An open letter to the board and the manager

First Team News and Views
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Dear Chairman, Board Members, and Manager,

As a lifelong supporter of Witton Albion (4th generation, and I bring the 5th generation along to matches with me), and shareholder for half of my life, it is with a heavy heart that I find myself in this situation.

I have found the reaction of the club to Shaun Tuck’s crime’s unacceptable. I found the reaction to his substitution and goal yesterday abhorrent. I found having to explain the situation to my children extremely distasteful.

I do not understand why Shaun Tuck has not been sacked. He has dragged the name of our club into disrepute, and a swift reaction following his conviction would have been appropriate damage limitation. Instead, we appear to have actively supported this character in court, instead of taking a neutral stance until the verdict was announced.

I would ask the board and the manager to consider the situation with the bigger picture in mind. No one player makes this club, but this one player is already causing some people to question whether they can continue to support a club which appears to condone this behaviour. The club is already losing support and money because of this, and may well lose more in the future.

This talk of “waiting for the FA” is completely unnecessary, and it’s a smokescreen. There is no employment tribunal in the land which would uphold an appeal from Shaun Tuck if he was dismissed for gross misconduct for bringing the name of the club into disrepute. The articles in the national press, combined with his criminal conviction are more than sufficient grounds to find him guilty of gross misconduct.

Whilst we may miss his goals on the pitch, I don’t care. I want my club to show the red card to racism and bigotry of all forms - in today’s society it’s completely unnecessary.

I would rather yesterday have been a 0-0 draw, and taken the moral high ground, than take the three points.

I know it may well already be too late to salvage all of our credibility, but I urge the board and/or the manager to act now.

I work in a senior managerial role, and have (unfortunately) dealt with disciplinary procedures, including warnings and dismissals. I know the law, and I know how it can be applied.

For the good of this club, I urge you to use the existing evidence to convene a disciplinary hearing, and to dismiss Shaun Tuck with immediate effect. It is not the club’s job to try to rehabilitate him. This is supposed to be a family club, not a rehabilitation centre for criminals and bigots.

Yours,

Lurker

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Quick question Lurker, did you speak to any of the board or management prior to yesterday to make your feelings known.

If not this open anonymous letter is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has legged it. If you did why do you need the feel to anonymise this letter.

Please don’t take this as a pop, but I’m pretty sure none of the board or the management are mind readers

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Deleted post - admin

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I’m not going into any more detail on this ,we all know the scenario it’s going to have to be agree to disagree on this one and move on .
It seemed after yesterday’s reaction there is and has been overall support for the player and to be fair the player has been punished enough,
According to yesterday’s programme I believe a statement from the club and player of some kind will be made shortly . Give them and him a chance to say something on what they plan to do before knee jerk reactions . And Lurker things arnt always as black and white as they seem . If that was the case there would be a list as long as your arm for such mid demeanours I’ve heard from supporters mouths over the years

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[quote=“TWSfooty” post=51347]
Give them and him a chance to say something on what they plan to do before knee jerk reactions [/quote]

Personally, I’ve had four months to decide whether I want to see Shaun Tuck playing in red & white and my original opinion still stands.

I’ve spoken to a couple of people who were at the game yesterday and they found it hard to celebrate the goal. No supporter of any club should ever be in that position.

The worrying thing is that many who originally wanted Shaun to be dismissed have now changed their opinion in the wake of three defeats. How short-sighted is that?

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Couple of things to add:

  1. I’ve not spoken to the board or management - I’ve tried to give them time to do the right thing of their own volition. However, as the board of a PLC, they have to do the right thing for the long term success of the company. Trying to rehabilitate Shaun Tuck might give the football team a short term boost, but does nothing for our long term success. It undoes so much hard work on the PR side of things that has gone on over the last 5 years, and gives 1874 the chance to steal a march on us in terms of picking up “floaters”.

  2. Furthermore, I didn’t actually expect that he would play yesterday. I wouldn’t have gone to the match if I thought he’d play, but given the comments that had been forthcoming about him not being match fit, I expected to have a Tuck-free afternoon.

  3. My letter is anonymous because it contains open, public criticism of someone who expressed the desire to kill innocent people, including children. Regardless of whether he meant it or not, I’m not taking any chances when it comes to my family.

  4. Sadly, it seems to be a vocal minority that are in support of Tuck. Quite why, I’m not sure. Maybe they’ve never left Mid-Cheshire, never worked side-by-side with people from other cultures, and think that Tuck was saying what they thought in his tweets. In which case, that’s even more saddening. So I’m hoping that I’m actually speaking up for what I suspect is the “silent majority” - get rid of Tuck and send a message that this club won’t stand for it.

  5. What one or two of our fans say on the terraces doesn’t end dragging the club’s name through the mud in the national press.

  6. Sacking him at this point would by no means be a “knee jerk reaction.” He’s already been to court, been found guilty, and served half of his sentence. All the club had to do was suspend him, wait for the guilty verdict, then sack him. As his day-job employer did, I believe? Innocent until proven guilty; once proven guilty, sacked.

  7. The comments about having to release Foster because we don’t have the money, and needing people to keep coming through the turnstiles are a complete farce. Option a) Sack Tuck, and you don’t have to release Foster. Option b) Keep Tuck, and lose supporters who won’t come to watch while he’s in the team, and have to let more players go a few months down the line. Surely that’s a no-brainer - option a.

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So should no-one who ever commits a crime be allowed rehabilitation, anywhere, by anyone. The convicted murderer who appeared on crimewatch in an appeal when he had killed his girlfriend and hidden her body in a cupboard, who 12 years later was free working as a personal trainer and jogging along the beach each morning. Is it due to the racist hate nature of the crime which had you having to explain it to the children, had you told the children about the crime and given them your viewpoint on it, meaning you felt you HAD to expain why people celebrated his winning goal to them?? Wouldn’t the club be doing a superb public service by helping to rehabilitate such a dangerous offender??

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There are dedicated organisations devoted to rehabilitation of offenders. Our football club does not need to become one. We are not a charity, we are a public limited company, and rehabilitating offenders is not one of our reasons for existing.

That aside:

Rehabilitiation involves accepting what you did was wrong, apologising for it, and making damn sure it doesn’t happen again.

I haven’t seen any of that from Tuck. If the club was hell bent on rehabilitating him, there should have been a press statement with a public apology in it the day he came out of prison. Now the club are planning to release a statement after he’s already played and scored for us. As someone else put it earlier, closing the stable door after the horse has bolted?

I can only assume at this stage that the reason a public apology to all innocent Muslims, our shareholders, and our fans, hasn’t been forthcoming is because he isn’t sorry…?

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Well seeing your getting a little personal i think we will end the debate there .
I dont condone or agree with what Shaun said , hes been dealt with and thats it

Item 4 , I’ve travelled far more extensively than most in recent years to the poorest of countries . Worked side by side Multicultural and all .
But it doesn’t give me a devine right to continue to grind someone into the ground after he’s served his punishment .
Item 6 . I believe he hasn’t lost his job .
Let’s agree to disagree , and leave it at that or it rambles on forever weather he stays or goes .
It’s done , move on and let’s have a third win on Tuesday night UTA!

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If the club does not sack him, the club is by association condoning his behaviour.

If I pay money to the club which goes towards his wages, I, by association am condoning his behaviour.

I am not prepared to condone his behaviour, for the sake of all my Muslim friends and colleagues.

If that fact alone, multiplied by several others who are thinking similar thoughts, does not put the wind up the people in charge of our finances, I don’t know what else will…

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lurker we are mostly 4th and 5th generation fans but if you feel you cant support the albs so be it.you’ve got 3 other northwich teams to cheer on.i only care about the results of the team and if adolf hitler could score 40 goals a season i’d want us to sign him.UTA.
.

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Deleted post - admin

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Yes, you are wrong, and you’re out of order naming people on here. Moderators please?

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Postyred, I do hope what you have just posted was a joke, a sick one but a joke. If not you are a disgrace to the human race.
As for Lurker it does seem strange he has never been on here before. However whatever his motives what he says does make an awful lot of sense particularly the fact that Shaun has not been on here to apologise and he has had plenty of time to do so. How can we be sure the apology is real and not just done to save his career? I am willing to accept one at face value, but I am a gullible idiot who likes to see the best in people if I can, I am not sure other Wittoners will feel the same. Finally I am not sure a public meeting will solve this all I can see happening is a slanging match between Wittoners, the Board should make a decision and stand by it and leave the supporters to make up their own minds if they can go along with it.
WHS.

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Hardly a secret i just clicked on your profile to see who you are and your names on there

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No it isn’t…

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Suprise suprise its been removed from your profile! wonder if i now check on your facebook page the pic of the FCUM fans has vanished too?

Note from moderator - The facebook user referred to is NOT the person that started this thread and so far as I know has no connection with Witton nor is a member of this forum.

Hmmm cant make the information meeting, want Tuck sacked right away just before a game against FC?
Also you said in your original post about your top end job that you hold yet you say your on call on Wed night???!!

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He’s a witton fan it’s not the guy you’re looking at from Facebook.

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He’s been posting for a long time YR. no doubts that he is a Wittoner.