Simon Jordan has reacted to Mason Greenwood’s possible loan deal from Manchester United to any of the Spanish, Italian, or Turkish league sides, News About Nigeria gathered.
Greenwood recently had his rape allegation case dropped by the applicant CPS, as announced in April.
The 21-year-old was arrested in February 2022 and charged with allegations of attempted rape, assault, and controlling and coercive behaviour.
The charges saw him suspended from professional football for the past one year. However, in a dramatic turn of events, his petitioners dropped the case two months ago (April).
Meanwhile, Manchester United seem to be on the fence about what to do with the player, after removing him from their players profile last list last year.
Greenwood’s acquittal has since sparked reactions from United fans and others who question his fate and career, amidst an ongoing internal investigation by the club.
Following the rambling, Man United seems to be resorting to a loan deal for the young English player outside England.
Meanwhile, Simon Jordan, a businessman and former owner of Crystal Palace football club has described the move as sensible, so that United won’t end up at the receiving end of fans’ outbursts, especially those who have spurned the player, following the rape allegations.
In an interview with talkSPORT, Jordan said: “It’s a way of giving the player an opportunity to play football and to take him out of the inevitable spotlight.”
He also noted that the case escalated before it could be tamed and that affected the player to a greater extent.
“The tragedy for this boy is that it has all played out in the public domain before he was given the opportunity to have any sort of anonymity, i.e. before you are in a position to be charged with something and then when you are charged then anonymity falls away.
“He was arrested and we all got to hear the audio of some of the circumstances the allegations were built around,” Jordan added.
He continued “Where this young man sits now is he’s no longer being charged. I argued this a while ago when we covered it about the presumption of innocence and the presumption of innocence is something we should have in real terms.
“But the court of public opinion will make its own decisions about what they heard and what they know about this young man.
“That puts him in the way of a variety of challenges. One of them is Manchester United’s perception of its image around the world and the other is what he’s going to be subjected to by the very nature of what we know to be a very blunt, cruel and often appraisal of anything football fans can get at to try and disadvantage a player.
“With all those factors in play, I think it’s a sensible move. It’s not kicking the can down the road,” he concluded.
