Should footballers be allowed to enjoy their free time ?

[happypig]

Wayne Rooney apologies for having a few drinks http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38004999

If it doesn't affect their performance on the pitch and it's not offensive they why shouldn't some young lads have a night out after a successful day at work ?

 

[pasty]

Pathetic from The Sun (quelle surprise)

It was his day off FFS.

 

[Hastings gull]

Wayne Rooney apologies for having a few drinks http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/38004999

If it doesn't affect their performance on the pitch and it's not offensive they why shouldn't some young lads have a night out after a successful day at work ?

A difficult one is this. Yes, they are entitled to let their hair down as is anyone else, but of course lurking in the background is the idea of role model. It was in the same hotel, and the people presumably welcomed his presence, so I didn't think it was that bad, unless there is something we don't know. Perhaps he lied to the manager or was expressly told that as they might have had drinks and partied on Friday after the Scotland match, enough is enough. We don't know. I would draw the line at drinking the night before a match, and also seeing them smoking leaves a bad taste (no pun intended). I do have little sympathy when they are targetted (or just stupidly drunk and aggressive) in inner city night clubs, and then get arrested for this and that -they all know of the risks that come with fame. Inevitably, with the money they earn, we expect them to be totally saintly, rightly or wrongly, and this also affects one's thinking.

 

[Ernest]

It wasn't FREE time they were on International DUTY and they should all NEVER be allowed to play for England AGAIN

 

[GOM]

I think the problem was he still had his work clothes on, i.e. England kit

 

[BBassic]

Difficult one for me.

Of course everyone has the right to free time and what they do with it should be entirely their decision. However Wayne Rooney is a role model for thousands of kids. That's not to say its Rooney's job to raise the nations children of course.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Pathetic from The Sun (quelle surprise)

It was his day off FFS.

This. He knew he was injured, and wasn't playing. He's a footballer, not a Budhist monk.

 

[Buzzer]

If Wayne Rooney wants to lie naked under a glass coffee table, smothered in Deep Heat and wearing nothing but suspenders and stockings whilst knocking one out as an 80 year old granny hooker stands above him on the table taking a poo then who are we to judge what he does in his private moments?

 

[Sussex Nomad]

If Wayne Rooney wants to lie naked under a glass coffee table, smothered in Deep Heat and wearing nothing but suspenders and stockings whilst knocking one out as an 80 year old granny hooker stands above him on the table taking a poo then who are we to judge what he does in his private moments?

Incredibly descriptive

 

[smeg]

I think the problem was he still had his work clothes on, i.e. England kit

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I think the problem was he still had his work clothes on, i.e. England kit

I think a bigger problem is these people are supposed to be athletes who look after their bodies. Rooney's not playing for a pub team. He just looks like he does.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I think a bigger problem is these people are supposed to be athletes who look after their bodies. Rooney's not playing for a pub team. He just looks like he does.

Do all athletes have the same body shape? I think you know the answer to that.

 

[spring hall convert]

Personally I couldn't care what they get up to in their free time, as long as its legal.

However, in the modern game, there is no longer any doubt drinking affects performance on the pitch. The best players in the world are model professionals.

Consider this - at 18, Rooney was a better player than Ronaldo. At 31, one is the best player in the world, the other doesn't look first choice for his club or country. There are obviously other factors at play but I think a key is one looks after himself and the other comparatively doesn't.

Rooney's obligation is to being the best he can be not to be a role model for the nation's children.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Of course they should be allowed their free time, as long as they dont make a complete a$$ of themselves.
Cough Cough Glenn and Chris Cough Cough

 

[Greg Bobkin]

How times have changed, because didn't we all have a laugh and a joke about the 'dentist chair' celebration prior to Euro 96, which was probably the last tournament that the national team didn't disgrace themselves at...

Personally I think it's ridiculous that he's got caught up in this, but I'm not surprised given the newspaper that's running the story. Having a drink and mixing with the fans (regardless of what he was wearing – they had just beaten Scotland, FFS!) makes a refreshing change from so many footballers who appear to have lost all sense of reality and want nothing to do with the great unwashed. He was never going to play against Spain, so why shouldn't he have a few drinks? I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure a few shandies won't affect his level of fitness THAT much...

 

[spring hall convert]

How times have changed, because didn't we all have a laugh and a joke about the 'dentist chair' celebration prior to Euro 96, which was probably the last tournament that the national team didn't disgrace themselves at...

Personally I think it's ridiculous that he's got caught up in this, but I'm not surprised given the newspaper that's running the story. Having a drink and mixing with the fans (regardless of what he was wearing – they had just beaten Scotland, FFS!) makes a refreshing change from so many footballers who appear to have lost all sense of reality and want nothing to do with the great unwashed. He was never going to play against Spain, so why shouldn't he have a few drinks? I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure a few shandies won't affect his level of fitness THAT much...

1996. The same year that Arsene Wenger came to this country and started to show the Premier League what being a professional actually meant.

It probably doesn't affect things THAT much. But at the very top end of professional football, the margins between winner and loser are minute.

 

[Exile]

How times have changed, because didn't we all have a laugh and a joke about the 'dentist chair' celebration prior to Euro 96, which was probably the last tournament that the national team didn't disgrace themselves at...

Eh?

We might have laughed at the dentist's chair goal celebration DURING the Euros, but that itself was a response to the MASSIVE media shitstorm of outrage that followed the in-flight drinking session upon which it was based.

 

[grubbyhands]

Presumably,as he apologised to the manager, he felt he had done something wrong?

 

[maltaseagull]

I am not a big fan of Rooney, but from what I saw on TV news, he was in England kit but was meeting people and having photos taken with them.
If he had a few drinks perhaps the club/ country medical staff may object to that but I didn't see anything outrageous in his behaviour.

 

[aberdare seagull]

If Wayne Rooney wants to lie naked under a glass coffee table, smothered in Deep Heat and wearing nothing but suspenders and stockings whilst knocking one out as an 80 year old granny hooker stands above him on the table taking a poo then who are we to judge what he does in his private moments?

Been there. Done that