Recently, three Derby County players were involved in a shocking drink-driving incident that saw two cars crashed at high speed, but miraculously only one person injured, that one person being club captain Richard Keogh, who was sacked this week by club owner Mel Morris.
Keogh was a passenger in Tom Lawrence’s car as the winger raced along with team mate Mason Bennett driving the other car, before the pair lost control and crashed. Captain Keogh was then left at the scene by his team-mates as they fled, only to realise they had left him injured within the car and returning to the welcome of Derbyshire Police.
Since, the pair were sentenced to twelve month community orders and a hundred and eighty hours of unpaid work, but were back in the playing squad within a week of the incident, Keogh however, received a career threatening knee injury which sees his out of action for fifteen months and has this week been sacked by chairman Mel Morris.
Morris spoke of his decision to sack Keogh and keep on Lawrence and Bennett last night while he was accepting a lifetime achievement award from the Derby Telegraph, here are the reasons the supremo gave for his decision…
“I spent some time earlier this evening talking about sacrifice.
“And the point is, at the level we play at in professional football, it isn’t too much to ask that people sacrifice alcohol. That’s not too much to ask for”
“The challenge is this. I went into The Yard about a week after the incident to apologise to sponsors and to advertisers. And people said you don’t need to apologise. I said, I need to apologise. I have had parents ringing me up saying one of these guys has been at our school talking to my kids and that’s not right, it just doesn’t feel right so I have to apologise.
“Another guy who was completely drunk was poking me in the chest in The Yard and his attitude was these guys should all be fired.
“That was his attitude. And I was thinking, just stand back and say, so if you had any player, and I will talk hypothetically here, who had been out drinking and you said that automatically you are always going to fire them, the financial implications are a nightmare.
“But is it punishment in some cases? Because if you were a professional footballer and you knew that if you got drunk I would fire you, you could gain quite easily. Just go and get drunk Gary and I will release you from your contract.
“You then got to Leeds in January and on a free transfer and you are going to get a £1.5m signing bonus and £500,000 a year more salary. Is that punishment Gary?
“So it’s not as simple as people think when they think about these issues. And I actually think, in the case of two of the lads,they have to come out and face our crowd every game now and the only way they can improve on this is on the field, that’s all they can do.”
Some football fans have questioned the ethics of the businessman in recent times, this decision didn’t go far in changing that opinion…
But what do the Derby County fans think?
