The England skipper has faced plenty of criticism for drinking on international duty but it ignores the fact that he was betrayed by those who took his picture and sold it on
A consequence of the mega money washing around English football is that players have left our world to live in their own. They don’t usually live where we live, shop where we shop, eat where we eat, holiday where we holiday. To encounter a high-profile footballer in the street is not an everyday event for most of us. There is a distance, a barrier between us and them in our everyday existence and that barrier is built with money. They have their families, their close circles and can live contentedly in that bubble without ever encountering any of us down here in the real world.
Some football fans - naturally - feel an affinity to players who represent their teams. They may even feel a sense of entitlement – that the players somehow owe a part of themselves to the fans. A former England international recalled that one of the main reasons he transferred to a rival club was that they were based in a bigger city. Fans there were more accustomed to seeing ‘stars’ around the place and where fewer fans would be looking for a slice of him.
For players, there is no avoiding a certain percentage of that kind of interaction. By filling a car up, or taking a trip to the local shop, players know they are likely to be asked for a photograph or an autograph. Mostly these interactions are normal, healthy, and usually leave the recipient feeling good. Players owe fans absolutely nothing beyond their efforts on the pitch; the fact that most of them are happy to make someone’s day like this should be commended.
But fans have a responsibility too because interactions work both ways. Take your picture by all means if permitted but don’t be a grass. Whatever you think about Wayne Rooney getting drunk at England’s team hotel, there is only one way to assess the fallout. Rooney was betrayed; betrayed by the fans with whom he shared his time, betrayed by the very people he sat down to have a drink with, betrayed by a smartphone assassin.
The Manchester United forward was letting off steam after - perhaps - the most difficult few weeks of his career with friend, the Everton defender Phil Jagielka. Dropped by his club and his country, he was nonetheless having a good time with everyday folk. Well I can guarantee he won’t be making that mistake again.
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The photographs in The Sun newspaper are unflattering; maybe even a little humiliating. What’s even more embarrassing is that the pictures leaked out in the first place. The subsequent moral outrage and righteous indignation means this aspect of the story is buried.
It is the same thing with Adam Lallana and Jordan Henderson. The Liverpool midfielders visited a strip club in Bournemouth the same night Rooney was drinking in the team hotel. It was reported – again – in The Sun. Whatever you think about strip clubs is beyond the point here. But these two – excellent, diligent professionals by all accounts - did nothing wrong yet were grassed up. You can be damn sure that For Your Eyes Only in Bournemouth won’t see another penny of Adam Lallana’s custom. Why? Lallana and Henderson were betrayed by the person who spotted them in the club and lifted the phone to The Sun.
Ex-England manager Roy Hodgson took the London Underground in October 2012 and found himself in the company of some fans who asked him about his team. Rio Ferdinand was unlikely to go to the World Cup in Brazil, Hodgson reasonably stated, as he was reaching “the end of the road”. Pictures were snapped, conversations enjoyed and all parties went happily on their way. That was, of course, until the images and quotes appeared all over the newspapers and Hodgson had some explaining to do to Ferdinand and other people at the FA. What treachery.
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One of the chief outcomes of that particular incident would have been to make individuals involved with the England team reluctant to offer anything but the blandest soundbite – not only on camera as usual – but even to the public at large in football matters. Another avenue closed.
Midfielder Jack Wilshere has had to apologise on a number of occasions after pictures of him smoking cigarettes appeared online. There is plenty of criminality in football and behaviour worth condemning but for heaven’s sake smoking cigarettes is not one of them. People who snitch on smokers should have grown out of that sad act when they were kids. Absolutely pathetic and worse that Wilshere apologised.
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England under -21 player Jack Grealish – meanwhile – was pictured sprawled out on a road in Tenerife while on holiday there in the summer of 2015. Again, a member of the public saw fit to snap him in this state and plaster the pictures all over social media. The resulting storm put the 19-year-old Grealish in the limelight and ensured he would have to put on plenty of contrition to get the puritans back onside.
This Rooney nonsense has led to inquiries, reviews and a total ban on players leaving the hotel for nights out on international duty. The FA is taking it all very seriously – that their captain and team-mate Jagielka spent a few hours in the company of people who will remember those interactions for life – the night they had a beer with Wayne Rooney.
The question should not be: Why did they do it? It should be: Why did we ever find out? Snitches.
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So if you do meet an England player out and about, shake his hand, get a picture by all means but don’t grass him up if he’s doing nothing wrong. Maybe then the trust might be restored between us average Joes and the professionals.
If they can’t have a drink, smoke a crafty cig, go to a strip club or even talk about football to fans without that trust being compromised then ask yourself the question… do you blame them for hiding away?
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