GCB - I don't know many Sheffield United fans to ask this but I wanted to know - thoughts on Ched Evans?
He's more and more pathetic with each day - he's still denying he even did anything wrong.
Don't believe everything you read in the media. They'd have you believe we're all walking round with EVANS 9 on the back of our shirts, Ched Evans masks singing "He'll shag who he wants!" all the time.
Thoughts - very, very tough situation for a football club to be in. I've got little sympathy for Evans but I'm worried about the way my football club is being painted right now. I don't see that we've yet done anything wrong and I don't think signing him would necessarily be wrong either. Whilst I would certainly rather we didn't sign him - I'd rather we signed another striker or gave our current crop more chance - footballing wise, unfortunately, it is a bit of a no brainer. Two years ago, he scored 35 goals in the division we're in and almost fired us to promotion. When he was convicted, we fell to pieces and handed the automatic promotion spot to Wednesday (urgh, awful) and failed in the Play Off. Footballing reasons only - we cannot ignore a proven League 1 goalscorer on a free transfer.
Obviously, it isn't just a footballing decision though.
This is where it gets tough. Like I say, the media are painting our fanbase and our club as being Ched Evans supporters, singing his name and outing his victim. On Tuesday night, for example, there were 19,300 at Bramall Lane for a game against the might of Yeovil Town; terrific attendance considering there were about 50 from Yeovil. Around 100-200 chanted "Super Ched Evans" whilst the rest shook their heads. The rest are either vehemently against his return, can't make their minds up or think he should come back but not as a hero like the 100-200 seem to think. The media are full of the 100-200 chanting his name but not one mention of 19,000 standing and applauding in the 7th minute for the death of a 7 year old United fan last week. The bad press is making us seem a right bunch of knobheads right now when, in reality, it's a minority.
Personally, I can't decide although I'm swaying towards being against it. My opinion is that whatever the crime, you have to trust your justice system to get it right - both the conviction and the sentence. I don't believe that 2.5 years is the right sentence for Ched's crime but if the court ruled that way, I don't think people have the right to punish him further. It's so tough to say that. I think Ched should have been sentenced for longer but now he is out, as I would say for any crime, he should get to resume his life and be rehabilitated. I'm not against his return completely but I'd certainly rather we found another way to bring in a goalscorer.
As for Evans, he's going to need incredibly thick skin to return - whether it is Sheffield United or anywhere. I have little sympathy - he is a convicted rapist although I would suggest he made terrible mistakes and I certainly don't see that he deliberately raped her. I think he made unbelievably bad decisions that led to him raping her. I think his case is a real lesson for a lot of young men that have drunken one night stands and could, technically, be raping young women unable to consent due to their drunken state. In that sense, his return to football could be a "good" thing as the exposure could ensure less rapes happen as people are more aware of Ched's mistakes and how it came about.
His video statement earlier this week was awful - I get that he is still claiming innocence so he was never going to come out and show as much remorse as some people hoped he might. But to not mention the victim at all was crass. He could have mentioned her when he was apologising for the pain and suffering his actions caused although I suspect his legal team advised against it. In the circumstances, I think he should have kept his head down and shut up rather than upload the statement that he did. If he gets back into football - and I'm 99% sure he will, somebody will sign him - I'd like to see him give his goal bonus or a percentage of his wages to rape charities. Whether they'd accept it, I'm unsure but the gesture would help I reckon.
It's such a complicated, controversial, delicate situation with so many different aspects to it. I can understand most arguments but I can't fully agree with any; the only thing I am sure about is that my football team are being slammed when I don't think they've done much wrong. When he was innocent until proven guilty in 2011-2012, sods law was that he scored 35 goals and fired us to the brink of promotion before wrecking our season when he was found guilty. We did not pay him the last two months of his contract (some papers claim we did but a fan forum asked the chairman in late 2012 about that and it was denied) when he was sent down and we have refused to talk about it, officially as a club, since. For months, the papers have speculated about him returning to United without any substance at all; there has been no official word from United until a couple of weeks back. When our co-chairman spoke a couple of weeks back, he stated that the board were having discussions about whether we would be interested and recognised that it would be a controversial, sensitive subject. That was the last word from Sheffield United on it apart from Nigel Clough, the manager, confirming the same stance a week ago.
We're damned if we don't and damned if we do. If we don't, people will be unhappy that we're denying Ched Evans the right to be rehabilitated - mainly our own supporters as it would not cause the furore nationally. If we do, we'd better be ready for a shitstorm of epic proportions. It's so, so tough; I'm glad I don't have to make any kind of decision on it.
