£5000 minimum spend but they take
Luncheon Vouchers.
Luncheon Vouchers.
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The JimmyG2 Column
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I was surprised how sharp my reaction was to the Mirror story about four of our players and friends enjoying a night out at the 'Funky Buddha club in Mayfair this week. I usually manage to ignore such nonsense and write it off as gossip, hearsay and rumour. Or even pure invention and speculation
But somehow the details got to me: The confrontation with a One
Direction member; £5000 pound minimum spend; Jeroboams of vodka; upsetting
waitresses and so on. All this in the week before a crucial game at
the climax of the season involving not young fringe members of the
squad but experienced players who would all be starting or at least
on the bench.
In an sudden flash of anger I thought,
'These people just don't give a toss; professional athletes my arse'.
I said as much on a fansite, then irritably confronted
another poster and felt obliged to apologise. Is it just me? Have I
lost it completely. Have age and senility finally pushed me over the
edge?
I some how felt betrayed that they
didn't seem to care as much as the fans. Couldn't they have waited
until next week. Or perhaps this is a regular event. After all they
have money to burn earning more in a week than most earn in a year.
Good luck to them I should be saying.
But then it feeds into another agenda; the gross inequality of the modern world. They are
ridiculously overpaid for the talent they have and the efforts they
put in. £5000 would be an essential lifeline to many people some of
whom ironically may well be Tottenham supporters.
Johnny Haynes, a London boy, played at
Fulham. He was the first £100/week player when the maximum wage of
£20/week was abolished in 1961. As was quite common then he was a
one club man. Haynes wages rocketed from the £1000 per year ( the
average national wage in 1961) to £5000 at a stroke.
His Chairman, the comedian Tommy
Trinder had joked in 1960 that he would have paid Haynes five times
the maximum wage if he could. He didn't know that the following year
the wage limit would be axed. He kept his pledge. Those were the
days.
The average national yearly wage today
is roughly what a Premiership player earns in a week. (around
£25000). Some of our quartet will be on considerably more than than
that of course. With the best will in the world I find it hard to say
'good luck' to them.
Many players lived in the local
community, drank and socialised with their fans and travelled on the
bus with them to the games. Tom Finney 'the Preston Plumber' was another one club man. Like Haynes it wasn't for
want of offers. He was born in the street next to the Preston ground.
His father insisted he complete his apprenticeship as a plumber after
signing professional forms with Preston in 1946.
If you will excuse the diversion this
all feeds into my reaction about the Tottenham Four. If I start
talking about loyalty and commitment in this age of mercenaries then
I realise that I will be put in a box labelled
' Harmless but hopelessly out of touch. Best ignored'. But the recent Modric Melodrama which feeds into the current Bale Babble is all mixed up in this cocktail in a night club.
' Harmless but hopelessly out of touch. Best ignored'. But the recent Modric Melodrama which feeds into the current Bale Babble is all mixed up in this cocktail in a night club.
Don't we all like to imagine that our
club is different despite all the evidence to the contrary? That
there is a kind of family there? That winning the fair play league is
an important marker? That it's not just about the money? Somehow
having a night out in the week before a key game seemed disloyal.
Even if training had been cancelled or it was Lennon's birthday, which it wasn't, or
whatever.
Tottenham on the verge of Champions'
League again; mercenaries and one club players; inflated wages and
alienation from their fan base; expensive nightclubs and rising
unemployment. It was a heady mix that just seemed to stick in my
throat even if most of it was exaggerated or plain untrue as I must
have realised even as I read it.
Times change clearly but not
necessarily for the better. The standard of football has improved as
have tactics and training. Foreign players have limited the
opportunities for home grown players but have had a positive effect
on skill levels.
But for me some valuable aspects of the game have
been lost and many of them seemed to be encapsulated in the report of
the lads night out. I plaintively asked if any Spurs Community members witnessed
the event. Not many obviously at £5000 a pop.
Footballers are part of the celebrity
culture now, separated from those who ultimately pay their wages and
hang on their every move. There's no going back whatever the Fair Play rules intend but shouldn't a few of the old values survive?
OK
I'm getting back in my box now. An occasional pat on the head, the
odd Jeroboam and a packet of crisps will suffice.
'You lucky people' (Tommy Trinder's
catch phrase).
Storm in a cocktail glass?
Mirror story.
Liam Payne's bust up with four Tottenham Hotspur players in nightclub sees him squaring up to Aaron Lennon
The
One Direction heart-throb, and West Brom fan, was involved in a
nightclub bust-up with four Spurs players after he felt they were
teasing a waitress a little too much.
The
girl had been serving Aaron Lennon, Kyle Walker, Tom Huddlestone and
Jake Livermore with jeroboams of vodka on a VIP table - where the
minimum spend is £5,000 a night - at Mayfair's Funky Buddha club.
The
boisterous group were laughing and joking with her but 19-year-old
Liam, sitting nearby, felt she looked increasingly uncomfortable.
Eventually,
the chivalrous, newly single singer couldn't take any more and marched
over to their table, shouting: "What the **** is going on!?"
As
Liam, an avid boxing fan, squared up to them, Aaron Lennon led a
spirited defence and questioned why he had a problem with them. Friends
tried to calm things down until Liam returned to his table.
The bizarre exchange happened at around 2am yesterday morning and just five days before Spurs' biggest game of the season.
A
friend of Liam's says: "The footballers were with four other guys and
two girls, and had vodka and various mixers on their table. Liam was
with friends a few tables away.
"Out
of nowhere were there was a commotion, Liam looked over and thought the
players were giving the waitress a hard time. He went straight over to
sort it out.
"You've got to admire him for wanting to help the lady."
The players told revellers they were out after manager Andre Villas-Boas gave them yesterday morning off training.
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Jimmy's Video Spot:
Open training session with Steffan and Andre. Just to give the other side of the story. It's not all Jeroboams and cocktail waitresses. Feel the love boys. 5000 spectators just for a training session. Hmmm.... 5000 that rings a bell.
Open training session with Steffan and Andre. Just to give the other side of the story. It's not all Jeroboams and cocktail waitresses. Feel the love boys. 5000 spectators just for a training session. Hmmm.... 5000 that rings a bell.
Originally written as a column for Spurs Community in response
to the Mirror article





