We’re republishing the perfect of DailyMail+ Sport from 2025 – the unique, in-depth tales that our subscribers love. Right here, we glance again on the tales from the Premier League ‘fixer’ who has, fairly actually, seen all of it.
Whenever you work with footballers nothing a lot surprises you however then often one thing does. Discovering spent machine gun bullets within the backyard of one in all your membership’s high gamers in all probability suits into that class.
Often, when working as a participant liaison officer for an enormous Premier League membership, I’d drop in on gamers’ homes simply to see how they have been and, if I’m trustworthy, to verify they have been taking care of the place.
Many overseas stars – particularly in the event that they have been younger and single – can be in rented lodging that we had discovered for them. They might get bored or lonely and each of these could possibly be problematic in several methods.
That day was a watch opener, even for me. The bullet casings scattered throughout the garden have been really from an Uzi 9mm submachine gun. They have been blanks besides. What or who had he been aiming at? My guess would have been one in all his associates.
That specific participant did wrestle to be alone. On an extra tour of the place, I discovered a pair of pink, fluffy handcuffs and a packet of condoms by his indoor swimming pool. I didn’t ask any questions on my manner out.
For variety of years, this was my world. Taking care of the perfect pursuits of footballers at an enormous membership within the south.
Whenever you work with footballers nothing a lot surprises you however then often one thing does (Paul Gascoigne isn’t concerned on this story)
Often, when working as a participant liaison officer for an enormous Premier League membership, I’d drop in on gamers’ homes (Wayne Rooney and others pictured will not be included within the story)
I discovered a pair of pink, fluffy handcuffs and a packet of condoms by one participant’s indoor swimming pool
Serving to them, looking for them, attempting to present them the construction and the stability of their lives to hopefully assist them be happier and extra balanced and, in consequence, play higher and serve the membership I labored for.
I used to say to them: ‘I’m not your servant. I’m right here to service your wants, not your needs.’ Often the strains might get blurred and sure, at instances, it paid to show a blind eye.
Gamers, for instance, would gamble and sometimes would get into a foul place. One denied to me that he had an issue regardless that I had been tipped off by an area on line casino. When a workers member went to take his automotive for a service there have been roulette chips spilling out of the glove compartment.
Everyone knows gamers aren’t allowed to gamble on soccer. FA guidelines forbid it. Even I wasn’t allowed to do it. However a few of them do it anyway.
One among them at my membership – an enormous star – used to present his mate hundreds of kilos in money to take to the bookies. Correct old-fashioned. His mate would come again with the betting slip. Actually so long as my arm.
The identical participant used to smoke shisha on the coaching floor and it burned holes within the carpet. I persuaded him to pay for it to be repaired earlier than the supervisor discovered and fined him. He didn’t wish to. The truth is, he instructed me to: ‘F*** off.’ However he did it. And he thanked me later.
Smoking was a fairly widespread vice, particularly amongst among the Jap European gamers. They didn’t actually attempt to conceal it. It did get ridiculous when one in all them went lacking throughout half-time of an enormous recreation, although. We discovered him handed out in a disabled bathroom, engulfed in cigarette smoke. He nonetheless performed the second half.
On matchday and at coaching, a minimum of we might regulate gamers. They have been all there the place you could possibly see them. Bliss. Away from work, although, boredom stays the fashionable footballer’s nice enemy.
My colleagues and I’d establish areas the place specific gamers have been weak and discover methods to forestall issues occurring. Some can be genuinely lonely, for instance. Some would have associates however too most of the unsuitable kind. Some can be too trusting and focused and exploited by ladies, by criminals posing as associates and even by members of their very own household.
One among our high gamers, for instance, was consistently surrounded by different individuals. Possibly a dozen at a time. He additionally simply couldn’t sit nonetheless.
At one rented property he had a par-3 golf gap inbuilt his backyard. The owner wasn’t happy. Then he moved to a different place whereas nonetheless contracted to pay lease on the primary. He was paying tens of hundreds of kilos a month on homes he wasn’t even residing in.
As soon as, whereas getting back from damage, the identical participant was requested to play in a reserve recreation up at an area League One membership. He was late for kick-off. The rationale? He had taken a car-load of mates with him and stopped to purchase all of them ice cream on the way in which. This can be a participant of worldwide reputation who has greater than 65 worldwide caps for his nation.
That participant was notably advanced and we labored onerous with him. His private safety was lax which made him weak. His father was financially demanding whereas his single best worry was that his kids – estranged from him abroad – wouldn’t get any of his cash if he died.
He refused to take his driving idea check however would get behind the wheel anyway. And towards all of this background, he was one in all our absolute best gamers. It’s superb what gamers will lock away at the back of their minds as quickly as they step on to a soccer area.
Chances are you’ll ask in regards to the roles of gamers’ brokers in all of this? Why is there a necessity for participant care when they’re actually paying individuals to signify them? Nicely, my job was to service the perfect pursuits of the membership, at the start. There’s a distinction.
I’d belief and interact with some brokers and others much less so. My take was at all times that 20 per cent of them typically had the perfect pursuits of their gamers at coronary heart whereas the opposite 80 per cent have been in it for themselves. Others take a extra beneficiant view.
I’d merely say to the brokers: ‘I’ll do as a lot or as little on your participant as you need.’
A few of them I’d by no means see once more, whereas others would consistently be on the coaching floor. I really noticed one big-name participant come to blows together with his agent in my workplace. They have been rolling round on the ground till I dragged them aside. They known as it play-fighting however punches have been thrown.
After which there have been the wives and girlfriends. Many gamers had nice and secure relationships, others much less so. It wasn’t unknown for a participant to sidle as much as me after a recreation and say: ‘If she asks, inform her I used to be taking part in golf on Tuesday…’
This wasn’t simply occurring at my membership in fact. I bear in mind a star defender at an enormous northern outfit had nowhere to go after telling one extra-marital ‘pal’ that he was a carpet salesman from Coventry. That each one went superb till she noticed him on the TV one Saturday holding an enormous trophy.
Some wives and girlfriends could possibly be extremely forgiving however then would run their precise houses with an iron fist. One participant ordered a brand new TV solely to be instructed by his spouse that it was far too huge and ostentatious. She despatched it again. On the identical day she took supply of a brand new dressing desk lined in Swarovksi diamonds.
There isn’t any level pretending ladies weren’t a problem as a result of they often have been. Submit-season excursions and events can be notably difficult.
Gamers would fairly actually take their gatherings underground, internet hosting them in basements of massive, rented mansions with sure feminine ‘company’ invited and cell phones left on the door.
Submit-season excursions might get vigorous, in the meantime, with gamers relishing the liberty of the top of a marketing campaign and disappearing off in all instructions searching for pleasure.
On one journey overseas there was presupposed to be a midnight curfew and all appeared effectively when a gaggle of the lads went out for a ‘sightseeing tour’ in a minibus. The one subject was that the car had blacked out home windows and two pole-dancing poles constructed into the again.
Evidently, the lads weren’t alone. It was sightseeing – simply of a special variety.
Gamers weren’t allowed company on away journeys earlier than video games. In fact they weren’t. Very often, although, a ‘pal’ would ebook herself in to a room a few flooring under within the crew lodge.
It wasn’t rocket science. Some gamers would take dangers to get what they wished and the reality is that we took all of it severely. The teaching workers wanted the gamers to be asleep!
Not that the coaching floor was deemed fully off restrict by some gamers, thoughts. There was a specific cabinet that we strongly suspected was often used for illicit leisure – all ‘a bit Boris Becker’ – however no one was ever caught within the act. I do have the names of the suspects lodged in my thoughts, although.
Extra broadly, we’d put collectively SWOT analyses for particular person gamers to establish strengths, weaknesses, alternatives and threats. That manner we might ideally assist gamers with issues like languages and cultural and non secular variations.
These items are an actual downside in fashionable soccer and may result in unhappiness, poor type and, most damagingly of all, cliques in a dressing room.
SWOT would additionally assist to establish these gamers weak to being exploited or used. As ever, some would relish the assistance. One senior participant instructed my division we have been value 5 Premier League factors a season, whereas others would push again towards it.
I imply, when a participant insists on paying a mate £100 a time to drive to a metropolis centre restaurant to choose up £15 Margherita pizzas 5 nights every week what can you actually do?
Often, the supervisor and training workers would wish slightly assist too. I bear in mind after one recreation the boss, a foreigner, pulled me and requested me to elucidate what a very crude swear phrase really meant.
I requested him why and he stated: ‘As a result of the opposition supervisor has simply known as me it.’ In equity, that specific supervisor – an Englishman – subsequently wrote to my man and apologised for being a ‘neanderthal.’
In the end, it was all about belief. We tried to deal with our gamers as belongings and did all we might to present them an surroundings by which they may thrive.
When it comes to individuals who labored for them – whether or not it’s cooks, nannies, cleaners, drivers, tutors – we’d try to provide them from our trusted checklist they usually all would signal Non-Disclosure Agreements to cease them gossiping or promoting tittle-tattle to the media. On the entire, it labored. Not at all times, however normally.
Fan mail, then again, was more durable to police. It was superb what individuals would ship. Requests for cash and autographs and recommendation and signed gadgets have been widespread, in fact.
However so have been letters of horrendous abuse – usually neatly written and signed on the backside – and even packages containing human excrement.
Most of it by no means bought to the gamers, in fact. We’d sift out the actually malicious or malevolent stuff and they’d by no means know. At one level, we thought of hiring somebody particularly to take care of the mailbag. Having stated that, there was one England star who insisted on all his correspondence being handled by his mom.
I’m nonetheless in soccer however now that I’m not working instantly with gamers, I typically get requested if I really appreciated them. And the reply, on the entire, is that I did and I do. Lots of them are humorous, beneficiant, humble and type. After which there’s the share which might be ‘d***heads.’ Similar to in any stroll of life.
Equally, some are extremely mature and can do issues for followers and different those who by no means get publicised. Others simply don’t appear to develop up.
One younger participant, for instance, used to bang golf balls into the space on the coaching floor after which inform a feminine workers member to choose them up. Amazingly, she did it till somebody had a phrase with him.
One other bought into an altercation with a woman in a nightclub and a drink was thrown. It was onerous to know who was really guilty however the participant had type with ladies so to avert what might have been a really public downside, I wrote a letter of apology to appease the offended father.
After a lot wrangling and persuasion the participant agreed to signal it – solely to put in writing his title so small that it was unimaginable to learn. I despatched it off anyway. One other disaster prevented.
The language of the dressing room has modified through the years and that’s for the higher. Gamers have genuinely tried to embrace points round variety even when there’s nonetheless some technique to go.
I do recall one assembly when the first-team squad have been being educated on the usage of vocabulary round ladies, faith and nationality.
One participant from Jap Europe – the gamers who tended to have the perfect sense of humour – pointed to a teammate and stated: ‘Does this imply I can’t name him a French t**t anymore then?’ All people simply collapsed laughing.
Gamers are essentially regular guys, actually. With most of the identical worries and insecurities as the remainder of us. They’ll get star-struck too.
I’ll always remember loitering with a star of our recreation within the gents bathroom in a restaurant on a pre-season tour. The rationale? Zinedine Zidane was in one of many cubicles and my man wished his autograph. He bought it, too.
Do I just like the trade? That’s more durable to reply. There might be quite a lot of jealousy inside a soccer membership in the direction of workers who work with the gamers. It will probably appear like a glamorous job and to a level it’s.
Individuals would need your job, each from exterior the membership and inside. At Christmas, for instance, gamers would get tremendous beneficiant, handing out Rolex watches and money to workers on the soccer facet of the operation. Information of that may unfold by different departments of the membership. A HR nightmare!
For me, it wasn’t about that. It was about serving the pursuits of the soccer membership and ensuring my cellphone was at all times on for that 11pm cellphone name from a participant who wanted one thing.
I ought to have stored a type of bullets as a memento, thoughts. In spite of everything, I had helped gamers dodge just a few. As for the pink, fluffy handcuffs, I’ve tried to place that picture out of my thoughts…
The names on this piece have been stored nameless.
