Agreed. Why make it public? The "investigation" might clear one (or both) players. If my boss suspended me, I'd expect the opportunity to state my case before anything was made public.

How do you know they haven't been given a chance to state their case already? If the "incident" took place on Friday, could well be that they've looked at it this morning, hence a statement this afternoon. Pleased that the club's acting at least, some players have been taking the pi$$ for 10 years and new players soon understand what the boundaries are at a club.

Thats just it you don't. All this has done is get the tongues wagging.




What if the club have not acted properly and are found out to be in the wrong?? Would you still be pleased??

How anyone can come to any conclusions either way after reading the press release is beyond me.

Possibly. But the website states "pending an internal disciplinary investigation". In other words, the investigation is not yet complete and so far no one has been found guilty or not. If they are found guilty of something, then there will be plenty of time to publicise it along with any punishment.

If there was a public scrap outside a bar tongues would soon have been wagging anyway. The club have decided on a course of action and advised the fans via their normal means of communication. Absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the club would have been hammered by the usual suspects on here if no comms was forthcoming so they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. I welcome a more proactive approach to these matters by the club and hope that these types of incidents become a thing of the past as the juvenile pi$$ heads that cause them are gradually weeded out.

I dont recall the club suspending a high profile member of staff for fighting last year

The squad for Wigan is announced on Wednesday. Both would be certainties in the 19 and neither are available. Better to announce this now and get on with the week's preparation than do it midweek IMO.

What do you mean "if the club hadn't acted properly"? They've not said either are guilty of anything, but that there's a disciplinary matter to investigate and both are suspended. They must have grounds for an investigation, otherwise there wouldn't be one.

Probably are sorry I guess I got that one wrong! Incidentally the club can't win here and I think they have announced it because it would have got out anyway, at least we now know it is true, they ain't trying to hide it, and in the spirit of a fair hearing we must now await developments!

The club is well within its rights to suspend employees pending investigation and also well within its rights to publicise that it has done so. People who go to court are innocent until proven guilty but their names are not withheld from the public domain. This happens all the time in other walks of life. If one or both players are subsequently found to be innocent then they will no doubt return to work fully exonerated.

I'm not sure the last 6 pages of posts back that up. People are already slating both players on the basis of rumours.
TBH I'm just fed up that we have generated yet another negative headline.

Spot on.

So........

What have they done then?!