He didn't quite go with "the game's gone, Jeff", but Seamus Coleman has some strong views on what's wrong with today's footballers.
The Irish captain says that the culture of spending their earnings on expensive luxuries is a problem that distracts players from their main aim, performing at their highest level, and can put pressure on younger players to fit in.
"If I see a footballer with a Louis Vuitton wash bag I wonder what that does to others. If you are the only young lad in the changing room without one then you feel that pressure that you need to go out and get one. Even if you don't want one or even like one.
"That's what I think is wrong with football. It's completely wrong. Your job is to train well and play well on Saturday and do well week in, week out. That's your job. Your job isn't to be going out and buying the best of everything just because someone else is.
"But they feel they all need to have the best because of the pressure. They think they need to look good on their Instagram pictures. They think they have to follow the leader but they are just kids — boys.
Coleman, who moved to Everton from Sligo Rovers in 2010 at the age of twenty believes that more has to be done to look after the younger players coming through the ranks, especially the ones moving over from Ireland.
"I think a 15 or 16-year-old coming over from a place like Ireland really needs help. They need someone protecting them or looking after them.
"It's a big bad world out there in football and it's easy for a young footballer to be sucked into a certain way of life.
"They need protecting, good people looking after them. Parents and agents and people who have their best interests at heart. But sometimes it isn't the case.
"How do you change it? I don't know. I just hate the thought of a young player in a dressing room feeling worried because seven of the lads have something that he doesn't have.'
Via Daily Mail
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