Nobody is trying to force anyone to do anything, he's freely playing for a different club at the moment without anyone demanding anything from him. I think it's fair of fans to say they need an explanation for those things if he's going to play for the club they support.
Yeah like I said above. If he wants to come back here then he will have to come clean publicly, to some extent.
Owe might be the wrong word but in a situation where you've publicly accused someone of a serious crime, why should you not be correcting that narrative if it wasn't true?
Because there's something to hide, in all likelihood.
What do you mean by particularly odd situation?
I was talking about him being a multi millionaire famous prodigy at a massive club. I had in mind the increased likelihood of young men who have excessive wealth behaving in an entitled way, with the power imbalance that can bring to relationships and the difficulty in dealing with that at a young age. To be clear: I'm not saying young men with money should be treated more leniently than those without. But we've long been aware of the dangers of propelling these young men into sudden fame and fortune. Nobody thought that started and ended with buying a sports car.
How is this paragraph not using his age as an excuse? What does his age have to do with moving on because he's back with his partner? What does growing up have to do with what he may have done?
I didn't say excuse because I don't think it excuses him. Merely slight mitigation. With the overall aim to be to assess just how much of an asshole was he, how remorseful he is and whether he has changed sufficiently.
You've misinterpreted my last sentence. If he says he is innocent then how can you look at anything he's done and think "that shows he's remorseful"? How can he be remorseful for something he apparently didn't do?
You would have to believe he's lying to you about what he did and at the same time believe his actions show he's truly sorry for doing it...
No I got it the first time.
By admitting to having 'made mistakes', what do you think was meant? I think the reasonable reading here is that he did something that could/should/would be considered criminal. The CPS would have proceeded with charges had the victim not withdrawn, so we kind of know that something like one of the 3 charges happened, at a minimum.
Again though, being remorseful can happen without a public display of explanations/tears/apologies. Especially if it's not what the victim wants. His behaviour could have completely changed(it clearly needed to) since then. If it hasn't, then that's a very clear sign that he isn't genuinely remorseful. If it had though(and you could know this for certain), would it make a difference to you and your feelings towards him?