Players run risk of being caught offside with off-field games

Dubai: There was a time when being caught offside was a minor annoyance to a footballer, likely to incur the wrath of the gaffer on the touchline, but hardly a reason to crucify a player.

However, for the Premiership's growing list of multi-millionaires the phrase has taken on a whole new meaning as their alleged off-the-field shenanigans lead to lurid headlines and the kind of fallout usually reserved for Chernobyl.

Under this sort of scrutiny few players maintain their form. Reduced to shambling wrecks, they amble on uselessly before being substituted by the manager or go on holiday in Dubai.

Wayne Rooney, of course, is the latest to feel the heat of the beloved British tabloids and their hunger for sleaze.

Alleged trysts with prostitutes have garnered enough column inches to keep those Red Tops spinning out of the printing presses, but worryingly for the man himself the controversy appears to have shattered his confidence on the field.

Many believe the lurid revelations that have kept the press busy for the last month or so, explain why the 25-year-old cut such a despondent figure at the World Cup in South Africa in the summer.

It's an interesting theory but how do we excuse the rest of the sorry shower who pulled on the England jersey.

Seeking solace

But that is where Rooney is not alone in his misery. England have a list of players who seem ready to assume the mantle of public enemy number one.

John Terry, Chelsea's all-action hero, was another who sought solace in Dubai when his marriage hit the rocks following revelations that the player had been playing away with his former teammate's girlfriend.

On field he put in a number of shaky performance before patching it up with the missus and getting back to those fist-pumping performances we all know and love.

But just when Premiership fans thought they could get back to discussing the action on the field, up stepped Peter Crouch to get his mug splashed across the front pages after an alleged tryst with an £800 (Dh4,637)-per-night prostitute.

It's hard to say whether Crouch's form suffered, such is his inconsistent displays normally, but one doesn't have to be a psychologist to realise that returning home each night to the lady friend smashing the best crockery is hardly conducive to a calm mental state on which to ply your trade.

Perhaps the exception to the rule is the daddy of off-field controversy, Ashley Cole.

Never a loved character in his home country, Cole managed to make himself more unpopular by cheating on pop star wife and darling of the nation Cheryl Cole.

Yet ‘Trashley' somehow managed to battle on and was a measure of consistency for Chelsea despite the tabloid tales.

What that says about the man, it's hard to say, but for the rest of Britain's football stars perhaps the rule of thumb should be, take as much care avoiding a honey trap as a well-laid offside trap.