With matches on Boxing Day, what can Johnny Shinpad scoff on the big day, asks our festive gustation correspondent Phil Ascough.
With another packed programme of festive football matches, you can bet your last After Eight mint that the players of Hull City and every other professional club will be watching what they eat and drink. Is turkey on the menu? Probably. Christmas pud? Unlikely. A few shots of Baileys? Not a chance.
In truth it’s not only at Christmas that players have to stick to strict diets. The mum of one family with three generations of players, two of whom played in the Premier League, told us of pre-match hydration checks which will establish whether a player has been sticking to the rules. As a result the players themselves tend to be more disciplined than in the past, with severe consequences facing those found to have overdone things.
For her husband it was the norm to head out at 8am on Christmas Day for training and not to return until around 2pm, thereby missing peak present unwrapping time with the kids. If the club was preparing for an away match on Boxing Day he could expect to join his team mates for a Christmas night stay in a hotel, where the manager and coaches would oversee a strict regime of rest and nutrition. For a home game, players can generally enjoy Christmas dinner with the family, but with only modest portions, followed by pasta in the evening to get the carbs in their system for the match the next day.
But it wasn’t always like that, and anyone who has ever watched a Boxing Day football match will have had their suspicions that some of the players were carrying a bit too much weight from celebrating excessively. Peter Swan, who played for Hull City from 1989 until 1991, said managers would impose their own standards, and players would respond in their own way. Could he think of any players who became known as the bad boys of the dressing room? Always trying to beat the boss’s system? “Yes, me”, he replied. “I had four or five great years when I manage to get suspended just in time for Christmas.”
It started innocently enough. As a centre half Swanny would naturally accumulate bookings and would notice over the years that the totting up procedure could result in a Boxing Day ban. Towards the end of his career he admits he engineered it.
He said: “It’s known that I used to like being suspended at Christmas. At that time we didn’t have sports scientists – and it’s a good job!”
Swanny’s contract with City under manager Stan Ternent included a clause that allowed a fine to be imposed if the player was suspended on Boxing Day. But Swanny adds he had great respect for Ternent, who would discuss the approach to Christmas fixtures with the players in advance in an attempt to accommodate their needs. Some wanted to celebrate, some wanted time with families, the club wanted them in good shape for the matches to come. He admits there was a drinking culture in all his teams but he always respected the players who didn’t drink. As a media pundit now he sees the tighter controls as a factor in the dearth of characters and leaders in the game. He said: “Some of the players don’t even speak to each other”.
Joining Doncaster Rovers on away trips in the late 1970s, I’d see the players sitting down for steak or scrambled eggs as their pre-match meal. Almost every player profile in a football magazine or match programme would reveal their favourite food to be steak. Much more recently Alan Shearer hit the headlines for his adherence to a diet of chicken and beans. Jelly babies and Jaffa Cakes used to be popular as a source of energy.
Tom Wilson, a centre half with City from 1967 until 1971, told how he didn’t get any such delights in his playing days. City actually played on Christmas Day and Boxing Day in 1905, 1947 and 1957. They were luckier In 1965 when a match against Millwall on 27th December gave them more time to prepare. Tom was with Millwall at the time and told how their plans for a pre-match meal went off the rails at Doncaster.
He said: “We travelled up by train on the morning of the match and the plan was to eat on the way. But there was no restaurant car on the train. We had to change at Doncaster to get the train to Hull but the café was closed so there was a rush for the food machines. Between us we had four packets of crisps and a couple of bottles of orange.”
City won 1-0 with a score which Tom says was an own goal but was claimed by Waggy. After the match both teams caught the same train back to London for the return fixture the next day. Tom said: “We won that one 3-1. I’m pretty sure City had a decent pre-match meal and were still full!”
Phil Ascough