Chelsea night out reaction is ridiculous and symptomatic of malaise in football
Some considerable time ago, I was invited to a players' Christmas party. It was a fancy dress job.
Myself and the club captain, an international, went as members of the SAS as, for a reason now forgotten, they were in the news at the time. It was a boozy affair but passed off without incident until, walking home, we popped into a petrol station to get some late-night snacks.
Unfortunately, we had forgotten to remove the balaclavas and, within no time, the Old Bill was on the scene. It took some explaining from the skipper to keep us out of the nick.
That was a minor mishap compared to some of the shenanigans that once went on at the annual footballers’ festive bashes. And we certainly won’t see the likes of the infamous Liverpool jamborees again.
Remember those? Nowadays, players are advised to have a quiet meal, somewhere private, certainly not draw attention to themselves. But for a couple of decades, Liverpool players would don costumes and paint the town red.
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There were some crackers in 1990. Ian Rush as a Beefeater, Bruce Grobbelaar as The Joker, John Barnes as a highwayman, although best not to mention David Burrows as Adolf Hitler. In 2007, Jamie Carragher went as Rhydian from the X-Factor, again best not to mention the character who appeared to be imitating Osama bin Laden.
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As far as we know, none of the Chelsea players who went to a restaurant and a London nightclub after the defeat to Everton on Sunday were in fancy dress … although nowadays, it is hard to tell. Still, their night-out caused a stir in some social media quarters.
Presumably, that is why the party line - forgive the pun - was that it was not a Christmas jolly but a ‘team-bonding’ exercise. Please. Is this what we have come to?
On Sunday, I was at Goodison Park where Chelsea did not lose because they lacked effort and commitment - they lost because they were clueless in the final third and conceded a couple of sloppy goals. It happens.
What were the players supposed to do? Go home, put on a hair shirt, post a picture of themselves on Instagram and ask for forgiveness?
To be fair, it was only the odd, sad punter - probably pretending to be a Chelsea fan - who was offended by the players having fun after losing. But even if it was a minority who objected to post-defeat partying, it was symptomatic of a malaise in modern football that has players feeling compelled to behave in certain ways after setbacks on the pitch.
Players making public apologies for being beaten, players being berated for smiling on the bench even though things are not going perfectly on the pitch, players being berated for swapping shirts at half-time. Basically, players being hammered for trying to be happy regardless of whether a particular game has gone - or is going - their way.
Chelsea players were right to go ahead with a planned night-out, despite being beaten - just as plenty of other players will be right to let their hair down regardless of their results over the coming days. Criticism is fine but at this time of the year, maybe think twice about vilifying a player who has just had a bad day at the office. We have all had one.
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