A twist of faith stopped me going to France
No way back for Parlour after Hoddle was offended
HE CAN laugh about it now, but one event in 1998 turned out to have lasting consequences for Ray Parlour.
The midfielder was a star performer for Arsenal as they claimed a Premier League and FA Cup double under new manager Arsene Wenger, yet an ill-judged quip to a faith healer cost him his place in England’s World Cup squad, and he is still paying for the wedding that followed as a result.
‘I got married instead, which wasn’t ideal either,’ Parlour jokes, referencing the subsequent divorce which cost him over £1 million in property, £2.5m in the five years which immediately followed and, in a historic ruling, one third of all his future earnings.
‘It was a really bad year that year for me.’
Parlour, now an Arsenal ambassador who must tow the party line, still delivers a yarn with the sort of comedic timing that can only be picked up after spending years on the after-dinner circuit.
The story of why England manager Glenn Hoddle cut him adrift and didn’t take him to France 20 years ago involves a minor calf injury, a faith healer by the name of Eileen Drewery and Parlour’s sense of humour coming back to haunt him.
‘The short back and sides,’ he says with almost weary familiarity as he starts from the beginning.
‘Ah, well, that was the sort of character I was. I got injured and I went to see Gary Lewin who was our physio [at Arsenal and for England]. He knew what I was like because I played through injuries all the time, but I had pulled my calf.
‘It wasn’t a bad injury but I would have been out for two weeks. Glenn Hoddle made me go see his faith healer and I was, again, a little bit jokey.
‘I walked into the room and had to sit on a chair like the one I’m sitting on now and she pulled the curtains and started walking around me.
‘I was like “woah, what’s going on here, I’ve never been involved in something like this”. She put her hands on the back of my head and, well, I said “short back and sides, Eileen, while you’re there”. I needed a haircut at the time,’ Parlour continues.
‘She starts laughing and I started laughing but in the end it got leaked to the papers. She told her husband, he told players, you know what it’s like. Next thing it’s on the back of the papers and Glenn Hoddle at the time was offended.
‘He never picked me after that. Arsene Wenger phoned him but he said “he’ll never play under me again”. I didn’t know what the consequences would have been, because we had players like Gazza. Gazza! He was a little bit better than me probably.’
Parlour travels to Russia on Sunday and insists there is no ill-feeling towards Hoddle or sense of guilt at missing out on a World Cup when he was approaching his peak as a player.
‘It’s a pinnacle competition to play in. It’s World Cup and Champions League — they’re the competitions you want to be involved in as a football player. You should never have any regrets in your career.
‘I was very lucky to play in great Arsenal sides and win lots of trophies. If you look at Alan Shearer for instance, he only won one title. You want to play for your country but club football ....
‘You can’t change just because you put an England shirt on. If I was a manager I wouldn’t want them to change. You know how you get the best out of your players. Everyone gets ready for a game differently. You have some being quiet, some are noisy, mucking about, but as long as you do it on the pitch that’s all that matters.
‘That’s what Arsene Wenger did very well. He would do all his prematch talk at the hotel and then disappear at the stadium. He wasn’t one who would be walking around the dressing room.
‘England have a well-balanced squad and the talk coming out of the camp is that people are bubbly and having fun.
‘When you train you train hard but when it’s over that’s when you can relax. That’s what some of the foreign lads who came over didn’t understand at first, it was so serious where they came from, they didn’t really communicate, it was their job. We acted more as mates and they embraced that.
‘That helps because there is so much pressure in football, think about how many people watch the game?
‘You can sit around a table after training and talk about things, not just in football but life, and that’s what Gareth Southgate is trying to bring.
‘He was a footballer recently so he understands what’s needed. That’s what he’s trying to change because you can’t judge England on qualifying for a tournament, it’s about the tournament itself.’