Does United have a drinking problem?
by Section 312 on Aug 3, 2010 9:48 PM BST
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Now let me start by saying I don't have a problem with players have a few drinks during their holidays. They are under a lot of pressure during the season and they sacrafice a lot to be in top shape so if they get a few weeks off after the world cup and want to unwind with a few beer I have no problem with it. And I get that for the most part it's just tabloids who drag these things up and make it seem like Wayne Rooney being out on a Saturday night having a drink is a big deal. If he returns to training Monday then Saturday is still time off and there is no reason he shouldn't be out enjoying himself. I have no worries when it comes to Wayne Rooney and his desire to be a top player and be on the pitch.
But in the wake of the recent Anderson all night party and car crash I am wondering if you are concerned that United players seem to be out on the town enjoying themselves a little too much lately? Is it something that bothers you or concerns you?
Let's have a poll
It seems that United may be after the German Mesut Ozil but are unwilling to reach Bremen's asking price. The player has asked the club to lower that price so he can move to England. Let's hope something gets done because I think Ozil could be a good long term replacement for Scholes.
Oh and it looks like Danny Welbeck will be going out on loan to Sunderland for the season. That's the rumour at the moment. IF he gets regular action in the Premier League then I am happy to see him go to the North East. It will help him immensely as a player.
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No, like you said, so long as players turn up sober when they need to turn up. It’s ridiculous to hold players to standards that we don’t keep ourselves. The bloke from the office leaves at 5pm and goes to have a drink. Who cares?
If doctors specifically ordered Anderson not to party and drink, then he’s in the drink if you know what I mean. Otherwise, why can’t he? Even if he is rehabilitating, rehabilitation isn’t a 24 hour thing.
No, because this isn't isolated to United
Sunshine will come to Nats Park, I promise. (visit por favor? my website)
It doesn’t concern, but it disappoints me. It would be entirely ridiculous to give them a pass because they are under a lot of pressure… 95% of the world’s population faces more pressure in their jobs, and they aren’t fortunate enough to get paid millions to play a game.
The truth is that certain players have proven to be more prone to going out and getting wasted, then making complete fools of themselves for the world to see (or drive a car, which is an entirely different and more troublesome issue). The man is a father, a husband, and the biggest star of the world’s biggest club in the world’s biggest sport. I wish he’d show some maturity.
I don’t remember Giggs, Scholes, or even Beckham doing this stuff.
Wayne Rooney, 1/27/10: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man
Green and Gold Till the Club is Sold- LUHG
"If City play a game against United for 89 minutes, maybe they’ll have a chance." -King Eric Cantona
Regardless of what you think about the kind of pressure they are under
and how much they get paid to do their jobs you can’t deny that having hundreds of millions of people watching them and caring about how they perform would take a toll. It’s all well and good to say “oh they make lots of money” but they are human beings and they are going to feel pressures and stresses. Money doesn’t take those things away whether you are a CEO, a footballer, or a burger flipper. Sometimes I have money when work is going well and I am busy and sometimes I don’t have a lot of money. But the pressures I feel and the stresses of my life are pretty much the same. The “they have lots of money” argument holds absolutely no water with me. Sorry but having money and being paid well has absolutely no impact on people’s overall stress level. End of the day if they do their jobs they should be allowed to do whatever they like, within the law, to unwind and have fun in their off time as long as it doesn’t affect what happens on the pitch.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 4, 2010 12:57 AM BST up reply actions
having money and being paid well has absolutely no impact on people’s overall stress level
You can’t be serious. I’d much rather have the stress of millions of fans who hope I perform well enough to win a football game than the stress of wondering whether or not I will be able to feed my wife and kids let alone send them to school, etc.
Wealthy people obviously aren’t perfect, everyone has problems and feels stress. The fact is that anyone who struggles to pay rent, pay for food, pay the bills, support their family, or just get by in any other way is going to feel more stress than a pro footballer.
Wayne Rooney, 1/27/10: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man
Green and Gold Till the Club is Sold- LUHG
"If City play a game against United for 89 minutes, maybe they’ll have a chance." -King Eric Cantona
well people in existential-threat level economic situations are going to have it pretty damn hard. But for a whole lot of middle class 9-5 comfortable types, they’d mostly have meltdowns if they had tens of thousands of people stare at them while they tried doing something very difficult (knowing those people will say “you’re terrible” if you do it wrong).
I don’t buy the notion that they need to go get drunk and make a fool of themselves in public in order to cope with stress.
Wayne Rooney, 1/27/10: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man
Green and Gold Till the Club is Sold- LUHG
"If City play a game against United for 89 minutes, maybe they’ll have a chance." -King Eric Cantona
If you think that money is the only thing that causes stress
or that money most important factor in general well being and happiness then you are entitled to that opinion. I don’t feel that way. There are so many more things in life more important and more worthy of stressing out over than money.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 4, 2010 6:51 AM BST up reply actions
The man is a father, a husband, and the biggest star of the world’s biggest club in the world’s biggest sport. I wish he’d show some maturity.
For the record, it wasn’t Rooney that was photographed partying. I don’t think we’ve heard any trouble from him since his marriage and having a kid.
He was photographed peeing in a garbage can
Wayne Rooney, 1/27/10: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man
Green and Gold Till the Club is Sold- LUHG
"If City play a game against United for 89 minutes, maybe they’ll have a chance." -King Eric Cantona
Yeah but when was this? I’m not trying to start an argument, I seriously do not know when the photograph you mentioned was taken. I’m just guessing it was before his marriage and kid since I don’t see it on the news.
The article makes too much of it but I agree with the general idea
Wayne Rooney, 1/27/10: Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Man
Green and Gold Till the Club is Sold- LUHG
"If City play a game against United for 89 minutes, maybe they’ll have a chance." -King Eric Cantona
Who cares if he pissed in a garbage can?
I have a slash outside all the time. Especially when I am drinking. I don’t see the big deal. And I don’t see the big deal if he wants to smoke. Lots of footballers smoke and lots always have. Like I said this is a non-issue. I don’t even want to talk about the shit I got into when I was 24. You can’t hold these athletes to a higher standard than we hold ourselves. No one is perfect.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 4, 2010 6:56 AM BST up reply actions
Having a slash out in the woods or whatever – who cares.
Pissing all over the downtown of a city is just a shitty ass thing to do – other people are gonna have to go tramping through your tried up piss later on… just nasty.
I don't see the big deal
people go downtown in every city in the world and get drunk and piss and puke in the streets and in alleys and people walk through it all the time and never even know. Urine isn’t going to cause any disease or anything it’s pretty clean stuff. I don’t see the big deal. When I stop getting wasted and pissing on the streets I will hold others to that standard but I am 30 and I haven’t stopped yet.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 5, 2010 6:57 PM BST up reply actions
Right, now I get it. It wasn’t on Soccernet and that’s the only site I check besides manutd.com
The way I look at it is this: take away the fact that he’s a footballer. He’s a father and fathers don’t do that. To me it seems wrong to go out and party and drink. On the flipside, and I’m not a parent, sometimes parents do go out and pay the babysitter.
But still, it has nothing to do with him being a footballer.
Indeed, photographs of the 24-year-old striker enjoying a night out in Manchester city centre with his wife, Coleen, and a group of friends at the weekend could not have been more at odds with the image of a professional sportsman.
This is the problem I have with the article. Why are professional sportsmen held to different standards?
Hardly the way a Premier League player who will shortly become United’s highest earner on £130,000 a week should be preparing for the new season.
What is he supposed to do at night? Study for games? I still don’t believe that partying is detriment to performance. Just don’t break a foot on the dance-floor please
This statement is ludicrous
He’s a father and fathers don’t do that
No offense kirk this isn’t a personal attack on you but that statement is flat out wrong. You can be a good father and raise your children right and still go out on the weekends and have a good time. As long as you have someone looking after your child, and I would imagine the Rooney’s can afford a babysitter, and you don’t make it a habit where it is costing you your job or becoming a problem. My parents used to have people over for parties when I was a kid. And once in a while they would go out on the town. I think I turned out OK.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 4, 2010 7:15 PM BST up reply actions
Sportsmen in general have an image problem
Overpaid prima donnas with inflated egos and wage packets so big they don’t know what to do with them. It seems that sports headlines pretty much have a story every day of some sportsman (from whatever sport) getting into trouble everything from bar fights, rape, drink driving, speeding, death, dog fighting, drugs, gun crime the list goes on. What is interesting is that in all but a few exceptions they get their charges dropped or reduced or swept under the carpet by their high priced lawyers and everyone cheers next time they score.
These men are huge role models for kids around the world, they need to grow up and behave!
Blame my wife!
Waiting until August 2010
I really don't think athletes
get into bar fights and drink drive in any higher ratio than the rest of the population. You just hear about it more cause they are in the public eye while most of us can piss in the street, smoke, get in a fight and drink drive and no one ever finds out. I got in bar fights when I was younger and though I am not proud if it there were times when I drove when I shouldn’t have. People make mistakes and we shouldn’t hold athletes to a higher standard than we hold anyone else.
The role model argument doesn’t wash with me either. I idolized Darryl Strawberry, the New York Mets baseball player, when I was younger growing up in Canada and playing baseball. Google him if you want to know more but basically he snorted away his career up his nose. And I idolized him. I have never once in my life taken any narcotics. You know why? My biggest role model was my father and my parents raised me properly. It’s isn’t an athletes problem if people can’t raise their children right.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 4, 2010 7:12 PM BST up reply actions
Can we maybe get past the idea that there is one and only one cause? Having an important attachment figure in your life (a dad, an uncle, a teacher, a friend, whoever) is a really helpful thing, but it’s not the only thing. Having good role models can also be useful.
Idolizing an athlete who does some bad stuff doesn’t automatically mean you will. It doesn’t even mean you probably will. But if it makes you a smidge more likely, especially when you are already in marginal circumstances… and when these guys have so many fans that SOME of them are going to be in marginal circumstances…. Yeah, I’m ambivalent, but there is certainly a case you can make that they should try to be a bit cleaner.
In any event, SAF is generally on Sir Eccles side of this one, and that’s pretty hard to argue against :)
Why should they?
We build them up and idolize them and hero worship them and then we get mad when they don’t live up to the standards that we set for them that we can’t live up to ourselves? That very few people anywhere could live up to. Some athletes are wonderful role models because some athletes are wonderful people. But not every one is a great person most people are just normal. We make mistakes we do stupid shit and we apologize to anyone we hurt and we move on. And athletes are going to be good people in the same percentage as the rest of the population. I am on athletes side on this every time. All Wayne Rooney wants to do is play football. All the celebrity shit that goes along with it I am sure he would do without if he could but people still build these guys up so they can tear them down. People still buy rags that print this shit so they can read about “celebrities” and look down on them so they can feel better about themselves.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 5, 2010 7:05 PM BST up reply actions
Athletes just don't perform well when they are drinking, and the fact that he was having a cigarette should be of some concern
It’s two weeks before the opener, so having a drink or two is probably acceptable as it won’t be a major setback to his fitness when the games actually count. Stress or no stress though, there isn’t any excuse for Rooney to be photographed smoking a cigarette at any point, and taking a piss in the street is just classless.
Reyes, Thole, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Martinez, Tejada...
Umm well Berba smokes as well
Ronaldo smokes. The list is pretty long. One or two when you are out drinking is nothing. If Rooney smokes 5 packs a day it would affect his lung capacity and therefore his football but that is obviously not the case since he played yesterday and looked very sharp.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 5, 2010 6:59 PM BST reply actions
One or two is definitely not nothing...a single cigarette can negatively influence aerobic capacity for as many as three weeks
There’s plenty of research to suggest that these behaviors will negatively affect these players on-field performance. Peeing in the street is pretty classless behavior, but it really won’t affect his performance. Having a smoke or two most definitely will. He may have looked sharp yesterday, but taking care of himself better should lead him to be even better conditioned.
Reyes, Thole, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Martinez, Tejada...
by Stephen Schmidt on Aug 6, 2010 9:38 PM BST up reply actions
Can influence or does influence?
Are these studies of soccer players or the general public? Cause I would hazard a guess that footy players are in better condition than the general public.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 6, 2010 10:12 PM BST up reply actions
Those are studies of elite athletes, done by the USATF (ironically mostly by a PHD named Jack Daniels, who happens to be one of the best distance running coaches in the US)
Anaerobic athletes like American football plyers or baseball players don’t really suffer the effects the way a soccer player, swimmer, cyclist, or distance runner would. Soccer players more than most other athletes in mainstream sports rely on aerobic capacity and a high anaerobic threshold, which makes the cigarettes far more damaging than the booze.
Reyes, Thole, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Martinez, Tejada...
by Stephen Schmidt on Aug 6, 2010 10:41 PM BST up reply actions
Yet so many of them smoke
without it affecting their games. I wonder why that is?
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 6, 2010 11:37 PM BST up reply actions
I don't think that is true at all.
Players that smoke can still be very good players, but still being good despite smoking doesn’t mean it’s not affecting their game. I think it’s safe to say that every really good player who smokes regularly would be better conditioned (and therefore an even better player) if they didn’t.
Reyes, Thole, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Martinez, Tejada...
by Stephen Schmidt on Aug 7, 2010 12:25 AM BST up reply actions
So you are saying Rooney and Ronaldo
could be better if they didn’t have the occasional cigarette? Could Gazza have been better? Sheringham? Best? Cruyff? Stanley Matthews?
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 7, 2010 2:23 AM BST up reply actions
I don't know the habits of all of those guys, but every one of them is hurting their conditioning if they are smoking.
There is astronomical amounts of research that says even occasional smoking affects aerobic capacity for weeks, and none that I’ve ever seen (and I work in the field) that says otherwise. If all those guys smoked occasionally, they all were hurting their conditioning.
Reyes, Thole, Wright, Beltran, Bay, Davis, Martinez, Tejada...
by Stephen Schmidt on Aug 7, 2010 11:07 PM BST up reply actions
Well they were all smokers and they all
were greats and a couple were the better players that ever played. Unless you study Wayne Rooney specifically and can prove that he could be even better if he didn’t smoke I don’t see it as a problem. He seems to be in good enough shape to me to be a top player in the world.
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 10, 2010 12:50 AM BST up reply actions
The only thing that bothers me is the possibility that Anderson was drink driving (not sure if he was at this point). As for Rooney, or anyone, going out and getting pissed at the weekend I don’t quite see what the story is?!
Agreed
"We love them, We mourn for them, Unlucky boys of Red" - Morrissey
"Giggs gets past Viera, past Dixon, who comes back at him, it's a wonderful run from GIGGS!!!" - Martin Tyler
"He's got a man deep..wait, no that IS Mandeep!!" - Don Taylor
by Section 312 on Aug 6, 2010 12:32 AM BST up reply actions
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