Tim Sheens has come out and defended him, with the knowledge that he has known him and his family for many years. Whilst we all seek to find the moral high ground, I for one am willing to give him a chance, there is no doubt he is a class player, and we would have been mightily hacked off if a few months down the line when he was potentially coming up against us in the 8's and we then found out we could have signed him but turned the offer down. There would have been calls about our efforts is signing class players etc etc. All this is of course hypothetical but I much prefer to have him with us than against us.

The thing is all this disgust and outrage when certain players sign for clubs is laughable as probably 90% of fans have done something similar if they dare to admit it

Personally not happy at the moment but will give the guy a chance. If he can behave on and off the pitch and demonstrate the commitment and willingness to play for the club that the current players have then I am willing to admit that he would be a good signing. We all make mistakes but some of us get away with them, the important thing though is to learn from them and not make them again.

How many of you out there have friends that have said something that is deemed to be prejudiced or has acted in a behaviour that is deemed to be wrong? ......You accept their behaviour because you are friends, but you condemn others because you have no personal attachment! ......

Remember when fans were booing Leon Pryce because of his charges regarding assault and how the Hull fans suddenly forgot about this when he signed for them?

I for one are looking forward to Carney pulling on the Red and White shirt! .......For all those sanctimonious fans out there that deem themselves more morally better than everyone else, I can only say "F**k you!"......You sanctimonious P***k! ......

I have friends who have in the past made casually racist comments, as times change you realise how wrong they were. However it's never been ok for them to get my wife up the duff.

I assume nearly everybody has a line though. That we want to feel a sense of pride in our team. That line might be in different places for different people, but I doubt there'd be many keen for us to sign a player who had done something they regard as truly heinous. Having principles does not, IMO, make me a sanctimonious whatever. Inevitably I compromise them everyday, because life is complicated and sometimes they're mutually incompatible. I don't think that makes me a hypocrite either.

One of my favourite books is Journey to the End of the Night. Its author later came to be regarded as an antisemite, not entirely unfairly. Whether the things people do can or should be seperated from who they are, is... complicated too.

I suspect I'll enjoy watching Carney play. The leadership at our club have a duty to pursue success, balancing that against ethical concerns. My gut feeling is they've done what's best here.

It's not really a question of ethics, but of morality, what's right and wrong. You're right, we all have our own 'line', and Hudgell laid out his line in the wake of Cockayne's racist remarks a few years ago. He's now gone back on that, twice.

Ultimately Rovers and Hudgell have taken advantage of another club having a much higher moral standard, and were able to pick up what is & will be a quality player, who otherwise wouldn't have imagined playing in the championship.

The distinction between ethics and morality is very fine, and I don't think we have an argument there.

I agree that this is a pragmatic and opportunistic decision.

I think you perhaps give Salford too much credit given how quickly they signed another non-fed player.

That's me then.

Hi, Geoff you big daft racism apologist.

If my friends started spouting racist comments, started being homophobic or being gormclops sexists I'd have a word.

But then they wouldn't because I don't knock about with s.

The thing is when a player does something that leaves the club with no choice but to sack him there's always another club that snaps him up spouting the usual crap like he's served his ban ,clean slate ,he's full of remorse when really there thinking we've got a great player on the cheap let's hope he doesn't mess up again