Denis' cuff
Full Member
thought you make good posts pal, but the last para is utter Bollox. Don’t pick out isolated cases as the norm. Anyone can do that in any circumstance. Please don’t tell me you are one of those idiots that think anyone over 50 is an alcoholic. There was a drinking culture but not in direct defiance of club rules. There was an acceptance of it to a degree in a different era. What Barnes is saying, is that players now, often openly defy or disrespect their clubs to meet their own ends. Quite different to occasionally going ott in the pub now and then. They were extremes back then, not the norm.Oh but it wasn't forgiven. In fact Napoli kicked Maradona out of Italy just as Gazza was kicked out of Lazio and that after he barely made any money there due to fines. There were standards in terms of professionalism back in the day as well and many British players in that generation broke them. From Rush who refused to learn Italian while playing in Italy right to blatant use of alcohol who used to shock any non British football journalist commentating on England games during World cups.
So having people like Barnes discussing professionalism when their generation used to turn drunk and out of form almost anywhere they went does stink of hypocrisy. These days players are far more professional then players back in the day.
Iirc, John Barnes’ father was an army officer and sportsman of some sort, who clearly left some impression on his son. Didn’t turn out too bad. Nearly every top team I can think of, the manager was a disciplinarian; Clough, Revie, Shankly, Paisley, Fergie.