Ex-pros did worse than nick a taxi
MAURICIO PELLEGRINO was part of a small minority who weren’t outraged at the drunken antics of West Brom’s ‘Barcelona Taxi Four’.
“Players today are really professional – it is impossible to play at this level, if you are not professional. Sometimes they have the right to enjoy themselves. But everybody makes mistakes,” said the Southampton manager.
Which made a change from the condemnation of solid professionals, like Gareth Barry and Jonny Evans, from ex-players who know they and their team-mates got away with even worse antics on trips in the past. Antics quite a few love to quote while trousering cheques on the after-dinner circuit.
Of course, the West Brom four were stupid. Surprisingly so in this day and age, especially for players of such experience. But collective stupidity among men in drink happens, regardless of how much they’re paid.
In their defence, taking a taxi and driving it three miles is not the worst thing British players have done on a trip. It’s not even the worst thing that’s happened concerning drink and a commandeered Spanish vehicle.
That honour belongs to Everton’s Peter Beagrie who, on a pre-season tour in 1991, flagged down a Spanish motorcyclist and asked for a lift back to his hotel.
When Beagrie (right) got there, he couldn’t wake the night porter, so took the bike, rode it up the hotel steps and straight through a plate-glass window.
His head needed 50 stitches and, worse still, he’d driven into the wrong hotel. WHEN Kay Burley finished interviewing Gary Cliffe for Sky News outside the court where his abuser Barry Bennell had been sentenced to 30 years, she said what every person who had been following this tragic story thought: “What bravery there... a lot of bravery.” Gary had gone into detail, as others have, about the sexual crimes that stole his childhood and wrecked his life, all because he went to Manchester City to become a professional footballer.
Sport throws up brave people all the time, but few have been as courageous as those who exposed the paedophiles English football harboured for decades.
The game needs to apologise properly then honour them.