The delicate mind of the modern (football) employee (This may or may not be about a current Spurs player)

After a Wednesday spent scoring two goals for your country, celebrated with a bit of badge-snogging for good measure, you take a flight home the following afternoon. It’s been a little tiring, you know, 90 minutes representing your country, but the pair of goals, subsequent adulation and the 5-star bed you finally fell asleep in certainly help with recovery.

You prepare to catch your flight back to England, where your day-job is. A spot of 5-star breakfast perhaps, a ciggy and the paper maybe, perhaps even a squirrel or two to feed from your hotel room balcony if you’re lucky. You might check your bank balance, but more likely you won’t, because doubtless there are people in place to do that for you. And anyway, how many zeros to the left of the decimal point do you need before you know the quids really are in? Even you cannot have allowed it to go from 7 to 6 in the last 2 seasons. So it’s OK, life is still tolerable in a financial sense.

Your mood is perhaps a little low. Funny really. Two goals, a national hero, a comfortable existence, yet somehow, your spirit just feels a little deflated. You have people working for you who can help with that sort of stuff, but they’re not being overly helpful either. Because even though you have the sort of job in England that most people in your profession would die for, even though this job pays you enough to keep seven zeros-plus to the left of the decimal point, and even though this job comes with a staff and team which are largely designed to help you and your very special skills shine, there’s whispers of another job. Where there might be even more zeros to the left of the decimal, and perhaps more tangible rewards to be gained. And even though you signed a contract with your current employer, you sort of want to go to that other job now.

· Read the rest of this week's "Jumpers for Goalposts" here:-

Premier League Results - 23-25.08.08

Blackburn   1-1   Hull
Fulham      1-0   Arsenal
Liverpool   2-1   M'brough
Newcastle   1-0   Bolton
Stoke       3-2   A. Villa
Spurs       1-2   S'derland
West Brom   1-2   Everton
Man City    3-0   West Ham
Wigan       0-1   Chelsea
P'tsmouth   0-1   Man Utd

       Barclays Premier League
 
Pos Team        P  W  D  L   F  A  GD  Pts

 1  Chelsea     2  2  0  0   5  0   5   6
 2  Liverpool   2  2  0  0   3  1   2   6
 3  Blackburn   2  1  1  0   4  3   1   4
 4  Hull        2  1  1  0   3  2   1   4
 5  Man Utd     2  1  1  0   2  1   1   4
 6  Newcastle   2  1  1  0   2  1   1   4
 7  A. Villa    2  1  0  1   6  5   1   3
 8  Man City    2  1  0  1   5  4   1   3
 9  Bolton      2  1  0  1   3  2   1   3
10  Everton     2  1  0  1   4  4   0   3
11  M'brough    2  1  0  1   3  3   0   3
12  Fulham      2  1  0  1   2  2   0   3
13  S'derland   2  1  0  1   2  2   0   3
14  Arsenal     2  1  0  1   1  1   0   3
15  Stoke       2  1  0  1   4  5  -1   3
16  West Ham    2  1  0  1   2  4  -1   3
17  Spurs       2  0  0  2   2  4  -2   0   
18  West Brom   2  0  0  2   1  3  -2   0
19  Wigan       2  0  0  2   1  3  -2   0
20  P'tsmouth   2  0  0  2   0  5  -5   0

· This week last year