Dan Gowar on a Friday...

THERE are some things I have never quite been able to get my head round.

I believe at one time accomplished professional footballers received relatively modest wages. Today, however, they can be paid astronomical sums.

A player on the books of a famous English team has recently expressed publicly his dissatisfaction with the club.

He may have some justification for taking the stance but it would take a lot to upset me if I was being paid £500,000 a week, the figure the player is reported to receive.

What top footballers now earn may be linked to bonuses and targets but it is a heck of a lot of money whatever way you look at it.

Magazines and newspapers occasionally carry interviews with entertainers or film stars who may be asked if they have ever been paid ‘silly money’ for a professional appearance.

I have read about pop groups earning several hundred thousand pounds for an hour’s performance at the wedding reception of someone with extremely wealthy parents, or a popular actor getting £50,000 for officially opening a store and signing autographs.

It is to my regret that I have never been paid ‘silly money’ for anything.

The General Manager, however, has done very well on a couple of occasions.

A journalist who has worked on around a dozen newspapers, including the Greenock Telegraph, she was once asked by a multinational company to interview employees for an in-house video.

The job took only an hour, starting with a short lunch during which a senior executive gave her a list of questions to ask.

When leaving the premises, the executive asked the GM to send him an invoice. She said she had no idea what to charge.

He suggested a figure and back in the 1980s the GM was paid what today would be just over £300 for an hour of her time.

As long as there was no conflict with my Telegraph duties, I am happy to be offered ‘silly money’ for carrying out a task that does not result in a period of viewing the outside world through bars.