Anton took money!!

[sandman]

Can't remember Sir John ever saying he was a big football supporter.

In fact, I can remember him saying the exact opposite many times. He obviously has affection for the town and owning the football club, saving it from liquidation, was part of that.

[The Royal Forester]

Can't remember Sir John ever saying he was a big football supporter.

In fact I can remember him saying the exact opposite many times. He obviously has affection for the town and owning the football club and saving it from liquidation was part of that.

Indeed, I also remembering him saying he knew nothing about football (he was too busy running his business and making money, to bother about football, local or national) before being involved in the club . That is why, on the whole he let the manager manage, and the other staff to do their jobs, but kept a check on the financial side of things.

[Forbury Lion]

Tbf he did finance our second promotion to the PL... in a manner of speaking.

In hindsight that wasn't really positive.

Stay down, lose Kebe, but Antonio doesn't leave and comes through. No Roberts, Pog, Drenthe Guthrie stealing a living.

And of course, most importantly, no Gunter.

No Southampton away, West Ham away, no McCleary, no Roberts, no Clarke cup run, no return of Sigurdsson (playing for
Spurs), no Carrico. No opportunity to see world class players like Aguero, Cazorla, or Bale at the Mad
Stad.

Losing Kebe and Federici to replace them with Antonio and McCarthy is an interesting alternative history though.

I have to call you out on Roberts stealing a living - he was a vital part of our championship winning side & more than pulled his weight.

[Snowflake Royal]

In hindsight that wasn't really positive.

Stay down, lose Kebe, but Antonio doesn't leave and comes through. No Roberts, Pog, Drenthe Guthrie stealing a living.

And of course, most importantly, no Gunter.

No Southampton away, West Ham away, no McCleary, no Roberts, no Clarke cup run, no return of Sigurdsson (playing for
Spurs), no Carrico. No opportunity to see world class players like Aguero, Cazorla, or Bale at the Mad
Stad.

Losing Kebe and Federici to replace them with Antonio and McCarthy is an interesting alternative history though.

I have to call you out on Roberts stealing a living - he was a vital part of our championship winning side & more than pulled his weight.

What about the other two seasons he got paid a mint for doing nothing, whilst pursuing a media career?

[muirinho]

No Southampton away, West Ham away, no McCleary, no Roberts, no Clarke cup run, no return of Sigurdsson (playing for
Spurs), no Carrico. No opportunity to see world class players like Aguero, Cazorla, or Bale at the Mad
Stad.

Losing Kebe and Federici to replace them with Antonio and McCarthy is an interesting alternative history though.

I have to call you out on Roberts stealing a living - he was a vital part of our championship winning side & more than pulled his weight.

What about the other two seasons he got paid a mint for doing nothing, whilst pursuing a media career?

Played half the PL season too. Not terribly successfully, but he wasn't alone in that. So he did some media work while he was out injured - so what?

I guess you think Obita has been stealing a living for the last two years too.

[Mid Sussex Royal]

In hindsight that wasn't really positive.

Stay down, lose Kebe, but Antonio doesn't leave and comes through. No Roberts, Pog, Drenthe Guthrie stealing a living.

And of course, most importantly, no Gunter.

No Southampton away, West Ham away, no McCleary, no Roberts, no Clarke cup run, no return of Sigurdsson (playing for
Spurs), no Carrico. No opportunity to see world class players like Aguero, Cazorla, or Bale at the Mad
Stad.

Losing Kebe and Federici to replace them with Antonio and McCarthy is an interesting alternative history though.

I have to call you out on Roberts stealing a living - he was a vital part of our championship winning side & more than pulled his weight.

We wouldn't have gone up without Roberts that season

[Snowflake Royal]

I have to call you out on Roberts stealing a living - he was a vital part of our championship winning side & more than pulled his weight.

What about the other two seasons he got paid a mint for doing nothing, whilst pursuing a media career?

Played half the PL season too. Not terribly successfully, but he wasn't alone in that. So he did some media work while he was out injured - so what?

I guess you think Obita has been stealing a living for the last two years too.

Obita didn't trigger a contract extension knowing he'd never play for us again rather than retire with a medical payout.

Obita's returned to play. Obita's got a long history of playing fairly well for us. Obita isn't one of our top earners.

So no, not really.

[muirinho]

What about the other two seasons he got paid a mint for doing nothing, whilst pursuing a media career?

Played half the PL season too. Not terribly successfully, but he wasn't alone in that. So he did some media work while he was out injured - so what?

I guess you think Obita has been stealing a living for the last two years too.

Obita didn't trigger a contract extension knowing he'd never play for us again rather than retire with a medical payout.

At the time the contract extension was triggered, Roberts did not know he would not play again. He has stated this on record, there is absolutely no evidence, other than ramblings of random conspiracy theorists who claim to be ITK that this is not true. An awful lot of noise, at the time, about Roberts seemed to me to be triggered by the sight of an articulate black man getting airtime and using it to speak out against racism - the "they're fine so long as they stay quiet and act grateful" brigade - if the contract thing was actually true, proof would already have been circulated, as there would very definitely be people keen to prove something against Roberts.

In any case, if Obita had had a contract extension to trigger, 4 months after his injury, he would most certainly have triggered it. It's just sheer happenstance that the timing of his injury was a few weeks after his new contract was signed. There is no difference between continuing on a contract while awaiting a return from serious injury and triggering a contract extension under the same circumstances. In both cases, if the player had given up the ghost and retired from football for medical reasons there would be a medical insurance payout.

Obita's returned to play.

So? What if he hadn't? Was he stealing a living while his return still wasn't certain? You can't "steal a living" retrospectively.

Obita's got a long history of playing fairly well for us.

What does this have to do with "stealing a living"? Are you saying that if a player has a serious injury a few months after joining us, that's it, he should immediately leave without any pay, despite his contract, because he doesn't have a long history with us? Nonsense. In any case, Obita, has never propelled us to the Championship title has he?

Obita isn't one of our top earners.

And? Roberts did not force the club to give him his contract - In any case, his contract (all of it) would certainly have been covered by the extra money the club earned by being promoted, largely through his efforts - it wasn't his fault Anton wasted the PL money.

So no, not really.

Actually, yes really.

[URZZZZ]

It's extremely harsh to label Roberts as "stealing a living" considering as already mentioned, we don't get promotion without him

But to compare him to Obita is idiocy
Roberts - played about 7 months for us before his injury and was frankly awful in the Prem
Obita - played for 4 seasons regularly before his injury

[Uke]

I thought the Paloma Faith incident was at some bash at a museum where he drunkenly got on stage and tried to hug her.

https://metro.co.uk/2013/05/24/sir-john ... h-3808004/

[Vision]

It's extremely harsh to label Roberts as "stealing a living" considering as already mentioned, we don't get promotion without him

But to compare him to Obita is idiocy
Roberts - played about 7 months for us before his injury and was frankly awful in the Prem
Obita - played for 4 seasons regularly before his injury

Along with Moore , Obita missed a penalty in the Play off final costing us £100m.

At least Moore has had the decency to give Club1871 some comps since then but to the best of my knowledge Obita hasn't offered to pay any of that money back. What a parasite.

[Forbury Lion]

What about the other two seasons he got paid a mint for doing nothing, whilst pursuing a media career?

Played half the PL season too. Not terribly successfully, but he wasn't alone in that. So he did some media work while he was out injured - so what?

I guess you think Obita has been stealing a living for the last two years too.

Obita didn't trigger a contract extension knowing he'd never play for us again rather than retire with a medical payout.

Obita's returned to play. Obita's got a long history of playing fairly well for us. Obita isn't one of our top earners.

So no, not really.

The club have to take the blame for any contract extensions being triggered - In the past under better stewardship we've seen John Salako dropped just as he was about to trigger a contract extension, we've also seen Murty's contract expire and then we've re-signed him on a free transfer the next day to avoid triggering a payout to his former club...... If they didn't want Roberts to trigger an extension to his contract they could have prevented it.

[Forbury Lion]

It's extremely harsh to label Roberts as "stealing a living" considering as already mentioned, we don't get promotion without him

But to compare him to Obita is idiocy
Roberts - played about 7 months for us before his injury and was frankly awful in the Prem
Obita - played for 4 seasons regularly before his injury

Graeme Murty was stealing a living from us when he joined - out for so long we fans chanted "We thought you were dead" when he finally did return from injury.

The club signed Roberts with our eyes open to a contract the club wrote containing details of the wages they were prepared to pay and under what circumstances, it also included that contract extension clause so the club had their eyes open at the time..... If they took their eye off the ball with regards to the extension being triggered then that's not his fault.

Worth noting that under the circumstances at the time we would likely have not have had funds made available to sign a replacement
Also worth noting that managers sometimes sign players because of what they bring to the dressing room rather than just what they do on the pitch, As a senior player of the non shy and retiring type, I imagine Roberts influence even when injured was a positive one amongst the team.

[Blue Blood]

Graeme Murty was stealing a living from us when he joined - out for so long we fans chanted "We thought you were dead" when he finally did return from injury.

lol at Wigan Away. And after that = legend