Gray Flouts Lockdown Rules

The major issue is nobody in their right mind would be willing to pay those wages, therefore he would just see out his contract with us whether we want to sell him or not - he doesn’t have to agree and why would he.

Only hope we’ve got is to give him away for free and the ‘buying’ club agree to pay him a big signing on bonus or higher wages than he’s currently on in lieu of the saving on his transfer fee.

 

What? He has a horse with a great big moustache?

 

He's got a 'bar' in his house? Is he into 70's retro, then?
(Even more reason to bin him).

 

I saw the article on Watford Observer then the thread on here and just thought discussions were happening on this again because of the Rita Ora news.

What an utter arrogant ****, not just a below-average footballer but "former" homophobe, stars in pop music videos and has no respect on top of all of that.

I actually sympathise with those with no family, small tight houses with no gardens but this fool probably has a 10 bedroom mansion, all the best gadgets to entertain himself and the rest and still can't go four weeks without a lame little poker party. Really peed off.

 

Given the nature of this thread it might be an idea to leave it until tomorrow.

 

As I stated earlier I am no employment law expert but I actually think he would find it very difficult to argue against termination for gross misconduct (employment termination that is).

Most employment contracts will have something that covers bringing the company into disrepute. I doubt there would be grounds for dismissal for breaking Covid lockdown rules but the fact that he featured in a national newspaper for it which also referred to him as a Watford employee would cover that I think, even bigger issue is that he has featured in the national press for the same offence twice, both times being described as a Watford player.

Add into this the work that the club has done to support the staff at Watford General and how they have publicly discussed this as key area of the clubs work to support the local community there could be little argument that he has acted against the clubs ethos. Presumably there was also some form of discussion around expectation of behaviour after the last incident also.

I am sure there are hundreds of example of members of the public who have broken the rules and retained their jobs, however they were not employed by Watford so not very relevant in this instance. If it came up I think I would ask for examples of a figure with a public profile who had been caught breaking lock rules, twice, and featured in the national press both times named as an employee of a company who has publicly and physically supported the local NHS in the fight against Covid who has retained their position. I think that would be a very short list.

Frankly I think the legal side would not be a problem. Despite all this they will keep him because they will believe there is money to be had in a transfer fee.

Sorry for the long post, just had to say it.

 

He'll get fined probably. Wont be sacked. Hes Ivic's star main striker.

 

Full marks for delicacy of expression.

 

Unfortunately Dominic Cummings is a good benchmark for a high profile individual flouting the rules and not losing their job.

They have a lot in common, both throughly unlikeable and Gray plays like he’s having trouble with his eyesight.

 

Yes there is that but I do feel that the excuse of travelling to family to aid child care whilst ill and going to isolate is also different to having 20 people at a party during lockdown 1 and following that up with 6 mates round during lockdown 2 and presumably would have gone into work the next without mentioning it if one of your mates wasn't such a ****. Also as mentioned before, different employer so wouldn't be a defence.

Same if not worse on the stated aims of the employer though!

 

Don’t get me wrong I’d love is to sack him, can’t see it flying though and that’s what the PFA are there for.

Sacking a player generally needs to be for something pretty serious, bear in mind we didn’t sack Troy for going to prison for GBH, so we’re on a bit of a sticky wicket trying to sack somebody for flouting some temporary rules that carry at worst a fine as punishment.

 

I know football is different - but I work in the music industry directly with artists and have had to drop some from the label in the past for misdemeanours that reflected badly on us as their label...

And yet we have almost always lost in the ensuing tribunal over the termination over loss of earnings or various other factors.

The club would absolutely have to be watertight on a case of gross misconduct. And as @a19tgg has said above, I really doubt we could get anywhere near sacking him for breaching temporary rules on a pandemic that didn’t exist when he agreed to the terms of his deal. I’m not even entirely sure we could fine him 2 weeks wages with conviction, although I dare say the player would be silly to object to that.

It’ll be another public apology, apology to the squad and probably dragged over the coals by the board and coaching staff for a few weeks. But I really doubt he’ll see much game time now and the club will be pretty active in trying to offload him.

All only in my opinion though.

As someone else said earlier - the club would be setting a precedent by sacking him as well. Theoretically say Sarr breaks the rules twice in February and we are top of the league...how do you deal with that if you’ve sacked Gray for the same?

 

You give him a 5 year contract extension with a minimum release fee of 50 million, make him really suffer

 

There's absolutely no chance that he's going to be sacked. Waste of time even discussing it.

 

We can’t sell him because nobody is stupid enough to buy him. Terrible footballer. His performance was one of the worst individual performances I have ever seen and I’ve seen some horrendous players over the years. what he’s done here is idiotic at best and incredibly disrespectful to the club and us.

 

My old first team CITY didn't look like they were going to win the league so I bought a LIVERPOOL shirt but now I am worried spurs could win the league and I can't afford to buy their shirt now I have the Liverpool one

 

£200 fine from the police. Ouch!

 

That's why you buy a half and half scarf. 2 for 1.

 

That'll teach him

 

Sadly, whether there are sufficient grounds or not, and you may well be right that there aren't, it won't matter anyway because we'll probably have a stern word and keep shovelling money into his pockets until either somebody buys him (can't see that happening any time soon) or his contract expires (probably offer him a new 5 year deal soon so we don't lose him for nothing in 2 years time).

 

As I said on the transfer suggestions thread, I'd be on the phone to Dyche and offering him to Burnley in a straight swap loan deal for Vydra - if it costs us 50% of Gray's wages, so be it.

 

i have always though Mr Tumble was a wrong'un

 

On the bright side he isnt famous enough to make a sun headline in his own right , he is the Fiance of Little Mix Star , but that hurt his ego

 

Is there any chance we've used the term "capable footballer" in the contract? If so, we could rip it up for clear breach of contractual terms.

 

It wasn't there. I read it before he signed it.

 

I bet he lost the card game too, ******* mug.


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Well done the Popstrel's Wastrel. Poster boy for the selfish idiots blatantly flouting the rules and accelerating the infection rate and now Tier 3 status in and around London. You are beyond contempt.

 

Lorraine Kelly said what she thought about it very succinctly on the Last Leg on Friday.

 

It would be a more measured response from many if Chalobah and Quina attended this one as well.

 

To be honest, there are plenty of other thickos out there to get some blame too. Plus he hasn't had it, yet other players have. We don't know what they've been up to.

 

With the announcement Watford are now in Tier 3, Gray will probably think we've been relegated again to League One. He'll be happy as he'll think he might actually be able to score a goal at that level.

 

Suspended for 6 months on full pay. Plenty of time for her publicist to tweet heartfelt apologies, ready to worm her way back into the public eye with plenty of contritionary interviews and promises of lessons learned complete with new leaf turning etc.

 

She won't appear on Sky and will likely reappear on TalkRadio or wherever it is disgraced journos go these days. I think Sky have hung the 6 month thing out there as a hope that Covid is over by then and she won't be needed to hold others to account on it.

But it'll still be here and she won't be able to be seen as the person hammering others etc. She's cooked.