147man
17 May 2005, 05:49 AM
Did anyone see the "Life after football" programme last night with Alan Hansen?
They profiled a number of ex-professional footballers and interviewed some current ones
Razor Ruddock - Had turned to the bottle and is now in a sports psychology clinic training with Adrian Mutu, he sounded as though he was coming out of the other side of it but talked of the early days (of his retirement) when he found that the only way to get the buzz that football had given him was to drink
Gazza - Was a different story, he certainly didn't sound like a man that had come to terms with the fact that he can no longer play top-flight football, he even at one point talked about putting a bet on himself to play in the premiership again and then doing his badges, becoming a premiership manager and picking himself!! Sad in the extreme!
Alan Shearer - Said that this is his last season regardless of any begging that the Toon migh do
Gary Lineker - Was the most succesful of the lot although he admitted that the media had always been where he saw himself going.
Neil Webb - Is driving a white van and living a life of struggle like the rest of us.
The thread running through all of these stories was that the players seem to believe that they are invincible and that old father time will never catch up with them, very few of them (and maybe they had been picked for this reason) had done any forward planning to guard against the fact that their career would terminate in their mid thirties.
Most of the current players who were interviewed could not talk of any other future than "Doing my badges..." or "Becoming a manager..." or "Getting involved in caoching....", in other words they could not see beyond football or even a sideways trajectory from football (e.g. Punditry)
I had to smile at the continual assertion that "a players career is over at 35" when I thought that next season we will be playing a 40 year old!!
They profiled a number of ex-professional footballers and interviewed some current ones
Razor Ruddock - Had turned to the bottle and is now in a sports psychology clinic training with Adrian Mutu, he sounded as though he was coming out of the other side of it but talked of the early days (of his retirement) when he found that the only way to get the buzz that football had given him was to drink
Gazza - Was a different story, he certainly didn't sound like a man that had come to terms with the fact that he can no longer play top-flight football, he even at one point talked about putting a bet on himself to play in the premiership again and then doing his badges, becoming a premiership manager and picking himself!! Sad in the extreme!
Alan Shearer - Said that this is his last season regardless of any begging that the Toon migh do
Gary Lineker - Was the most succesful of the lot although he admitted that the media had always been where he saw himself going.
Neil Webb - Is driving a white van and living a life of struggle like the rest of us.
The thread running through all of these stories was that the players seem to believe that they are invincible and that old father time will never catch up with them, very few of them (and maybe they had been picked for this reason) had done any forward planning to guard against the fact that their career would terminate in their mid thirties.
Most of the current players who were interviewed could not talk of any other future than "Doing my badges..." or "Becoming a manager..." or "Getting involved in caoching....", in other words they could not see beyond football or even a sideways trajectory from football (e.g. Punditry)
I had to smile at the continual assertion that "a players career is over at 35" when I thought that next season we will be playing a 40 year old!!