Why Paul Huntington deserves a break from Leeds United incident now he's a Carlisle United player

And we’re talking full disclosure here, not just humblebrag stuff for the CV or Linkedin. Also put the silly things: the moments you regret, the unpleasant detail of what you did in Club Concrete that night, the risky Facebook post you deleted just before your employer saw it.

Now imagine your long list being displayed in public. Imagine this happening not just once but often, no matter what else you went on to do.

Imagine, many years later, being held to account for your list. Imagine being told that, yes, you’re okay now – in fact you’re very good – but the Concrete thing…yeah. Shame about that, eh?

We sometimes easily forget, or at least disregard, the youth of footballers. At 20, Paul Huntington was more exceptional at the game than a majority of young men his age.

He was adept enough to have already been a teenage Premier League defender for Newcastle United. By 20, he was capable enough for a first-team place in Leeds United’s League One defence.

Exceptional, then, and adept, then, at kicking and heading a spherical air-filled object. But not, like many 20-year-olds – as all our imaginary lists would attest – yet in total and advanced command of every emotional situation life might present.

You know what this is about – the incident which, 14 years on, came back up this week as Carlisle United signed Huntington. His one-year deal at Brunton Park sealed a transfer which ticks a great many boxes for Paul Simpson; an experienced, knowledgeable, motivated, highly capable square peg straight into the current defensive hole of that shape.

Huntington's notorious Leeds celebration against Carlisle in 2008

Most folk, judging by the reception, are pleased with the move. Huntington’s most recent football came in the Championship. He is from Carlisle, has returned to lay fresh roots in the place, likes what he sees in Simmo’s overhaul of the team and club and is keen to play a part.

Yet is impossible, still, for some to see past events at Elland Road in 2008, when Huntington, his head bandaged from a collision, celebrated a Leeds goal by moving in the direction of the travelling Carlisle supporters, pulling at the fabric of his shirt, brandishing the Leeds badge and shouting his aggressive delight.

It was an undeniably crass thing to do, and 20 was not so young as to be blind to this, even in an adversarial sport and in a packed stadium like Elland Road which is not football’s calmest setting.

Clinging on to this memory as an asterisk 14 years on, though, does not serve much purpose particularly when you think that Huntington, almost immediately, sought to repent for what he did.

A myth that sometimes does the rounds is that he never properly fronted up for April 12, 2008, or at least took a long time to do so. The truth is that he did so on April 13, 2008. I know this because I interviewed him about it that Sunday, and it did not take any persuasion.

I had Huntington’s number from a mutual friend and texted him to ask whether, in light of the rumpus, he would like to address it. The reply was swift – yes, it was stupid, yes, I totally regret it, yes, I’d like to put it on the record, and thanks for the opportunity.

The resulting interview was of fair length and sincere. It also included the dark revelation that the defender had received death threats, which was serious enough to become the headline in the News & Star (and other papers who picked up the story) rather than the apology itself.

Huntington's experience should be ideal to help United's young defenders (photo: PA)

That was a journalist and publication following news instinct rather than, as it might have appeared, a player trying to spin sympathy. As such, the portrayal of Huntington’s regret did not perhaps come across as cleanly as he’d wished.

That was our bag, not his. In the round, though, this was still a 20-year-old being put under the sort of scrutiny few of us experience when we do something stupid or obtuse.

And no, it was never likely to be brushed away quickly – turning on your own is perhaps one of the last football sins to be forgiven – but I do wonder how it has been to be Huntington, since then, when it has come to the city of his birth: doing something you regret almost immediately, burdened with it in the eyes of many from that day forward.

Long after 2008, and in the more advanced stages of his career, he has still been asked to answer for it: on BBC Radio Cumbria in 2020, and also this week, when we in the media felt it right to bring it up again.

Having done so, it would be healthier, all in all, to leave it now. Huntington is now a Carlisle player, committed to being so, exactly what Simpson has decided he needs and, as he has said, can see himself doing the hard-yards defending for the Blues just a little more than he might for someone else at 34.

He ought to be perfect to help cultivate young defenders like Morgan Feeney, Jon Mellish, Jack Armer and Jack Ellis. He ought to know more about this particular art than everyone else in Carlisle’s squad put together.

So it would be a shame if a shadow followed him at this perfect moment, instead of encouragement and light. Sure, misdemeanours die hard in football – but, again, think of the daftest thing you did at 20, it being amplified and remembered any time your name came up.

Think of how you'd appreciate being given a break. He's due that now.