Boozy Footballers

So, at last a top manager in the English Premier League has commented on the problems of boozy players. He has said that booze is a major contributor to so many of the problems with young British footballers. At the same time he urges them to behave like foreign players, who, on the whole do not behave like British players. After the sad England performance at the World Cup - which was so embarrassing for our country - it is vital to get players behaving as professional sportsmen. In addition it is pointed out that the careers of many Italian players [for example] go on for far longer, since they are still fit enough to play at the top level at 40 years of age. Harry Redknapp does not look like a man who has kept well clear of booze and he admits that in his playing days he, too, was a regular drinker. Now he is firmly fixed in the abstinence camp. I hope he will enforce his beliefs at Tottenham and try to prove that abstemious players performer better than the boozers. As I have said before, I am amazed that people like Alex Ferguson do not come down like a few tons of bricks on the social and night-life activities of many of their players.

Amazingly - at least to me - the Football Correspondent of The Independent defended the players on the grounds that manufacturers of alcoholic drinks were much tied up with endorsing football. Booze, he tells us, has always been part of British football for decades and he points to greats from the past who were prodigious drinkers. He cites George Best and Jimmy Greaves. They were heavy drinkers even when they were playing but I suspect that in 2010 playing against or alongside fit and sober European players they would not perform quite so well. One of them died as a result of his drinking and the other needed a lot of drying out before he could carry on with his life. In a culture where so many young people drink to excess, why, The Independent asks, should we expect young footballers to be different. That's easy! We should expect them to be different because they are paid £100,000 per week to be different. At least we can point to some exceptions. Players like Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and a few others who are still performing well in their mid-thirties and are at the top level as well. They behave responsibly, soberly and professionally. England Manager Fabio Capello tried to talk Paul Scholes back into the England team; he was right to try to do so. At least we would have known that he had a player who was playing without gallons of alcohol circulating around in his system.

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