Keith Arthur’s
views on the news
COARSE fishing and football have always been bracketed together as sports enjoyed by what used to be called ‘the working class’.
Mind you, that was in the days when footballers earned £20 a week rather than a minute, and came from Manchester rather than Madrid!
Several footballers were guests on Tight Lines over the years, most memorably David Seaman, who we dragged in from the Sky Sports News studio where he had been debating the draw for Euro ’96. We didn’t even have a chair for him so he had to squat behind our desk.
Yet another goalie, David Stockdale, loves his fishing and achieved success this recentlyended season by protecting the net – goal rather than landing – for Brighton and Hove Albion. He’s a Leeds lad at heart, almost a reason for being an angler by its own right.
Many commentators will tell you that goalies are potty (all that diving around at forwards’ feet), but from my experiences on Tight Lines it’s outfield players who are the loonies. I offer as evidence Jimmy Bullard who, on a quest (successful) to help him catch a barbel, spent more time firing pellets at our cameraman on the far bank than he did fishing.
However, having been extremely lucky to have spent time chatting with some of the best footballers ever seen in this country, mostly in the make-up rooms at Sky Sports, I can tell you that the vast majority, anglers or not, are extremely normal people.