It got me thinking about the state of the game today and the conduct of it's proponents namely the players. With massive salaries and superstar status exaserbated in part by the media and you have to assume the public's fascination with celebrity football players have found themselves in the limelight and as likely to be on the front pages as much as the back.
This weekend saw the first ever electronic TAG worn by a player in the premiership, players at Newcastle involved in a brawl and it brought to mind how quiet it's gone on the whole episode of the allegations of gang rape in a certain London Hotel last year.
My question is simply this ......When does a player's conduct on or off the pitch make him unemployable in the modern game and why is it that managers and clubs seem to place a person's ability to play a sport (In this case football ) as the sole concern when deciding what action they are going to take.
Pennant went to jail for stealing a friends car and being caught drink driving for the SECOND time in as many months yet walks out of prison and into the loving arms of Steve Bruce (maybe thats punishment enough!) who then proceeds to tell anyone who will listen what a good lad Jermaine is, how talented he is and how he is easily influenced (Yeah right on that score Bruce, easily under the influence
).The FA then abdicate all responsibility by asking the REFEREE to decide whether he is able to play with an electronic TAG
I must be getting old or maybe to me it has always mattered what a player is like off the pitch as well as on it.
Today's head to head between Dyer and Bowyer highlights the lack of discipline amoungst professional players but no doubt Souness will come out praising the abilities of the lads and try and salvage their careers and keep them at the club. Funny how calling your manager a Liar as Bellamy did the other month is considered a worse offence than endangering life in a Motor vehicle or fighting on a pitch .....
