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Ched Evans to train with Sheffield United, according to reports

• BBC reports Evans will train with Blades this week
• Evans scored 35 in 42 appearances in 2011-12 season
• United board will decide if Evans returns, says Clough

Guardian sport


Ched Evans scored 35 goals in 42 appearances for Sheffield United in the 2011-12 season.

The convicted rapist Ched Evans will train with his former club Sheffield United later this week, according to the BBC.

Evans, who was freed from prison last month after serving half of a five-year sentence, has divided opinion as to whether he should return to the club for whom he scored 35 goals in 42 appearances in the 2011-12 season.

As many as 157,000 people signed a petition urging Sheffield United not to re-sign the 25-year-old, who maintains his innocence and released a video statement on his personal website last month stating his intention to return to football.

The Sheffield United manager, Nigel Clough, has maintained that any decision to re-sign the striker will rest with the owners, Prince Abdullah Bin Musa’ad Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, and Kevin McCabe, but allowing Evans to train will be perceived by many as the first step towards his return to the club.

i think what makes it wrong is that he has been convicted of rape, yet maintains and insists it was an act of infidelity. If he had accepted that he had been found guilty and showed a scrap of contrition then i would be onboard with the "served his time" thing.

He hasn't pleased guilty though and doesn't accept his guilt, so why would that ^^ matter. If he isn't guilty, then why would he just roll over and accept the shitstorm he's going to get? Would any of us?

The Criminal Case Review Commission has announced it's going to fast-track his case review in the light of new evidence, so there may yet be some substance to his claims of innocence. There are certainly some things about the conviction that look on the dodgy side - the victim's deleted tweets, her false claim that she'd been drugged, the CCTV
footage of her at the hotel etc. Be interesting to see how it pans out. I do think he'd be better keeping his head down for the time being though.

An appeal against Evans's conviction was rejected by three judges at the Court of Appeal in 2012. His case is due to be looked at by the Criminal Cases Review Commission.

Sadly for any girls that are actually rape victims out there, I am entirely doubtful of any rape claims where a z-list celeb or higher is involved.

I think she claimed she wasn't capable of consenting to it because she was so drunk, which doesn't really come across in the CCTV of her getting out of the taxi, going into the hotel, then going back to the taxi for the pizza tbf.

Also what I don't understand is Ched's mate supposedly shagged her first, but that was OK? Is the suggestion that she shagged the other bloke, then carried on drinking and passed out, which is when Ched hopped on?

Studs has a point, unfortunate as it may be. You get the impression from hearing agents interviewed that making a rape claim against a footballer is seen as a cash cow in certain quarters.

Oh, I did not know that. If their agents say it then it must be true.

it just seems fucking weird that one's guilty and not the other.