Y
The moral case against him is one thing but there's been rumblings about his attitude before his arrest.
Turns up late for training, questionable body language in matches-I recall him slow walking off the pitch after being substituted when we were LOSING the match (think it might have been a City game).
The talk is that the circumstances around last 18 months have changed him quite a lot, at least in terms of external conduct - although obviously he hasn't been able to train with the group. Bear in mind there have been a good number of other players, setting aside those alluded to who were involved in fatal car crashes through reckless/drunken behaviour (or who faced their own accusations, except in a pre-instagram age or smartphone age full stop), who at his age (or even older) were involved in obnoxious behavior. This included racist verbal assaults or property damage, admitting to mocking 9/11 victims etc. Those players went on to be feted PL players, even captains in some cases. Barton played in the PL following a spell in prison for assault (after being investigated for previous incidents); there are others.
What if, lets say in purely 'abstract' hypothetical terms, the incident wasn't entirely what we were led to believe and the witness had stated this and there was no legal case to answer, but that the leaked material still provided sufficient evidence of a previously toxic relationship and callousness for the player to have to answer for this at some level, even with teh new facts established. What if, however, the player then released a statement admitting to this 'toxic' behaviour towards his now fiancee, and his understanding of failure of responsibilities as person and player, but made a case that through maturity and counselling and, lets say for the sake of argument, doing some kind of afterhours charity-work [ this is just a hypothetical], he was performing recompense for this. We've had instances where players have engaged in (recorded or corroborated) racist behaviour or bullying, and where they've consequently been part of educational programs as well as attending therapy. I'm not saying that's going to happen, but elsewhere, even at another PL, you could foresee a scenario in which such a narrative is feasible. The climate 'abroad' is even more forgiving, especially for 'good players' with offences against the person hanging over them or who have settled with accusers, which is not necessarily a good thing but that's simply the case
I also don't trust the Glazers judgment - all clubs are self-serving to some extent, but I don't trust them to act ethically or intelligently in either the player or club's interest and I think they've got less 'authority' to make those judgments compared to even the average owner given how little interest they've shown in the welfare of the club.