Mitch Clark

[Dangermouse3]

Mitch had £600 fine and a suspended 3 month sentence which is over a 2 year period.

News on EFL site

[robf]

OVF feature:

Port Vale new signing Mitch Clark cleared to play after receiving suspended suspension - onevalefan.co.uk

WWW.ONEVALEFAN.CO.UK

 

[Guppys left peg]

Lucky lad, just hopes he makes the most of this opportunity now. Fingers crossed for him he does.

[robf]

He's gone up a fair bit in my estimation. It seems to have been a waking up call for him. Co-operated fully and honestly, admitted his mistakes and is now seeking help. We all mistakes - it's how we deal with them that counts. While taking nothing away from the fact he shouldn't have done it in the first place, personally I can't fault that sort of reaction. Good on him!

 

[Guitar Ray]

I think the most important thing here is that Mitch has received, and hopefully is still receiving, counselling for what is essentially addictive behaviour.  This type of problem doesn’t just appear and disappear overnight but all being well the lad can, with the necessary support, put this chapter behind him.

[Warren]

Being a professional footballer can help overcome addictions. The public spotlight, the rules of the game and the support clubs et al provide can tackle issues that in other ways of life remain unaddressed and get worse. 

[philmpv]

Take it from someone who definitely knows - An addiction to gambling is no less easy to overcome nor control as the 'accepted' physically based addictions such as alcohol or drugs, and certainly no less destructive. It's only very recently that people have started to sit up and take notice of it, yet we're still as a society so far away from treating it as seriously and compassionately as most other addictions. I suffered for 2 decades with it, and it's only just over the last 2 years that I've got it under control. During that time I lost almost everything. I have every sympathy with Mitch in these circumstances, and really hope that he's getting the help that I could never get.

[Paul6754]

12 minutes ago, philmpv said:

Take it from someone who definitely knows - An addiction to gambling is no less easy to overcome nor control as the 'accepted' physically based addictions such as alcohol or drugs, and certainly no less destructive. It's only very recently that people have started to sit up and take notice of it, yet we're still as a society so far away from treating it as seriously and compassionately as most other addictions. I suffered for 2 decades with it, and it's only just over the last 2 years that I've got it under control. During that time I lost almost everything. I have every sympathy with Mitch in these circumstances, and really hope that he's getting the help that I could never get.

Seriously MPV, good luck as I can't imagine it's easy being addicted to anything.

[Paul6754]

Good luck to Mitch and now everything is known and in the open I can only think that having the likes of AC and DF around him will help achieve his footballing potential.

Hope he can reproduce the form and quality of play he showed when in Lge 2 for Vale as in my view he was superb.

[Playa Amodores]

16 hours ago, philmpv said:

Take it from someone who definitely knows - An addiction to gambling is no less easy to overcome nor control as the 'accepted' physically based addictions such as alcohol or drugs, and certainly no less destructive. It's only very recently that people have started to sit up and take notice of it, yet we're still as a society so far away from treating it as seriously and compassionately as most other addictions. I suffered for 2 decades with it, and it's only just over the last 2 years that I've got it under control. During that time I lost almost everything. I have every sympathy with Mitch in these circumstances, and really hope that he's getting the help that I could never get.

Phil, sorry to hear that you had two decades of being addicted. Great news that it’s now under control, we’ll done. I bet every day but only small amounts. As a kid I was addicted to fruit machines. To easy now with everything on the phone. Also think a gambling addiction is the most destructive as your body can only take so much alcohol/drugs, where with gambling there’s no signs of being affected. Keep it going

[Bycarsbill]

16 hours ago, robf said:

He's gone up a fair bit in my estimation. It seems to have been a waking up call for him. Co-operated fully and honestly, admitted his mistakes and is now seeking help. We all mistakes - it's how we deal with them that counts. While taking nothing away from the fact he shouldn't have done it in the first place, personally I can't fault that sort of reaction. Good on him!

 

Couldn't agree more, but realistically he's still going to need help going forward and I sincerely hope that he will get that at PV.

[PV1973]

On 05/07/2023 at 18:19, robf said:

He's gone up a fair bit in my estimation. It seems to have been a waking up call for him. Co-operated fully and honestly, admitted his mistakes and is now seeking help. We all mistakes - it's how we deal with them that counts. While taking nothing away from the fact he shouldn't have done it in the first place, personally I can't fault that sort of reaction. Good on him!

 

However once caught he had no other options left to him if he wanted to rescue his career. 

[robf]

28 minutes ago, PV1973 said:

However once caught he had no other options left to him if he wanted to rescue his career. 

I dunno about that - I looked at the Ivan Toney case on Wikipedia and he reacted somewhat differently. According to Wikipedia when investigated "he lied over his gambling and tried to destroy evidence" compared with Clark who was commended for co-operating fully and honestly.

Clark still made a big mistake but in my view, he dealt with it much better than Toney did and that's why he's gone up in my estimation.