Mason Greenwood and what will really decide if he plays for Manchester United again | Jonathan Liew

The club are consulting players in their women’s team before making a decision but the market, as always, is likely the key

And who says football doesn’t have enough women in decision-making roles? There was a bitter irony in the news this week that Manchester United are consulting their women’s team over whether to let Mason Greenwood play for the club again. United had hoped to make a decision before the start of the Premier League season, but the process has apparently been delayed because three of United’s players are playing for England at the World Cup in Australia, and presumably have more pressing matters to deal with.

Quite apart from the fact that delegating the responsibility to the players places them squarely in the crosshairs of horrific abuse from Greenwood’s many depraved internet fanboys, you had to gape at the sheer chutzpah at work here. It is now six months since the Crown Prosecution Service discontinued its case against Greenwood for attempted rape, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault. Time enough, you might think, for the elite Carrington hivemind to consult the necessary stakeholders, weigh up the risk-reward quanta and enact a decision. And yet here we are, the season already begun, and Ella Toone, Mary Earps and Katie Zelem are being dragged into this grave moral issue while they’re trying to prepare for a World Cup semi-final on the other side of the world. This, presumably, is what is meant by respecting the process.

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