It's not about letting it slide, it's about recognising that
- the FA's moral authority to impose a punishment is lessened by the fact that it took them FOUR YEARS to spot the offending comments, and
- that there might be some truth to Gray's claim that he was a different and less mature person when he made those comments.

The fact of the matter is that if Gray had had the foresight to delete those tweets - once he realised that he was going to be a Premier League player, for instance - he would have got off scot free despite the comments having existed for years simply because the FA would not have seen them within that time.

And, as I mentioned earlier, if Gray doesn't score the winning goal against Liverpool, would we even be having this discussion?

Slippery slope.


That situation is slightly different because nobody definitively knew at the time that Keane's tackle was deliberate, therefore he couldn't be punished for it at the time.

And as I said in my previous post, how do you know this wasn't taken into account when they decided how many games to suspend him for? You seem to be making an assumption that they haven't, but you don't actually know do you?



The only thing that actually matters is whether he did it or not. How it came to light isn't particularly relevant. You could play the 'what if' game about a lot of things that happen in football. At the end of the day the FA can only punish players if they've got knowledge/evidence of any wrong-doing, which they did in this case.

Not quite sure what you're suggesting it's a slippery slope to? Incidents like this don't appear to be common, so as long as players engage their brains when using their (public) social media accounts then it shouldn't really be an issue. And if they don't, then more fool them.

It would have been a much more slippery slope for the FA to have done nothing about it. That would have raised questions on how committed they actually are in tackling homophobia.

In amongst all this talk of Pep with Yaya, and Jose with Schweinsteiger, why has there been hardly anything about Klopp and the way he has treated Sakho??

Is the latter any different to the more highlighted cases??

Good try but the first two cases are largely due to the manager freezing the player out because he doesn't fit into the team - Sakho was in Klopp's plans but a string of issues has eroded that relationship - and last night's Twitter rant won't help. It's about does the player's/agent's actions warrant such ruthless treatment and each case differs in that respect.

Sakho has made his own bed with Liverpool. He had all the goodwill in the world from the fans and club when he had his suspension. Misjudged as it was.

His behaviour since has no similarity to the dignified way that schweisteiger and Hart conducted themselves,

To me, it seems Schweisteiger's treatment is based purely on the fact he is costing the club too much money in wages especially after Man Utd's excessive spending over the summer. They are trying to sell him off to balance the books.

However there could be a completely different reason he is a frozen out, maybe he is a bit of a dick in real life or he did something quite bad in regards to Mourinho, called him out for being a crap manager.

He looked vastly overweight and not particularly fit last season, players should not be allowed to use united as a final payday winding their career down location

No I don't, truth be told; I just find it hard to believe that the FA took mitigating factors into account and still thought the offence deserved such a sizeable ban of four matches.

If that did, happen, though - implying that a normal ban for this offence would have been in the region of half a dozen games - then I think it's an overreaction to the scale of the offence and one that has its grounding in other factors.


I don't agree, I think it's absolutely relevant - if, in this instance, the offensive comments were only discovered as the result of a Liverpool fan trawling through Andre Gray's tweets to find something he could publicise and send to the FA in retribution for the goal he scored which beat the side he supports.

We can't be having situations where disciplinary matters are created purely as a result of fan intervention, particularly for that reason.


And that's what I mean when I say that Gray's suspension had a grounding in other factors, namely that discrimination is the current hot button issue in football at the moment and the FA had to be seen to be taking a firm line over it.

Whether the punishment actually fitted the crime seems to be of little consequence.

Rooney on the bench

Doesn't look any better so far

and Utd take the lead from a corner

Dont think they scored many from corners last season

United looking much better since they scored

Just turned on, but they look much better without Rooney. I think England would too.

Leicester have played 8 games in all competitions so far this season and have already lost 4 of them - potentially 5 if United can see this out.

But of course luck has nothing to do with it ..

Fantastic 2nd goal for Mata

Game over now

Leicester are a mess. Rashford is a gem.

Wayne had better buy a warm coat as he may be sat down for some time

and that makes 3 of the 4 goals from corners

Much better incisive play from Man Utd. Not sure if its a coincidence they're playing well without Rooney or not.

Is this proving United don't need Rooney ?? , this whole stuff about where to play Rooney really is a problem for both club and Country , and its like a weight around the neck of the team , take that weight away and everyone is freer

I don't think it's a coincidence at all. Rooney slows down play. He is not a top player any more.

Pogba gets his goal at long last.

Rooney has to remain out the side, perhaps he can play the cup ties

Yes allardyce needs to follow suit

Was it the smoking or the sheer amount of games he has played in his career? I find English players don't tend to adapt as well to change their game when they lose their pace.