Bullying

[aev]

Bullying

[Ger Regan]

Shameful.

[wittonwarrior]

some of our fans are also ignorant see below - why would you take the michael out of a disabled fan.  Imagine the furore if it was them taking the piss of a villa fan

www.facebook.com/groups/131653430526891/permalink/536065226752374/?comment_id=536074713418092

[Mister E]

As ever, it's difficult to draw conclusons from this without knowing all the facts. Conn is a highly respected football journalist and so I suspect that he has done his homework. However it is not clear how many cases of bullying have been identified at Villa, why MacDonald has remained when others have left and what else might have taken place behind the scenes to rectify problems.
Undoubtedly, one person's view of bullying might be another person's interpretation of 'tough love'.
Working in academies is very hard, and many of the coaches and other staff members are ill-equipped to deal with the interpersonal challenges. I speak as someone whose son works in the Leeds academy: his experience suggests that staff are often not hired on overall suitability but because they know someone in a positon of authority (they are often ex-players) ...

[Legion]

As ever, it's difficult to draw conclusons from this without knowing all the facts. Conn is a highly respected football journalist and so I suspect that he has done his homework. However it is not clear how many cases of bullying have been identified at Villa, why MacDonald has remained when others have left and what else might have taken place behind the scenes to rectify problems.
Undoubtedly, one person's view of bullying might be another person's interpretation of 'tough love'.
Working in academies is very hard, and many of the coaches and other staff members are ill-equipped to deal with the interpersonal challenges. I speak as someone whose son works in the Leeds academy: his experience suggests that staff are often not hired on overall suitability but because they know someone in a position of authority (they are often ex-players)...

Very true.

[paul_e]

I know someone who works with rugby academies (he was at Worcester, Gloucester and most recently Exeter for a few years and is now working with the RFU in what amounts to an academy compliance role) and one of the things he pushed for in all his roles was for the academy coaches to at least take an interest in teaching (and specifically the mentoring side) because the club plays such a big part in the lives of the players that they need to be able to offer similar support to a school, when he was at Gloucester most of the youth team staff there were fully qualified teachers but I don't know if that is reflected at other clubs, seems like a sensible idea though.

[Risso]

As ever, it's difficult to draw conclusons from this without knowing all the facts. Conn is a highly respected football journalist and so I suspect that he has done his homework. However it is not clear how many cases of bullying have been identified at Villa, why MacDonald has remained when others have left and what else might have taken place behind the scenes to rectify problems.
Undoubtedly, one person's view of bullying might be another person's interpretation of 'tough love'.
Working in academies is very hard, and many of the coaches and other staff members are ill-equipped to deal with the interpersonal challenges. I speak as someone whose son works in the Leeds academy: his experience suggests that staff are often not hired on overall suitability but because they know someone in a positon of authority (they are often ex-players) ...

Nope. Bullying is easy to define, and there’s no excuse for it in any walk of life.

[PaulWinch again]

Yep that's it, 'tough love' is just an excuse in that context. If someone feels it's bullying, it's bullying.

[kippaxvilla2]

Lee Hendrie was on sky for the Leeds game and he said that Kevin Mcdonald drives them all very hard.  New era, different culture I guess.

[Risso]

Nothing I’ve ever read about MacDonald does anything to dispel the opinion I have that he’s a massive twat.

[Mister E]

As ever, it's difficult to draw conclusons from this without knowing all the facts. Conn is a highly respected football journalist and so I suspect that he has done his homework. However it is not clear how many cases of bullying have been identified at Villa, why MacDonald has remained when others have left and what else might have taken place behind the scenes to rectify problems.
Undoubtedly, one person's view of bullying might be another person's interpretation of 'tough love'.
Working in academies is very hard, and many of the coaches and other staff members are ill-equipped to deal with the interpersonal challenges. I speak as someone whose son works in the Leeds academy: his experience suggests that staff are often not hired on overall suitability but because they know someone in a positon of authority (they are often ex-players) ...

Nope. Bullying is easy to define, and there’s no excuse for it in any walk of life.

If it were easy, clubs would be able much more effectively than they currently do to set well-defined standards and hold people accountable to them.

[Hookeysmith]

Did the details ever emerge about the dismissal of Culverhouse?
That was for alleged bullying behaviour against one of our first team irregulars I believe - who has subsequently moved on

Now as someone who was tormented by a bully during my early teen years there is an instant hatred for anyone deemed to be a bully - but in todays world a hard taskmaster could easily be misconstrued as being a bully

Would of course like to know some of the specifics

[SO Villa]

Nothing I’ve ever read about MacDonald does anything to dispel the opinion I have that he’s a massive twat.

MacDonald should've gone after the Tottenham debacle.

[Risso]

Nothing I’ve ever read about MacDonald does anything to dispel the opinion I have that he’s a massive twat.

MacDonald should've gone after the Tottenham debacle.

Agreed.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

What a wonderful recruitment advertisement for our Academy.