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PDC makes some interesting points in his negative comparison of footballers against Olympic athletes.  Can they be compared?  Should we look to any professional sports people as role models?  What might change the way footballers are perceived by lots of people (apart from massive pay cuts)?  Is PDC's high profile campaign of discipline and loyalty going to help?

Comments on a postage stamp.

Silly money in football is the one thing that pisses me off about the game now.

Off the point slightly but it does beg the question how PDC would cope when/if he manages in the PL (or any top tier).

Players at this level are easier to manage, on less wages and also look up to Di Canio because of what he did as a player. The more up the leagues you go the more difficult it becomes to manage individuals. Souness has gone on record many times in the past saying that certain players are impossible to manage these days because of the wages they earn and the agents involved and is the main reason he's not looking to manage anymore.

This is a bit fucking rich from PDC given the histrionics that plagued his career.

As a rule of thumb, most footballers could do with a bit more grace and humility, but is it up to a bunch of young men to uphold the moral fabric of society? In a word, no.

Sometimes I wish PDC would fucking zip it to be honest.

Word!

There are plenty of footballers out there who are great role models for youngsters. They're the ones who don't make it into the newspapers.

Michael Owen is a good role model, he's not really been mentioned on the front pages. He kept his head down and got on with it.

Histrionics in what sense?  Yes he was highly strung and had - and still has - a tempremental personality, but he wasn't in the paper every week falling out of nightclubs into a blinged Bentley shoving mobile phones up his arse.

PDC also won an award when the Everton kepper was injured and caught the ball instead of scoring. Football would be boring as hell without characters like Clough, Cantona, Di Canino and now of course Barton. What the fuck would we talk about? the size of the pitch? the pies at half time?

I was referring to assaulting referees, casual racism, getting sacked by Juve, embroiling himself in verbals with nigh on everybody... you know, the ususal.

there are quite a few role models out there, just not the ones we hear about in the paper all the time.

In the england team: joe hart and scott parker?

The ones who go about their thing quietly seem to be ok

Barton's a cunt!  End Of!

I think PdC will always need to be the biggest personallity at what ever club he's at, it seems to be working now. He also has the perfect chairman to work with.

If he was manager at Man U and he falls out with someone like rooney - it'll be more likey PdC that'll be leaving

I was using Barton as an example he does crazy shit, gets himself in trouble and is a cunt, but people will/do talk about him.

While nobody could disagree that Barton is a twat in all aspects of his life, I still reckon the epitomy of the vacuous, me-me-me culture is

David Bentley

quite happy to take the cash and doesn't care if he plays or not

I'm not sure a sport historically riddled with drugs, cheating at London 2012 - deliberately throwing badminton matches or deceptively engineering another start in cycling because the first one was poor, among other misdemeanours, has much to teach other sports tbh

I never understood why footballers and say pop stars should be good roll models when politicians and say bankers are so corrupt.

it works both ways in both sports, neither football or athletics are graced with 100% saints. would you class philips idowu or dwain chambers as role models?

i understand the dwain chambers thing but what did philips idowu do?

Died his hair blue and wore a headband.

Evil bastard.

ok, he didnt take any performance enhancing drugs, but going AWOL before the Olympics, not turning up to GB training camp, showing total disrespect to the whole of team GB, hardly a role model.

Getting back to Paolo's original comments, football rewards very highly even for mediocrity if League 1 and 2 players can earn thousands each week giving them comfortable lifestyles and then when they lose blame it on 'a bad day at the office'.

With the exception of what he has done at our club, most players may only train 4 or 5 days a week and look for days off after games or need curfews to stop them drinking before games. Compare that with Olympic athletes like Mo Farah training 100+ miles a week, going to training camps Kenya, the rowers out on the river at 6 in the morning or Bradley Wiggins away from his family and kids for weeks and having to drop 2 stone in weight. Their financial and personal recognition come only when they get to the very top with maybe lottery funding (about 30K a year) or sponsor endorsements.

If you're a 14 year old kid who is athletic/sporty and good at football or athletics then it's a very difficult choice to turn down football and it's rewards for all the sacrifices needed to make it as an Olympic athlete.

Footballers need to recognise the good fortune they have in their chosen careers and how they are viewed.

Simply because the kids and youth look at them and yearn to be like them.maybe one kid in every family will love footy.....not many young people yearn to be politicians or bankers.
A few granted but not many.

Not sure about footballers needing to be role models, I'd settle for them just trying to be slightly better human beings.

To be fair it isn't entirely their fault. The authorities don't have the guts to do anything about it, the clubs are happy to tolerate them as long as they perform on the pitch and the fans just want someone to idolise. It's not just the money that causes it either, it's everything that happens from the first day they sign with a club.

Also worth pointing out there were plenty of highly paid athletes at the Olympics who didn't come across like your average Premier League player. Luol Deng (salary £8m year) has been roughing it with Team GB, when I'm sure he's got better things to do with his time. Same for the Dream Team. Wiggins and Cavendish (salary £1.5m a year) could have just had a rest after Le Tour. With Usain Bolt being a model professional for others to follow.

I can't see anything changing though. Even if the public did turn against them they won't give a fuck as more and more PL income is coming from abroad, where they give even less of a fuck than people here.

I think the concept of role models is complicated.  I don't think anyone has set footballers (or anyone else for that matter) up as role models.  It just happens.  We all have the capacity for creating our own heroes, and then, privately or publicly get disappointed when they turn out to be thoroughly human.  Olympic athletes remain human beings, but they have the advantage that generally the spotlight only gets turned on them once every four years, whereas footballers are dealing with day-to-day exposure (and of course, with the media examining every little fact of life they can get hold of.  However, children especially but others as well, do invest high expectations in their footballing heroes, their teams, their clubs, and this site would hold no interest for anyone if we were not debating all that in different ways day by day.

I do believe the amount of money that very young men are earning in football creates far more pressure on them than we realise; I do think the public do the same; and clearly the whole layer of agents, media and all that adds another level of pressure, and its not surprising that lots of footballers do not live up to expectations.

But I do think there are ways in which they could do more to meet some expectations.  Previous posts from me have held up the work of the Community Trust - at STFC, and every one of the 91 other clubs in the FL/Premiership - for the excellent quality of their contribution to the local communities.  I know that many of the dedicated staff would welcome a bit more connection with the first teams.  This would raise the profile of the community work, the club generally and the players as well.  It would bring the players into closer contact with a wide range of people in the community of all ages and backgrounds and would definitely benefit the club by raising new supporters.  And it would also help to keep the players' feet on the ground...  I was at a FITC event the other day at the CG when a member of the 1st team was there to present prizes to a big group of kids. Sadly he seemed totally disinterested, and was completely monosyllabic when answering their questions.  And that, for those kids all proudly wearing STFC Tshiirts and caps, is just as disappointing as someone going out on the razzle or beating up their wife.

Just one thought...

That last point was spot on. Back on the subject of DiCanio, agree that he really cannot bleat about footballers misbehaving, he has done some very unrolemodelish stuff, but he'salso done some brilliant humane things. That's what people often are, complicated, inconsistent but trying to be good with lots of factors tempting them not to be. Prepared to bet that Di Canio will never spend more than 1 season managing in the PL if at all though.

Agreed.  I wonder how far up the championship he'll get, never mind the PL!