blandy Posted August 23, 2019 Moderator Share Posted August 23, 2019 Some posts removed. Sorry if your funny gif/retort was one of them. Thanks for settling down, Villans. Next time maybe could you pay heed to the site's guidelines and "agree to disagree" cheers all 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 Did Tony McAndrew not also get accused of similar and think he left the club after they initially gave him scouting role Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 Just playing catch up on this news, so very disappointed with the culture that could have enabled this to go unchecked for so long. The Farrelly interview makes for such depressing reading. There really has been very little to like about our club over the last couple of decades. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuartc445 Posted August 23, 2019 Share Posted August 23, 2019 21 hours ago, lapal_fan said: Why are people talking about his coaching? Because presumably he did his bullying whilst coaching. I doubt he was on MSN messenger of an evening calling Farrelly a shit word removed. No-one in the thread has said "KMac was not a bully". We acknowledge he was a bully, because an investigation found him to be so. But likewise, he wasn't a bully to those who have publicly backed him. We don't know the level of abuse, whether it was physical or mental. It could have been hard coaching to one person, but personal abuse to others. It's down the the individual to make that assessment, and it's down to them to report it or as it appears (probably due to age) suffer in silence. He's got his deserved punishment anyway, he's gone. He probably didn't differentiate his treatment of kids and adults, which is probably what some are alluding to with comparisons to Alex Ferguson. I dare say his attitude was "we'll make men out of these boys". Very presumptuous, but it's possible. Bullies are cowards the reason why some players have backed him is because they were probably the ones in the dressing room that have big personalities so people a bully would stay well clear of. Bullies go after the quieter ones in a group because they know that it's unlikely they'll get any comeback so it makes them feel really big and hard whereas if they did that to someone with a big personality they would have comeback and would be made to feel like the pathetic little cowards that they are. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Quote "There are no winners here" | Gareth Farrelly's concern remains with MacDonald's targets It was never Gareth Farrelly's intention to become so central a figure in exposing Kevin MacDonald's mistreatment of young footballers at Aston Villa. Over a 25-year association with the club in a coaching capacity, MacDonald departed Villa last month as the club acted on the findings of a wide-ranging investigation into the youth coach's bullying behaviour across this period. Although the findings have not been published publicly, it is understood that a significant number of former Villa youth players shared their experiences of working under MacDonald. One of those forced to contend with MacDonald's bullying, it was Gareth Farrelly, in an insightful interview with the Guardian's David Conn last December, that managed to bring MacDonald's practices to a wider audience than previously envisaged. "When David and I spoke first, it was with a view of him speaking to other people," the former Irish international recalled on Tuesday's OTB AM. "I was reluctant to step forward because my life has moved on and I have a completely different profession. "What I found difficult was that other people started to relive it themselves, and it was still tender and difficult for them. "I didn't have those same emotions around it ... and I was fortunate to still have had what people would deem a successful [footballing] career." Indeed, after leaving Aston Villa for Everton in 1997, Farrelly enjoyed a professional career that saw him win six international caps in the process. Speaking with incredible measure and fortitude, while the Dubliner may not have envisaged his involvement from the outlook, it is with those less fortunate than himself that the emphasis behind his continued involvement is derived. "Truth be told, I haven't really given it much thought," stated Farrelly of Aston Villa's decision to part company with Kevin MacDonald, "it's a positive outcome and a positive outcome for everybody that contributed to the investigation. "One of the positive things about the investigation, and I did speak to the barrister, is that they wanted people to engage with it. "They wanted to publish the fact that the investigation was ongoing to give people who may not have been aware of it an opportunity to come forward and speak to the barrister. "I'm aware of a number of people who've come forward and spoke and I've got massive respect for them for doing that as it's not an easy thing to do especially given the lapse of time." Given the duration of MacDonald's tenure, there was a degree of public awareness - but little indication that it would be acted upon - surrounding his inappropriate behaviour. One year before speaking with Conn, the journalist had published a story containing details of a player less fortunate than Farrelly and his experience under MacDonald. "What brought me back to it, even in regards to thinking about my time there, was the story David Conn had ran about the young player who had been there," explained Farrelly. "He made a complaint against the club and gone through that process, but found it incredibly challenging at every hurdle and eventually went to the Premier League who conducted an independent investigation and found bullying to had gone on at the club. "Yet, the consequence of that finding was that Kevin MacDonald was elevated to a different position within the club. "So, my situation was more geared toward looking at what they had gone through and the fact that there was no real closure or positive outcome for them." Repeatedly stating how fortunate he had been to escape the perilous consequences that came to many who had worked under MacDonald, it is with those left indelibly damaged by the youth coach's behaviour that Gareth Farrelly's focus remains. "The fact is that those people may have had a different footballing outcome if they went into a club that didn't have people like that there," he explained. "It's hard enough to make a career anyway and one of the things you shouldn't really have to worry about is the quality of the people or whether they're equipped to actually aid your development. "People go on about it being old school, breaking you down to build you back up, but on the facts of this particular investigation that was never the case. "I'm lucky, whereas I know people that weren't able to deal with it or found it even harder to move on from it. "There aren't really any winners here, but there's a conclusion and it is a positive conclusion that he's no longer there, but those people will never get that time back again." https://www.offtheball.com/soccer/gareth-farrelly-villa-macdonald-902825 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 (edited) This is worth a read as well (interview with Alan Brazil, the one born in 1985, not the one who looks like he's about to explode): https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/hibernian/interview-alan-brazil-on-his-unhappy-experience-under-kevin-macdonald-at-aston-villa-1-4990470 Quote “Kevin was the sort of person who had to make his presence felt. You could be on the injury table and he’d come in and he would just make little comments, not your normal banter. He would say and do whatever he wanted. “If you were walking in the corridor then you had to get out of his way. If you said hello to him, sometimes he wouldn’t even look at you, he’d just walk right past you. He had a way of dealing with players he didn’t like. “I’m not surprised that a number of ex-players got in touch with Villa to help with their investigation. He would try to belittle you in front of everyone, with little comments when you were off-guard and also when you were on your own. Just little things that bullies tend to do.” “He was clever at how he did it. People saw him as a hard coach, and criticism is fine if it’s constructive. People who were on his good side – the really talented players – will say he was a great coach and I’ve not got a problem with that because he was a good coach, but there was another side to him that a lot of people didn’t see.” Edited September 10, 2019 by KentVillan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newry_Villan Posted September 17, 2019 Share Posted September 17, 2019 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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