Nothing symbolises the changing world of football more than where footballers are housed. At one time they were seen by the largely local owners of football clubs as artisans and were treated as such, being allocated a house by the club and going to the ground on the bus. On Christmas Day, they might rely on a lift from a fan.
Footballers with supplementary sources of income like Sam Bartram at Charlton (he had a sports shop) might be able to afford a semi in a respectable suburb like Bexleyheath and a modest car to go with it.
In his excellent book My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes Gary Imlach notes that 'The club house stood solidly in the social tradition of tied-housing for key workers ... It was sound business for the clubs - they could assemble a portfolio of property, get a rental return on their investment and help contribute to a stable home life for their key performers.'
'[The] eviction clause in the standard tenancy agreement also gave them a handy trump card in the case of any disputes. For plenty of players, though, club houses were one of the perks of the job.' They were often grouped together: Tottenham Hotspur had half a dozen in one street in Enfield. Charlton fans entering the East Stand may not realise that the pair of semi-detached houses to their immediate left were built by the club for their players.
How different it is today as an interesting feature by Simon Kuper in last weekend's Financial Times makes clear. Unfortunately, the Pink 'Un is behind a pay wall, but a few quotes are permissible under copyright rules.
Indeed, Kuper quotes Peter Crouch from his book How to be a Footballer where he describes the generic footballer's house of the 1980s to mid 1990s when top players were starting to get serious money, but not ginormous money they received later. Crouch writes: 'Mock Tudor, detached, out beyond the orbital motorway but never into the sticks. Bit of land, swimming pool with concrete surrounds, snooker room with corner bar. A large and aggressive dog, a large and aggressive sports car.'
Kuper comments: 'From the 1990s, as television money flowed into football, players' housing budgets rose, although initially within limits.' Kuper goes on to give a lot of fascinating detail, but these days clubs of any size (or the player's agent) hand hold them to find accommodation. Whether it's in the footballing towns of Cheshire or a gated community near Madrid, top flight footballers require high levels of security and privacy, but in reality they are prisoners in their own luxurious houses.
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