it'll be a fairly long post. I disagree with some of the more bullish analyses in this thread, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, I saw a piece by Henry Winter on The Times site today. He's talking about paedophiles shifting online with their grooming tactics, but there were a couple of references I found interesting: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa-must-do-more-to-stop-a-bennell-for-the-digital-age-x6h55jc5w

(The article is behind a paywall but you can register to view two articles for free each week.)

The first was that he referred to Bennell as the "former Crewe Alexandra youth coach and Manchester City scout", which sounds to me as though he's trying to differentiate between employment at Crewe and a looser arrangement with City, scouts (especially in those days) tending not to be employees. I noticed the same formulation in one or two other places as well.

Secondly, City's only mention in addition to the above is an approving short paragraph detailing how Pep spoke "spoke well and movingly about the subject". Crewe, on the other hand, attract the comment below (I've chosen to set it in context rather than just quote the part pertaining to the Cheshire club):



This bears out what some of us have said about Crewe's approach being the very antithesis of ours. So far at least, it seems a reasonable assumption that we wouldn't have appointed experienced and eminent people to run an independent inquiry and spent a million in the process if we weren't taking matters very seriously.

Crewe, on the other hand, say they're going to hold an inquiry but haven't started yet because the police told them to wait for the end of the criminal proceedings (when City were told no such thing). Yet Crewe at the same time implacably deny that anyone at their club had knowledge of Bennell's activities when that's surely one of the core questions that an inquiry would be seeking to establish. Such a response is an absolute joke.

I was just pleased to note that one of the leading opinion formers among today's football journalists obviously sees this difference.
Crewe are hiding a lot of relevant information, there were many rumours about that Club and the people that ran it, hopefully the full truth comes out, there will be plenty of people previously employed at Crewe who will be absolutely bricking it.
 
I think it's now possible to see what potential legal claims against MCFC will be based on and what other questions we may be expected to answer in due course, at least with regard to Bennell. I might try to sketch that out at some point, but it will take a while because it'll be a fairly long post. I disagree with some of the more bullish analyses in this thread, I'm afraid.

Meanwhile, I saw a piece by Henry Winter on The Times site today. He's talking about paedophiles shifting online with their grooming tactics, but there were a couple of references I found interesting: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fa-must-do-more-to-stop-a-bennell-for-the-digital-age-x6h55jc5w

(The article is behind a paywall but you can register to view two articles for free each week.)

The first was that he referred to Bennell as the "former Crewe Alexandra youth coach and Manchester City scout", which sounds to me as though he's trying to differentiate between employment at Crewe and a looser arrangement with City, scouts (especially in those days) tending not to be employees. I noticed the same formulation in one or two other places as well.

Secondly, City's only mention in addition to the above is an approving short paragraph detailing how Pep spoke "spoke well and movingly about the subject". Crewe, on the other hand, attract the comment below (I've chosen to set it in context rather than just quote the part pertaining to the Cheshire club):



This bears out what some of us have said about Crewe's approach being the very antithesis of ours. So far at least, it seems a reasonable assumption that we wouldn't have appointed experienced and eminent people to run an independent inquiry and spent a million in the process if we weren't taking matters very seriously.

Crewe, on the other hand, say they're going to hold an inquiry but haven't started yet because the police told them to wait for the end of the criminal proceedings (when City were told no such thing). Yet Crewe at the same time implacably deny that anyone at their club had knowledge of Bennell's activities when that's surely one of the core questions that an inquiry would be seeking to establish. Such a response is an absolute joke.

I was just pleased to note that one of the leading opinion formers among today's football journalists obviously sees this difference.

Thanks for that Peter. I think the general consensus re City is that the club are trying to do their utmost to uncover everything that might have gone on during Bennell's - and Broome's - association with the club. Ollie Holt penned a similar article which pointed out the differences in approach from both clubs.

The only legitimate reason I can think of for Crewe not starting up their own investigation is cost - I fully accept that City have access to way more money than Crewe ever will - but it seems clear that that isn't the reason for Crewe's inaction.
 
Crewe are hiding a lot of relevant information, there were many rumours about that Club and the people that ran it, hopefully the full truth comes out, there will be plenty of people previously employed at Crewe who will be absolutely bricking it.

Yep. If we're to believe former Crewe director Hamilton Smith - and I can't see any reason why he would lie - then it's clear that Crewe's claim that concerns were never raised with them about Bennell is completely false.

I know we need to be careful what we say but it will be interesting to know where Dario Gradi stands in all this and how much he knew. While I don't think there is any suggestion anywhere that he took part in any alleged abuse, he worked with Bennell at Chelsea in the 70's before they linked up again at Crewe. Plus there is the allegation that Gradi covered for Eddie Heath at Chelsea as well. On the face of it, it's difficult to comprehend that Gradi was unaware of any abuse or, at least, any allegations.
 
There are discrepancies between reports about the relationship between Bennell and Gradi, on the one hand, and Gradi's own account on the other. Of course, the latter hasn't come recently but in 1994, when he provided a character reference for Bennell, who was facing criminal charges in Florida. According to the Mail, Gradi said he'd known Bennell for a decade and worked with him for five years: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sp...s-glowing-character-reference-paedophile.html

But there are various reports that assert the pair crossed paths at Chelsea in the early seventies, an example being this one by Daniel Taylor: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/15/barry-bennell-abuse-manchester-city-crewe

A big difference between Crewe and City, I think, is that at Crewe many of the people around when Bennell was active are still there - the chairman and Gradi among them. With City, it's a completely different club, so there are no individuals who may have their own vested interests against transparency.
 

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