After admitting to assaulting his girlfriend, Jon Flanagan was sentenced to 40 hours unpaid work and will face a club punishment from Liverpool.
I am shocked to report that Liverpool will not be terminating Jon Flanagan’s contract despite the fact that he has admitted to assaulting his girlfriend Rachel Wall on a night out on December 22.
According to Dominic King of the Daily Mail, Flanagan threw his girlfriend “into a wall and kicked her while she was on the ground.”
The 25-year-old Liverpool defender has been sentenced and will need to complete 15 hours of rehabilitation and 40 hours of unpaid community service – not that I think Flanagan will be worrying about the lack of payment.
Dom King writes: “They [Liverpool] were appalled at the incident and are furious that their reputation has been tarnished indirectly by Flanagan’s actions but the 25-year-old, who can expect a club punishment, has been told Liverpool will not terminate his contract.”
I don’t understand the benefit of not terminating Flanagan’s contract immediately after weighing up all the pros and cons. The message it sends to the club’s budding professionals is a bad one and sets a precedent should a player in the future be embroiled in a similar situation.
The 25-year-old has five months remaining on his contract and only made one appearance all season. Even if this was about how the squad benefitted from his presence, it wouldn’t be a logical decision to keep him until his contract expired.
I understand that people make mistakes and that there is the potential in Flanagan for improvement but there can be no tolerance for domestic abuse in the 21st century and in the modern game.
As Rousing the Kop’s Alex Rogers wrote a while ago, Flanagan has gone from promising local lad to common criminal and there is a very definite stain on Liverpool Football Club.
The cure for this is easy. Terminate Jon Flanagan’s contract effective immediately and sever all ties with him.