collapse collapse

Please donate to help towards the costs of keeping this site going. Thank You.

Recent Posts

Re: Brian Evans by Scratchins
[Today at 08:23:18 AM]


Re: Ezri Konsa - Aston Villa & England by Hillbilly
[Today at 08:13:33 AM]


Re: UEFA Europa Conference League-Knockout stages (Lille) by algy
[Today at 07:57:27 AM]


Re: FFP by algy
[Today at 07:51:30 AM]


Re: FFP by Rigadon
[Today at 07:24:35 AM]


Re: Aston Villa v Wolverhampton Wanderers Pre Match by Sexual Ealing
[Today at 07:18:33 AM]


Re: FFP by rob_bridge
[Today at 07:02:22 AM]


Re: Brian Evans by JD
[Today at 05:32:46 AM]

Follow us on...

Author Topic: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch  (Read 230551 times)

Offline PeterWithesShin

  • Member
  • Posts: 67443
  • GM : 17.03.2015
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #315 on: September 02, 2018, 12:26:43 AM »
Carlos played an important part in Adama's winner.

Offline SteveN

  • Member
  • Posts: 3668
  • Location: Surrey. Well .......Croydon
  • GM : Feb, 2014

Offline villa `cross the mersey

  • Member
  • Posts: 6112
  • Location: Formby, Merseyside

Offline footyskillz

  • Member
  • Posts: 3262
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #318 on: September 05, 2018, 08:02:58 PM »
Sidders effectively took a year out by going to chelsea from reading should have come villa then when in top form not after chelsea
64 times scored 4 goals.
The one against Everton was unbelievable hit
And his assist for a throw in probably highlights

Offline Exeter 77

  • Member
  • Posts: 7594
  • Location: Back outside the realms of possibility

Offline footyskillz

  • Member
  • Posts: 3262
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #320 on: September 09, 2018, 07:51:07 PM »
Peter Crouch:

"I became football's Alan Partridge"

Villa wanted to persuade me to sign. As negotiations went on I was put up at the Belfry Hotel. My room was incredible. The Brabazon Suite, overlooking the 18th green. I walked in with my dad and thought, this is unreal. My dad winked at me. Oh yes, son. We've arrived now...

I signed. I drove back to the hotel. I walked past reception. Hello, sir, the club have asked us to move you to a different room. Oh, OK. Key in the door. Almost banging my nose on the opposite wall, the only thing stopping me tripping over the single bed being the ironing board that took up the remaining floorspace. It was smaller than the bathroom in the Brabazon Suite.

I stayed in that room for three months, except when the Ryder Cup was on, when I had to move out even of that. It got so lonely I'd go out driving by myself, not aiming to get to anywhere, simply aiming to get away from the single bed and my reflection in the mirror. I'd look for places that had weird names.

I'd end up at a fast-food drive-thru, get a burger and drive back to the Belfry, sitting there on the bed with my quarter-pounder and fries. It got grim fast. I was going loopy even faster. I became institutionalised. I expected my towels to be folded each morning and to return after training to a chocolate on my pillow.

I became a footballing Alan Partridge. I was on first-name terms with staff. I ate in the on-site carvery so often, every day was like Sunday. Some evenings I'd sit in the resort nightclub with a pot of tea, just to hear loud dance music rather than having to watch bad TV in my room


Offline eamonn

  • Member
  • Posts: 29733
  • Location: Down to Worthing...and work there
  • GM : 26.07.2020
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #321 on: September 09, 2018, 07:55:16 PM »
Where's that from 'Skillz? Didn't Peter have the gumption to sort himself out with an apartment or was it bad old Doug's fault somehow?

Offline Lastfootstamper

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 11370
  • Age: 58
  • Location: Greater Birmingham
  • GM : PCM
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #322 on: September 09, 2018, 08:06:24 PM »
You do here of more than a few who sound like they'd starve to death if left alone for 36 hours.

Offline PeterWithesShin

  • Member
  • Posts: 67443
  • GM : 17.03.2015
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #323 on: September 09, 2018, 08:06:51 PM »
I assume it's from a new book as he suddenly seems to be talking about us, Rafa, Roy Keane and so on.

Offline Damo70

  • Member
  • Posts: 30877
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #324 on: September 09, 2018, 08:09:52 PM »
Peter Crouch:

"I became football's Alan Partridge"

Villa wanted to persuade me to sign. As negotiations went on I was put up at the Belfry Hotel. My room was incredible. The Brabazon Suite, overlooking the 18th green. I walked in with my dad and thought, this is unreal. My dad winked at me. Oh yes, son. We've arrived now...

I signed. I drove back to the hotel. I walked past reception. Hello, sir, the club have asked us to move you to a different room. Oh, OK. Key in the door. Almost banging my nose on the opposite wall, the only thing stopping me tripping over the single bed being the ironing board that took up the remaining floorspace. It was smaller than the bathroom in the Brabazon Suite.

I stayed in that room for three months, except when the Ryder Cup was on, when I had to move out even of that. It got so lonely I'd go out driving by myself, not aiming to get to anywhere, simply aiming to get away from the single bed and my reflection in the mirror. I'd look for places that had weird names.

I'd end up at a fast-food drive-thru, get a burger and drive back to the Belfry, sitting there on the bed with my quarter-pounder and fries. It got grim fast. I was going loopy even faster. I became institutionalised. I expected my towels to be folded each morning and to return after training to a chocolate on my pillow.

I became a footballing Alan Partridge. I was on first-name terms with staff. I ate in the on-site carvery so often, every day was like Sunday. Some evenings I'd sit in the resort nightclub with a pot of tea, just to hear loud dance music rather than having to watch bad TV in my room


I read that in his book quite a while back. I am guessing he has released an updated version. I accept that Doug pulled a typical fast one with his hotel room, but surely he could have quickly made other arrangements for himself. He was 21 and had a big fat signing on fee in his bank on top of whaterver previous savings he had. I moved two thousand miles away from home to be a DJ when I was 23 (I had always lived with my parents up to that point) and had enough money to last me about two months and needed to find myself a job and an apartment in that time, despite only having a very basic grasp of the language at that point.

It was also his second big move as he had already moved from QPR to Portsmouth.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2018, 08:12:23 PM by Damo70 »

Offline PeterWithesShin

  • Member
  • Posts: 67443
  • GM : 17.03.2015
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #325 on: September 09, 2018, 08:10:16 PM »
You do here of more than a few who sound like they'd starve to death if left alone for 36 hours.

You only have to read the Sidwell stuff above to realise how much they are basically kept from reality so as all they have to focus on is their football.

Quote
Sidwell describes the jolt footballers feel when cut free from their high-pressured but numbingly cosseted world. “Football is about instant results. Yes, footballers live a luxurious life and we get given everything. If you split a pair of boots you get a new pair that same afternoon. If you’ve got a cough you see the club doctor. And you get a prescription that’s filled straightaway. Everything’s given to you instantly.

“You’re a commodity to the club, and they want you to have no stress. So you lose a little touch with reality. I’ve never had a GP because I’ve never needed to go outside my club but in the big world you need to pay accounts, sort out your MOT. People outside football won’t always grasp this but not doing these little things can mean you lose touch with society.”

It also means that some footballers don’t develop many social skills. “One hundred per cent,” Sidwell says. “It’s even more so for the top players. They get criticised if they go out or if they stay in. They can’t win so in the end they build up a barrier. Now when your career finishes you’re not really used to talking to people. And you obviously need that skill in the real world.”

Offline eamonn

  • Member
  • Posts: 29733
  • Location: Down to Worthing...and work there
  • GM : 26.07.2020
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #326 on: September 09, 2018, 10:23:38 PM »
How To Be A Footballer by Crouch is out On September 20th. If it's a newly-updated/revised edition as Damo suggests, you would have thought he'd wait til he'd actually retired - he's still at Stoke isn't he?

Offline PeterWithesShin

  • Member
  • Posts: 67443
  • GM : 17.03.2015
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #327 on: September 09, 2018, 10:49:09 PM »
Walking Tall came out in 2007. So I assume HTBAF will have a lot of the same stories as well as new ones from the last 11 years.

Offline dave.woodhall

  • Moderator
  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 61434
  • Location: Treading water in a sea of retarded sexuality and bad poetry.
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #328 on: September 09, 2018, 10:56:50 PM »
The Crouch story is similar to Angel, who gained a lot of sympathy when he was apparently treated badly on his arrival. As was said at the time, "He expected help 24 hours a day, and Villa don't do that for anyone".

Offline Risso

  • Member
  • *
  • Posts: 84820
  • Location: Leics
  • GM : 04.03.2025
Re: Ex- Villa Players still playing watch
« Reply #329 on: September 09, 2018, 11:50:37 PM »
The Crouch story is similar to Angel, who gained a lot of sympathy when he was apparently treated badly on his arrival. As was said at the time, "He expected help 24 hours a day, and Villa don't do that for anyone".

That’s not remotely as I recall it. He arrived, hardly speaking any English. His wife and child were then taken ill, and he was messed around by the hotel he was in. Gregory admitted they didn’t do enough to help him settle, which is why they appointed the player liaison officer afterwards.

 


SimplePortal 2.3.6 © 2008-2014, SimplePortal