From official site!

[urlhttp://www.widnesvikings.co.uk/view_news.php?ID=545[/url

Which other clubs?? I don't know of any that have this sort of ban.. apart from our own now of course.

No.

I think it's totally unworkable. I don't mind them having a drink in the town, provided they behave themselves. If they don't behave themselves they should be sacked.

That's how I would deal with it.

I've voted yes. Whilst I agree it's virtually unworkable, I think the message it sends out is correct.

Also Pepe, you're forgetting this is Widnes. You only have to fart in Hough Green and before you can smell it they are talking about it in West Bank!

The club will know soon enough if the players are out and about.

Well mainly footy clubs tbh! Hence why when you here of any incidents at all with footballers there normally away from main spots, i.e. Gerrard in southport etc!

protects players aswell from being 'bated' by fans which can sometimes happen!

I just don't see why the club can tell players that you can not go for a drink with certain people of their choice in a particular town.

They can say, as a highly visible representative of the Widnes Vikings, you should always be on your best behaviour, if not, your going to be sacked.

Treating adults like children is just wrong imo. Obviously players should show a little bit of common sense, and stay away from the town centre if they are playing e, but showing a total lack of trust in them seems wrong.

The two who’ve been suspended should be given a final warning and all players should know the consequences they now face if it happens again. They should be sacked on the spot. No exceptions.

Pepe I think it just stops the possibility of that happening in the 1st place!

Or it just moves them to Warrington for a night out and the same thing happens again.

Going for a drink as a team in Widnes is not the problem here. The problem was the behaviour of two players.

That is what the club need to address. Which town the team drink in is irrelevant.

Would it be any better if this happens in Warrington next time?

No but at least you aint weeing on your own door step! I know it still doesn't look good, but you have to put local businesses etc 1st!

Just makes sense to me!

Bring on the chaos in Level next Saturday then

It makes no difference where it happens. In fact I'd say drinking in Widnes, where people will know who they are, would be a better way of keeping bad behaviour in check. The players would know they would not get away with any nonsense in Widnes.

Moving the problem out of town seems like nothing more than an attempt to sweep any further trouble under the carpet and it certainly doesn’t address what happened on Saturday night in any way, shape or form.

The players have been warned they face disciplinary action if it happens again. So its not really brushing the problem under the carpet or moving it elsewhere. Without knowing the severity of the incident i think sacking players should be an absolute last resort. We're not exactly flush with quality as it is..

The players are probably not quality anyway.So wont make a difference.

As far as I know, Liverpool, Everton, United and the London teams do not prevent their players from drinking in the respective city centres.

Liverpool players quite often frequent bars in the city and one or two own their places also. They are permitted to drink on the night of matches depending on the next fixture and during international breaks.
The Steven Gerrard thing happened in Southport because he used to live in an apartment there for a while and I assume still has friends that do.

I agree with Pepe that banning them from Widnes is completely impractical and unnecessary. Rather it should be pressed on them the consequences of them misbehaving in this manner.
It is out of order to act in this way but I do believe this thing has been blown out of all proportion. As informed and expected it seems that it was between two players and not the mass riot claimed by some on the other board. I suppose if there is one reason for the players not to go out in Widnes it's because anything that does happen will get blown out of all proportion by some on the other board desperately looking to appear important. By the same token harsh penalties should be put in place that do take the michael.

I guess we wait for the squad to be announced now before playing the guessing game of who the perpetrators were. I've heard about one player being involved but don't know who the other one was.

wakefield banned brough and sculthorpe for booze related misdemeanours...............

I'm not saying they have brushed this episode under the carpet. What I'm saying, is not allowing them to drink in Widnes does not solve the problem. The only advantage to allowing them to do so out of town would be to minimise the amount of people who support Widnes seeing what went on and reporting it on message boards. This would make any incedent far easier to brush under the carpet. That does not solve the underlying problem.



Of course.

The club is falling apart

It isn't really. A lot of drastic action has been taken over a very short period of time to put a lot of bad things right. Cullen said it's going to get worse before it gets better so we'd all just better brace ourselves and go with it.

The time to worry is if SOC pulls the plug and we start heading towards financial Armageddon again.

I hope its not something we have to worry about any time soon, but even if SO'C did decide to leave, you would hope he wouldn't leave us in the lurch as the last few owners have. I would have thought he would hang about until a suitable buyer could be found.

That was on the team coach though on the way back from a match...... not in the town centre.

Only the last owner has left us in the lurch not the last few.

You now seem to have the drinking culture that wire had up until about 12 months ago. I wonder what or who the connection is ?

We had players on the pop the night before games in Stockton Heath and nothing was done about it - not a good example.

I don't think so... I'm not quite certain it's a case that Paul Cullen drives players to drink. I used to live in Penketh and now live in Stockton Heath. On quite a few occasions I had heard that Cullen did the rounds of local pubs trying to catch players in the pubs as he had banned them on certain nights.

If anything there was quite a lot of suggestion that Simon Moran was a fan of players socialising and all the things that go along with that (certainly in Mr Briers and Mr Gleeson's case).

I didnt mean he drove them to drink. I meant he knew it was going on but didnt bother doing anything about it. He didnt have to be a genius to find where they were drinking as they were always in the London Bridge. I never saw PC once at night time in Stockton Heath, unless he was undercover .

As for players socialising Tony Smith is promoting that as part of the teamwork ethic because we had factions within the club but that didnt mean having a few pints the night before a match.

T KL is quite often in the same pub but to his credit ive never seen him before a game.

This is the first incident we've had in a few years. I wouldn't say that would substantiate any sort of 'culture'. Quite the opposite it seems a one off which has been delt with.