The other day when I popped into the OUFC reception to pick up my programme the club secretary asked me for my phone number "because Martin Gray wants it". I thought they were taking the piss and wanted my number for some other reason, so gave it to them.
Lo and behold, later that evening after the game I get a phone call and this Mackem accent on the other end says "Did you write that my father had a go at you before the Middlesbrough game a few years ago?"
I replied in the affirmative, because that's what I remembered - Martin Gray's folks balling me out because I produced a fanzine cover with a picture of Gray under the caption Ugly Bloke. "Well, it wasn't my Dad it was my Mum. And another thing..." and he went into a long rant about some (admittedly derogatory) stuff I'd written about him in an article in the OUFC programme, saying "How do you think my family must feel reading that about me?"
Among some of the other gems he came out with were "Where's your team now? When I was playing for them they were in the Championship, and now look at them - think about that before you have a go", (I refrained from pointing out that his current club had just lost at Wycombe in the fourth division) and "Let me know where you live and I'll come round and see you face to face. I'm not scared. If I've got something to say I'll say it to your face".
The phone call ended when I asked him "so, what do you want me to do about it?" "Make it right" he said. So here it is, me making it right (and I admit this isn't probably what he had in mind): sorry Martin, you weren't quite as bad a footballer as I claimed in my programme article - you were indeed playing at three divisions (and occasionally two divisions) higher than United are now, so you must have been okay, alright? Please don't visit me.
Anyone else received threatening or angry phone calls from professional footballers, offering them out?
Lo and behold, later that evening after the game I get a phone call and this Mackem accent on the other end says "Did you write that my father had a go at you before the Middlesbrough game a few years ago?"
I replied in the affirmative, because that's what I remembered - Martin Gray's folks balling me out because I produced a fanzine cover with a picture of Gray under the caption Ugly Bloke. "Well, it wasn't my Dad it was my Mum. And another thing..." and he went into a long rant about some (admittedly derogatory) stuff I'd written about him in an article in the OUFC programme, saying "How do you think my family must feel reading that about me?"
Among some of the other gems he came out with were "Where's your team now? When I was playing for them they were in the Championship, and now look at them - think about that before you have a go", (I refrained from pointing out that his current club had just lost at Wycombe in the fourth division) and "Let me know where you live and I'll come round and see you face to face. I'm not scared. If I've got something to say I'll say it to your face".
The phone call ended when I asked him "so, what do you want me to do about it?" "Make it right" he said. So here it is, me making it right (and I admit this isn't probably what he had in mind): sorry Martin, you weren't quite as bad a footballer as I claimed in my programme article - you were indeed playing at three divisions (and occasionally two divisions) higher than United are now, so you must have been okay, alright? Please don't visit me.
Anyone else received threatening or angry phone calls from professional footballers, offering them out?
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