Whether young men are professional footballers, bank clerks, bin men or bar workers, it’s a rite of passage to do silly and petulant things.
And a lot of footballers will be looking at Phil Foden and Mason Greenwood thinking, ‘There but for the grace of God go I’.
I’m the bloke who let off a fire extinguisher on a night out with Leicester less than a week after joining the club, after all, so I know you can have momentary lapses that make you think, ‘Bloody hell, what was I doing there?’
The difference between messing about in La Manga and being a bit of a d**k, though, is that we weren’t being told day in, day out that our direct behaviour could stop a football match being played.
I can’t believe Foden nor Greenwood stopped for a minute to question whether what they were doing was a good idea, especially when they will have seen what happened to Kyle Walker and Jack Grealish during lockdown.
What they need now is a good talking-to from their club bosses –Pep Guardiola and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – but they don’t need to be hung, drawn and quartered because they will be feeling lower than a snake’s belly, and probably a bit scared about all the attention the situation will bring.
Once their managers have spoken to them, I hope we can all help them move on as young men because, on the eve of a new season, this is the last thing two fine young athletes
will want.
