[Albion] Aaron Connolly - joining Hull permanently

[Whitechapel]

On point 7, one thing you really seem to struggle with the concept is that Brighton is a relatively small place. People have mutual friends, regularly come across players in town / out, especially our younger players.

All the points are quite weird, but point 7 is even more bizarre than the rest. It genuinely comes across as someone who is unaware of basic human interaction.

If one of my mates has an interaction with a Brighton player, they’d probably mention it to me when I next see them because they know I’m a Brighton fan.

Nobody is walking in to a barbers and demanding a list of Brighton players who have had their hair cut there. But if the fact you’re a Brighton fan comes up in conversation then they’ll probably mention that Jason Steele gets his hair cut there and that he’s a really nice fella.

It’s actually quite sad to see somebody seemingly so removed from human interaction that they don’t understand conversations with a stranger.

 

[Springal]

All the points are quite weird, but point 7 is even more bizarre than the rest. It genuinely comes across as someone who is unaware of basic human interaction.

If one of my mates has an interaction with a Brighton player, they’d probably mention it to me when I next see them because they know I’m a Brighton fan.

Nobody is walking in to a barbers and demanding a list of Brighton players who have had their hair cut there. But if the fact you’re a Brighton fan comes up in conversation then they’ll probably mention that Jason Steele gets his hair cut there and that he’s a really nice fella.

It’s actually quite sad to see somebody seemingly so removed from human interaction that they don’t understand conversations with a stranger.

I mean there’s 1 barbers in Brighton with pictures of most Brighton players having cuts on their wall & regularly put instagram clips up, not difficult !

 

[jackanada]

There is a cynical part of me that thinks the month rehab and this interview is a condition of his contract, though if so good on the club. While you can't guarantee rehab is a success everyone knowing he's got a problem will cut down some of the enablers.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Agree with most of this. I remember a round of golf during the time, with a friend who is inside pro football and he laid the blame firmly with Potter. It is the responsibility of the Manager (Head Coach) to oversee the development of young players in the First Team squad. Very obvious what was needed. Not easy to do though - and certainly too much for our Graham (MSc).

In a football training ability yes but potter is not responsible in controlling the off the field antics. He can talk to the player and drop then if needed that’s it.

Is your friend expecting Potter and Billy Reid to drive up to the Watermill Inn(near Wivlesfield station) to recover their man? Is Bjorn telling Lucinda and her goon squad to f*** off, a slight overreach I’d say

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

Unfortunately with the rise of social media, there were all kinds of videos doing the rounds. Whatever you do there’s always someone there to film you

I remember one particular one in a kebab/burger shop, it was like watching a car crash in slow motion.

At this point, this is where HR and Potter should have got hold of him and said “ Right, you’re moving in with Mrs Wiggins in Goring, you could probably do with some one to one counselling sessions with George Parris, we need to for an unspecified period monitor your social life and general down time as ultimately you are employed and paid by us to do a job that you’re coming up short on.”

I‘ve got a mate in my local in Spain, Gerry from Dublin, in 2019 he though AC was the second coming of Robbie Keane, he now jokes it was actually Robbie Coltrane.

Joking aside, this had all the hallmarks of a classic case of a wasted career/life, thankfully the young man has turned it around, and all of us, whether we were negative or positive about him over they years, should be pleased with the outcome.

Cracker

 

[Commander]

All the points are quite weird, but point 7 is even more bizarre than the rest. It genuinely comes across as someone who is unaware of basic human interaction.

If one of my mates has an interaction with a Brighton player, they’d probably mention it to me when I next see them because they know I’m a Brighton fan.

Nobody is walking in to a barbers and demanding a list of Brighton players who have had their hair cut there. But if the fact you’re a Brighton fan comes up in conversation then they’ll probably mention that Jason Steele gets his hair cut there and that he’s a really nice fella.

It’s actually quite sad to see somebody seemingly so removed from human interaction that they don’t understand conversations with a stranger.

Exactly that. And it's even weirder from somebody who has never even been here to claim that he know better than those who live here.

The Barbers I go to has a signed shirt from Dunk on the wall that gets updated every season as he gives them another one each time, as he is a regular customer and lives just down the road. The guy who has cut my hair for years knows I'm a Brighton fan so it's hardly surprising Dunk becomes a regular talking point. But I think your last point is probably bang on, somebody who spends his life on online interactions rather than face to face ones is perhaps always going to struggle with that concept.

 

[Paulie Gualtieri]

On point 7, you seem to struggle with the concept that Brighton is a small place, and that having mutual friends with players and meeting them is a pretty common occurrence.

Since I spoke to Veltman and Welbeck at Hickstead Starbucks and wished the latter well in his scoring exploits pre QPR he’s been in the best form of his life, listening to fans, can’t have it both ways

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Agree with most of this. I remember a round of golf during the time, with a friend who is inside pro football and he laid the blame firmly with Potter. It is the responsibility of the Manager (Head Coach) to oversee the development of young players in the First Team squad. Very obvious what was needed. Not easy to do though - and certainly too much for our Graham (MSc).

Potter is a football coach. He’s not qualified to offer help or advice beyond what you’d expect as any regular concerned human being. This is the role of HR. Criticize him for football, but not because Connolly went off the rails.

 

[Lenny Rider]

I do think there’s a lot to be said for the club looking at bringing in someone like George Parris as part of the player liaison team, he’s not only played at the top level, but by his own admission has overcome some serious addiction issues.

If he, or someone similar, had mentored AC at the optimum time, I believe he’d not only still be in our squad but he’d be on international duty with Ireland this weekend.

 

[Triggaaar]

Shane Duffy, the club, the HR department, the coach, the HR department, the lack of experienced players at the time...

WHATEVER we do, lets not mention the years of verbal abuse from Albion fans here and on every thinkable social media channel as a possible reason for his psychological struggles. Because if we start mentioning that, maybe we can't abuse the next teenager over how he fails to live up to our dreams, and wheres the fun in that? So lets continue to pretend that recieving 24/7 abuse from your supposed supporters as a 18-19-year-old has no impact on the life of the player. Lets pretend that shit never happened and just lump all the responsibility at Shane Duffy or whoever.

Good on Aaron showing that the bunch of middle-aged men who in the old Connolly thread for years called him ugly, stupid, moronic, useless, claiming he'd play in Worthing when his Brighton contract was over.. they were all wrong.

So the issue was the Brighton fans.

This guy has at the age of 24 identified his issues

He's identified it was the Brighton fans has he?

 

[Triggaaar]

Yes, I've decided the majoirty of the problem is with the people (society) doing the cricising rather than the young man thrown into the sickening environment that is created by the people (society). That is my belief when it comes to most substance abuse: the key to solving it isn't to make every individual perfect, it is to improve society.

Are you a substance abuser?

As for your second paragraph... if you say so. To me as an outsider, the weakness of British football has always been its belief in its own perfection. It doesn't matter how many world class talents Walcotts and Oxlade Chamberlains and Grealishs that eventually turn into a shrug, or how fearful the English players look in tournaments, knowing that if they do anything wrong they'll be abused for life; its all perfect, and nothing needs to change, and indeed nothing does change, eternally you remain a step behind everyone else.

You're never ever going to produce a Zidane or Ronaldo or Messi or Haaland because you're perfect as you are. And thats great if you think its great, but it means there will always be a steady stream of Justin Fashanus, Paul Gascoignes and Aaron Connollys, vulnerable people destroyed in one way or another by the (perfect) perks of being a footballer in Britain.

You talk so much crap sometimes.

• We don't think everything is perfect with no need to change anything, we're constantly looking at how to improve things
• We're not always a step behind everyone else, that's just a weird accusation
• Aaron Connolly still isn't British, so what's your point with him? He played football here, but then so did Ronaldo

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

^ back off the bitch hunt. Classic NSC pitchforkism, everyone piling on.

 

[jcdenton08]

^ back off the bitch hunt. Classic NSC pitchforkism, everyone piling on.

Bullshit.

Hah, hardly even reading this one. I already know what the posts are like. They will contain one or several of the following sentiments:

1. I am a perfect human being and Aaron isn't and that's his problem.
2. I have never participated in a witch hunt against Aaron or other players and if I did, it is his fault if he cares.
3. Neither has any other Albion fan ever said anything unreasonable to any 19-year-old that could cause any sort of harm.
4. Graham Potter is Satan.
5. I really hope it goes well for Aaron but I'll be here on a weekly basis commenting on when he makes a bad pass or misses a chance.
6. Here's what my friend told me about the private life of player X or X.
7. I'm a perfectly normal citizen asking random people in stores, clubs and hairdressers what some 20-year-old is doing in his spare time

Probably missing some but that should cover most of it. Bit like how you already know my thoughts on the subject.

He spouted a load of old shite, possibly while under the influence, and is getting called out for it.

Everyone is entitled to post their views, doesn’t mean people can’t disagree with them and call them out.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Bullshit.


He spouted a load of old shite, possibly while under the influence, and is getting called out for it.

Everyone is entitled to post their views, doesn’t mean people can’t disagree with them and call them out.

Middle aged men 'calling people out' on an internet forum. Grow up.

 

[jcdenton08]

Middle aged men 'calling people out' on an internet forum. Grow up.

I want you to be completely honest with me here. Did you read his post?

 

[Han Solo]

So the issue was the Brighton fans.




He's identified it was the Brighton fans has he?

Yeah Brighton fans and other members of the cruel institution that is modern, digital society. There's a pandemic mental welfare crisis across the globe, ignored by everyone because its neither taxes nor symbolic politics, especially affecting young people, and strongly linked to being addicted to social media and recieving abuse and peer pressure through those channels.

People who are depressed and unhappy abuse substances to much higher extent than the few happy clappy types still around.

By February 2020, when Aaron was in his first year in the first team and had just turned 20, Connolly had received enough abuse from Brighton fans to remove all his Brighton pics from his own social medias. Thats what Brighton & Hove Albion fans did to a 20 year old guy. And people of course don't want to take responsibility for creating the hideous social media climate - its always "someone else" doing the bullying and the bullshitting, so we say "Aaron needs to take individual responsibility" instead of saying "oh shit maybe we shouldn't do things like this."

Funnily enough, if its your own son and daughter getting hundreds of tweets and messages about how useless, ugly and shit they are, people would suddenly change feet and think "hmm, people on social media should get a life". But Aaron is a footballer with money so he doesn't get the benefit of getting treated like a human being by people like those in this thread and on Twitter and whatnot.

Are you a substance abuser?

You talk so much crap sometimes.

• We don't think everything is perfect with no need to change anything, we're constantly looking at how to improve things
• We're not always a step behind everyone else, that's just a weird accusation
• Aaron Connolly still isn't British, so what's your point with him? He played football here, but then so did Ronaldo

Yes I am a substance abuser since 15 years and has spent thousands and thousands of hours in company with substance abusers. Many have tried to resolve the growing problem of substance abuse by telling us abusers to "cut your hair and get a job". Strangely this isn't working and more and more people fall into various sorts of abuse.

As long as people like you believe that its up to each individual to sort those problems, rather than changing society into something less depressive, less hopeless and less pressure-filled, the problems will grow and grow and grow until the day the entire society will deeply, deeply regret not dealing with it as a society and instead lumping over responsibility to the hundreds of millions of people who can't stand being sober in what the f*** you're building out there.

 

[jcdenton08]

Yeah Brighton fans and other members of the cruel institution that is modern, digital society. There's a pandemic mental welfare crisis across the globe, ignored by everyone because its neither taxes nor symbolic politics, especially affecting young people, and strongly linked to being addicted to social media and recieving abuse and peer pressure through those channels.

People who are depressed and unhappy abuse substances to much higher extent than the few happy clappy types still around.

By February 2020, when Aaron was in his first year in the first team and had just turned 20, Connolly had received enough abuse from Brighton fans to remove all his Brighton pics from his own social medias. Thats what Brighton & Hove Albion fans did to a 20 year old guy. And people of course don't want to take responsibility for creating the hideous social media climate - its always "someone else" doing the bullying and the bullshitting, so we say "Aaron needs to take individual responsibility" instead of saying "oh shit maybe we shouldn't do things like this."

Funnily enough, if its your own son and daughter getting hundreds of tweets and messages about how useless, ugly and shit they are, people would suddenly change feet and think "hmm, people on social media should get a life". But Aaron is a footballer with money so he doesn't get the benefit of getting treated like a human being by people like those in this thread and on Twitter and whatnot.




Yes I am a substance abuser since 15 years and has spent thousands and thousands of hours in company with substance abusers. Many have tried to resolve the growing problem of substance abuse by telling us abusers to "cut your hair and get a job". Strangely this isn't working and more and more people fall into various sorts of abuse.

As long as people like you believe that its up to each individual to sort those problems, rather than changing society into something less depressive, less hopeless and less pressure-filled, the problems will grow and grow and grow until the day the entire society will deeply, deeply regret not dealing with it as a society and instead lumping over responsibility to the hundreds of millions of people who can't stand being sober in what the f*** you're building out there.

Have you actually tried cutting your hair, sobering up, and getting a regular job though?

 

[Guinness Boy]

Middle aged men 'calling people out' on an internet forum. Grow up.

We could impose an age limit and ban anyone who disagrees with him but I’m not sure “Swedish 30 Somethings Talking Bollocks Stand Chat” has the same ring about it

 

[Flounce]

^ back off the bitch hunt. Classic NSC pitchforkism, everyone piling on.

I am not getting involved other than to say I agree with you

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Are you a substance abuser?




You talk so much crap sometimes.

• We don't think everything is perfect with no need to change anything, we're constantly looking at how to improve things
• We're not always a step behind everyone else, that's just a weird accusation
• Aaron Connolly still isn't British, so what's your point with him? He played football here, but then so did Ronaldo

I didn't get the impression @Han Solo was doing anything other than lightly mocking the negative tropes on this thread (which are in a minority, but which should probably be in a minority of zero). I don't feel I'm being attacked. Am I missing something?