Marcus Rashford...

And players behaving badly

On the latest episode of the ‘Where’s The Money Gone?’ podcast with me and Charlton Athletic director Charlie Methven, we explore the phenomenon of footballers who misbehave.

This week’s “Where’s The Money Gone?’ podcast was prompted by news of a ‘boozy bender in Belfast’ involving Manchester United’s Marcus Rashford. The England striker missed his club’s next match in the FA Cup against Newport, and was fined two week’s wages - £650,000.

We discuss the changing culture of drinking in football, with Charlie reporting that as a young bar tender in the 90s, he once served up 13 pints to Oxford United’s goalkeeper, two days before a match.

I recall hearing tales of former Bradford City legend Bobby Campbell - later a highly respected advisor to Roman Abramovich at Chelsea - once popping into the pub for a pint before a game he was playing in at Bradford City.

Our conversation also covers the vexed question of whether you should sign players with a criminal record, or those acquitted of serious offences; as well as footballers who refuse to play to force a transfer.

As for Rashord, Charlie says, “we have to think about a young man who has had more things happen to him in his young life than most of us would have in our entire adult lives.

“He's achieved amazing things. He's had moments in his career which have gone the other way, and which have caused huge amounts of opprobrium to land on his head. He’s got heavily involved with a charitable enterprise and he's had his moments when perhaps discretion might have been the better part of valour.

“The problem is for footballers is that they're just not allowed to get away with that.

“Whereas for the rest of us, our employer effectively [only] owns us at that age for the hours for which we work for them, and there’s no great expectation that a 22 or 23 year old employee won't go on a bender on the weekend, professional footballers are expected to behave all the time as role models, even though that's not the reason why they've originally became footballers in the first place.

“So it's a very awkward situation where people are expected to behave as role models are expected to live a very sober very middle aged style life when that isn't necessarily what they signed up for, or the reason why footballers became footballers in the first place”.

(Pic by By Oleg Bkhambri (Voltmetro) - used under Creative Commons).

‘Where’s The Money Gone?’ is available now from all major podcast platforms.