Some entertaining off season chat from my buddies in the UK

[Phil Sykes]

Fellow Marin-ites

 

Trust you are enjoying the off-season break and yet still keeping fit, at least vaguely so. Meantime I thought many of you would get a kick out of this...one of my Scots buddies giving some abuse to another of my friends. Any suggestions that I am re-considering my playing career as a result of lack of hair are by the way completely without foundation... :)

 

Best,

Phil
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----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Graham Stirling <graham....@axiossystems.com>
To: grahamc...@yahoo.com; Alan Campbell <alanbc...@hotmail.com>; cbr...@martincurrie.com; "Lornie, Andrew" <Andrew...@rbs.co.uk>; alfa_...@yahoo.co.uk; jo...@edinburghwebservices.co.uk; je...@dgpryde.co.uk; Frank Armstrong <frank.a...@bt.com>; IanSan...@hbosplc.com; Dougl...@bskyb.com; borm...@dmtispatial.com; scots...@hotmail.com
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 8:58:26 AM
Subject: I believe Jeff gave up hockey in similar circumstances!!!

Fears were growing last night that Stephen Ireland, the troubled Manchester City midfield player, will give up international football at the tender age of 21.

The player is already on temporary “leave”, having withdrawn from Ireland’s squad for the European Championship qualifying matches at home to Germany and Cyprus, after missing the previous international week amid sensational developments in which he misled his club and the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) about the reason behind his unavailability.

He claimed that a grandmother had died before finally admitting that he had withdrawn from the squad because his girlfriend had suffered a miscarriage. Although still playing for City, he is receiving counselling for his problems and his club have enlisted specialist help from the United States.

Newspaper reports in Dublin at the weekend claimed that the reason that Ireland put his international career on hold was that he had been mocked by his Ireland colleagues over an alleged hair transplant or his wearing of a hairpiece.

This taunting, it was said, degenerated into two teammates pinning him to the floor and attempting to remove the “evidence”. It is understood that Ireland’s distress at the reports could shatter his recovery. “If this goes on, there’s now a great fear that Stephen will retire from Ireland for good,” a source said. Another source told The Times that it was “more basic ribbing but he took it really badly”. The FAI denied that any bullying took place.

 

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