WHEN you bumped into a premier league player

[Curlie]

Unlike the original poster, I bumped into Michael Brown in a casino somewhere in Manchester after the Eastlands semi final. He was a gentleman and talked football, mainly City past and present and Portsmouth for about 20 minutes. Perhaps a reformed character!

[eastlands-lostboy]

When Norwich were in the Prem I was walking around an area called Riverside in Norwich where he lived and whilst he was loading up his Range Rover with the family he spotted me and my daughter with our City shirts on. He smiled and put his thumb up. I did the same back and then he came across to talk. He asked where we were from (Manchester) now Kings Lynn, he then talked about MCFC in a positive way and signed his auto for my daughter. The word is that he was very easy going and great with the fans. I know Lee Hendrie who is always "a bit of a knob" and also a lad who played for Leeds called Brian Greenoff who was always good fun. Frank Worthington used to come to a pub I worked in when I was in my teens, he was fantastic and he would always spend time with the punters, he tipped me £5 ! The biggest player I bumped into was Paulo Rossi when I worked in Italy and he asked me where I was from and who I supported. He said "Colin Bell magnifico" that did it for me.

[Bingo Lewis]

When Norwich were in the Prem I was walking around an area called Riverside in Norwich where he lived and whilst he was loading up his Range Rover with the family he spotted me and my daughter with our City shirts on. He smiled and put his thumb up. I did the same back and then he came across to talk. He asked where we were from (Manchester) now Kings Lynn, he then talked about MCFC in a positive way and signed his auto for my daughter.

Who's 'he'?

[Surrey Sky Blue]

I`m having an affair with John Terry.

[Diggerman]

Met Savage in a club an told him even though people spit in his hair an call him a c"nt, I thought he was alright. He wasn't that grateful, maybe he is a c"nt after all!

[Dronny]

Used to go to Norwich with one of my best mates who's a blue and his best mate who supports Norwich. It was the time when Megson played for us and we dressed up in big ginger wigs ( fuckin funny photo somewhere of the three of us at the front of the main stand, in colours and wigs!)

Anyway Megson isn't the reason for this story as we spent the evening in some bar playing pool with Ruel Fox and a couple of his mates, before going off to some club with them!

On a separate and completely unconnected thread I used to blag my way into a few clubs with my mates, one of whom was the spitting image of Ginger Baker of Cream fame. We always made a beeline for VIP area and on more than one occasion got free champers!!

[carl_feedthegoat]

ON THE PISS IN SUN CITY WITH VIRTUALLY THE WHOLE LIVERPOOL TEAM...WAS DRINKING MOSTLY WITH RAZOR RUDDICK AND STEVE NICOLS..PLAYED POOL WITH THEM 2....GREAT CHELSEA FAN IS RAZOR.

MET BRUCE GROBBELAR AND ALSO GARY BAILY...GOT PISSED WITH TERRY PAIN EX SOUTHAMPTON AND WORLD CUP 66 PLAYER...GREAT LAUGH.

MET GARRY MABBUT IN SUN CITY WHEN WE WERE PLAYING LAWN BOWLS....JUST AFTER HIS FACE WAS MASHED.

I THINK THERE WERE LOADS MORE BUT I FUCKING CAT REMEMBER.....I DID PLAY WITH A FAIR FEW PLAYERS FROM CRUSADERS (IRELAND) WHO USED TO COME OVER FOR THE SOUTH AFRICAN WINTER TO PLAY FOR THE LOCAL SIDES (LEEDS UTD..THE SOUTH AFRCAN SIDE)...THATS WHEN I WAS OFFERED A CONTRACT TO PLAY WITH ONE PARTICULAR TEAM WHICH I NEVER TOOK UP...BUT PLAYING WITH THESE GUYS MADE YOU LOOK BETTER THAN YOU ACTUALLY WERE.

[Im_Spartacus]

Thought i'd add a couple more.

Glen Hysen in a Singapore Hotel, when I got home from the holiday a few weeks later, there was all sorts of signed stuff from Liverpool had been sent through the post. Can't believe I had forgotten all about that, top guy, shit player.

Sat next to the Goat at the Old Trafford Fa Cup game a few years ago. Andy Morrison was there but was a miserable cunt.

I remember my dad telling me to go and say hello to the "ugly feller" Steve Buuce in the hospital when my sister was in the special care unit at St Marys. He played for Norwich back then in 83, and I always wondered why he was there, but I think it might have been Mike Phelan's kid being born or something so I probably met that red cunt as well.

[Mr Miyagi]

Neil "Razor" Ruddock nearly ran me over the other day in Chinatown driving his stupid "Chav-mobile"

[Feed The Goat]

Me and my mate met Dunne Tiatto and Bosvelt in totties in altrincham a few years back. We were leathered but they were ok with us

[Ted Hughes]

Met Uwe in Norway. He was at some kind of a footballers fuction one afternoon. My mate told him there was a City fan (I was sat in the sun stuffing my face with prawns etc) outside & he actually came outside to say hello & we sat talking for quite some time.

He genuinely loves City & asked me as many questions about the club as I asked him. Top top bloke.

[pepsi_dave]

I've met quite a few players actually. I used to work at TGI Fridays in Cheadle and many a Premier League and other lesser known footballers used to come in.

The weirdest was Wanchope, came in on his own, was very quiet, looked very much as though he liked to keep himself to himself. Very strange feller indeed, very polite though.

The whole U****d squad booked the restaurant out one Chrismas (2003 or 2004 I think) the spice Girls had split up, Posh had just released her book, Romeo was less than a year old etc....David & Victoria Beckham and other members of the family, Phil Neville, Solksjaer, Keane, The Spanish Keeper they had at the time, Scholes, Veron (I think), Carroll, Ricardo, Fortune, Silvestre, Butt and one or two other lower "profile" players, their wives and kids.... some very intersting things I noticed, and some things I was very surprised at...

When David and Victoria arrived She just waltzed in and went straight to the bar, David followed with Romeo in his arm, brooklyn following behind and he was carrying all the baby bags and stuff in his other hand, but for the whole time they were there the two of them barely said a word to each other and were sat at opposite ends of the restaurant, She was sat with Chuckle and Mrs and someone elses bird, while he sat with the likes of Veron, Keane, and Solksjaer.

At one point, in an area of the restaurant which was sectioned off with balloons and a mini-disco for the kids, myself and one of the other waitresses were making modelling balloons, and we ended up having balloon sword fights with Brooklyn, Keane's little lad, and Solksjaer's little lad..... Brooklyn was a bit shy but was having a good time, Keane's lad was running round like a fucking little maniac waving his balloon around like a mentalist (obviously takes after his dad in some respects), but Roy himself is quite possible the nicest footballer I have ever met, very forthcoming, and he instigated most of the conversations he had with me, very polite, and seemed genuinely interested in the answers I was giving him (all of which were non-football related, at the time I wasnt a Season Ticket holder and football was my second passion behind music). Solksjaers lad was very quiet and shy, and scared to fucking death of his own shadow, but a very sweet little lad though.

Posh spice was a rude, ignorant, bint to be quite honest, no manners, only answered yes or no, and wouldn't even engage in any form of small talk whatsoever, and more often than not needed to be asked a question twice in order to get an answer. I don't really remember how the rest of the squad that were there came accross, they all just seemed fairly 'normal' and none of their characters really stood out to me as my evident lack of memory of them shows.

After the function was over, Posh just upped and left with the kids while she waited for David to say the Thank you's and goodbyes, he went to EVERY single member of staff to thank them individually, kissed all the girls on the cheek and wished them happy christmas, and shook hands with every male member of staff again wishing us all merry christmas.

Before they all arrived Brad Friedel coincidentally turned up with his family, but we had to turn him away as he wasnt part of the party, was a bit surreal, because at first i thought he was part of their party.... he honestly thought I was taking the piss because I am sure the day before they had played U****d and he had saved a penalty, was all just a massive coincidence though.

We had to sign disclaimers before they all arrived that we couldn't ask Keane about his forthcoming book, We couldn't ask posh about the Spice Girls split, we couldn't ask questions about the argentina red card DB got etc, we Couldn't mention anything about alleged affairs that DB was having (At the time they were only alleged and there was no talk of rebecca loos, but the tabloids were full of the Beckhams relationship being on the rocks), we couldnt ask for photos or autographs etc, and we could also never disclose any details to the press about any of the events the happened during the function. All of the windows were blacked out with some sort of netting that you could see out of, but not see in, there were MASSIVE fookin security guards at the main entrance, the fire exits, at the staff entrance at the back of the building, the Kitchen, the bar, and a few more just ambling around the resaurant. It was like bloody royalty were there.

Anywho, enough of them lot, I served Peter Schmiechel (During his City days I must add), Kevin Horlock, Nicolas Jensen a week or so before a Derby and told Kevin to do us proud ("Kevin.... I'm a massive City fan, can you just do me one favour? Beat them lot next week, and all the best"), he smiled and said something along the lines of thanks, and don't worry, we've been preparing for a while now..... I think we drew, Howey equalised for us I think.

Shortly after Sven had been appointed, and we had just signed a plethora of players, I happened to be at COMS when the players had their team photo taken, I met Dunnie (very nice and polite and allowed me to have my picture taken), Dickov who like Dunnie was polite and again had a picture taken. Petrov was quiet but still had the time to have pictures taken. Then we saw a few people gather round a big blacked out 4x4 so I wandered over and it was Geo who was having a few pics taken and autograph signing, what happened next was quite funny, there was a small white bloke sat in the passenger side of the car who started to look more and more rattle the longer this went on, and then all of a sudden the door flung open and out he jumped, he then frantically started pointing at himself shouting "Brasil, Brasil...... I Brasil...." it was Elano, but obviously then no-one knew who he was, so we just went along with it, and had pics taken etc. On the way back to the car bumped into the big man himself SGE, what an absolute gent, again had a pic with him and a very brief chat, lovely bloke.

While at TGI Fridays I served Robbie Savage, seemed quite down to earth but complained about the most minute thing.... very bizzarre.

I worked at Fridays in sale for a While a few years back, served Fletcher who was a right miseralbe twat, and once he notice my City badges he became even more miserable (if thats even possible, lol).

I also served Camelmouth in sale aswell, he was rude and ignorant and complained because, and I quote, when he referred to the burger he bought from our Buy one get on free promotion, "My burger is a bit burnt" and he demanded it was remade when the question was asked.

Was out for a stag do the other month in town, and we were in the Living rooms when the whole villa squad who had just lost a blackburn arrived, one of our lads was a massive villa fan and apparently has some links within the club, seemed to get on quite well the likes of reo coker, carew, and gardener, but unsurprising of all, must be that agbonlahor is, as he appears on TV, miserable, arrogant, no, VERY arrogant, cocky, stuck up his own arse, looking down his nose at everyone, and just seemed like a generaly twat, totally ignored this bloke who was with us, despite the other players appearing to know him well enough to have a laugh and joke with him.

Anywho, I'm sure theres hould be a few more, just cant remember them.

Peace

[pepsi_dave]

...... and that is by far the longest post I have ever written...... GO team Pepsi!

[carl_feedthegoat]

...... and that is by far the longest post I have ever written...... GO team Pepsi!

THAT WAS ACTUALY INTERESTING.

[Good Times]

Literally bumped into Jermain Defoe in Tesco a couple of weeks ago. He looked daggers at me.

[BobbyJ1956]

Uwe Rosler and Shaun Goater, both in Manchester airport, years apart. Exchanged waves with the Goat, Uwe made a point of walking over to shake hands. Roy Keane was sat across the aisle on a plane, very polite and gentlemanly as others have said. My only proper conversation was with Ken Wolstenholme (OK, not a player) in Devon one summer. He was lovely, and we talked about a cricket commentary by John Arlott the day before when Arlott had gone all ecstatic over a shot played by Barry Richards of Hampshire & South Africa.
On the uglier side (this isn't first hand, or even second hand) there's a bloke in New York who's a City fanatic/nutter and who reputedly found himself face to face with Barthez, the French goalkeeper U****d had, whenever. This was in New Jersey, Barthez was on his holidays with his wife(?) and not expecting anyone to spot him, let alone cause trouble. But the City lad accosted him, starting with a disbelieving "Hey, you look like that French twat that plays for U****d" and going on to "You ARE that French twat that plays for U****d" before getting into heavier verbals and shoving matches while Barthez's missus was screaming to leave him alone.

[paulmclaren]

Not a footballer.
But i was in a motorbike shop today getting my bike fixed.
And mr dunlop, the guy himself was in the bike shop getting 22k worth of bits fixed to his bike.
Should of seen it lol :D

[City1970]

Where do i start.

Right, me dad worked in football from 1962 until 1986, with various clubs, including City, Crewe and Chester, and a couple of rugby clubs wakefield, Hull KR and Leeds. And when he was working for city he used to script the Junior Blues pantomimes that included most of the city squad, playing one part or another (I have a real vivid memory of Joe Corrigan playing a Genie in 1973). I was only a kid at the time, but met most of the team from the early 70's, in one way or another. We also had George Dunlop living with us, as at the time, he was a city trainee, and went on to play in goal for Ireland.

When he went to crewe in the late 70's Harry Gregg was manger, not long before Harry left Crewe. My dad and Harry are still friends, even though Harry moved back to N.Ireland a few years back, and my dad goes over to see him on occasion. Harry has a few stories about how he was treated after the munich thing, and is quite bitter about they way most of the team were treated. Whilst there I met Bruce grobbelar, Brian and Jimmy Greenhof, and Ian Callaghan, Robbie Savage, David Platt and Geoff thomas, who all played for Crewe at one stage or another, as well as a bunch of footballing non-entitites. My dad left Crewe when dario gradi took over, and he spent 2 years at chester, before he left football altogether.

When i used to work in Holmes Chapel, Franny Lee who owned an industrial unit, 2 units down from where i worked, was always turning up, in his Merc Sports car. He can bloody smoke, seen him chain about 5 fags in 30 minutes, whilst having a mobile conversation.

My dad was also friends with Alan A'court, whom I met a few times, who played for Scouse and England, sadly he died in November of last year from cancer.

The weirdest ones was meeting David Platt, In bari, in Italy, (whom he was playing for at the time), as he was walking near the sea front, not long after he had joined them. At the time i was in the navy, and I was with a bunch of mates, and he was quite friendly, especially when i said I lived in Crewe, even offering tickets for the next Bari home match, pointed out my best mate and i went the same school as his wife (she was 2 years above me at Shavington School), and my mate had given her one in the chicken shed at school (i was very pissed). At school she was what we call very "User friendly".
The other weird one was at Butlins in either 1979 or 1980, in Phwelli. They had a Football training school set up, and who was running it, none other than Colin Bell. He spent most of the time chatting to my dad (who he had known at City), instead of actually training the kids.

[Mase]

Me and my brother just walked straight in to the city dressing room after a friendly against Bury the other year. Literally just walked through a door and found our way without anyone stopping us. Think Keegan was in charge and it was the season we just got promoted to the Prem (maybe).
Anyway spoke to a few players,Carlo Nash seemed like a top bloke (good looking bastard as well!) I asked him where Tiatto was I think and he was the player who stayed around longest to sign stuff for people. The nicest guy there though was Juan Carlos Osorio the fitness coach, he was the last guy in the changing room and had a chat with us for a while.
My mate jumped on the City coach while it was waiting for the players after another match and asked SWP for his autograph. Think Shaunie said something like "Yeh mate I'll come out, don't come on the coach. I'll come out to you."
Can't remember what match it was after but we played shit and had been for weeks. People waited around afterwards and when the players were getting on the coach people were asking the players if they thought that was a good enough performance. Dunnie came out, was captain at the time I think, and when people were asking him he just got his head down and got on the coach. Joey Barton was the only one to stop and chat to people, admitting that it wasn't good enough. I think someone actually filmed this and its on youtube somewhere.
Not me directly but I was speaking to a car that provides cars for Premiership footballers and he was saying which players he's done it for, said Barry Ferguson was a top guy and same with James Beattie, who apparently is fairly quiet off the pitch.

I'm sure I've met players from other teams and shouted stuff at them when I was younger but can't remember.

[BlueinBosnia]

I'm a good acquaintance of Lyon's Miralem Pjanic. We've watched a few futsal games together, and keep in touch occasionally on Facebook.