I hope for his sake that Stoke City striker Ricardo Fuller isn't spotted doing his shopping up Hanley any time soon.
The bargains first revealed in the Boxing Day sales might be tempting, Ric, but I'd keep a low profile if I were you.
For all hell broke loose at Upton Park when Stoke City took on West Ham today. And Fuller was in the thick of it.
Now I know about as much about football as the chiefs in charge at Woolworths apparently know about steering a high street favourite through the choppy waters of a credit crunch.
But I know that Fuller has landed himself in hot water for hitting his team-mate (and captain) Andy Griffin at a time when every point counts for Premier League new boys Stoke City.
And as somebody who knows so little about football, and until recently cared very little about it too, I have to say I'm gutted.
Because some so-called pundits apparently reckon Stoke City shouldn't be in the Premier League. They don't have the skill or the panache of the big boys like Manchester United and Liverpool, these know-it-alls claim.
Well I say balls to that. Stoke getting into football's top-flight is one of the best (and relatively few) positive things ever to happen in the history of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. And the city's people (whether they're football fans or not) need it to continue.
It's good for our name. It should be good for the regeneration of the city. And that has to be good for everyone.
So I'm gutted at Fuller's outburst. You can't deny that passion is to be applauded, but when it spills over into violence, things have gone too far. And besides denying Stoke vital points in their struggle to succeed in the Premier League, I can't help feeling Fuller has committed a PR own goal for the whole city.
He's now facing disciplinary action, a three-match ban, and he'll have his wages docked.
But should he be allowed to pull on a Stoke City shirt again? The fans are raging and many of them say he shouldn't. They're calling on Tony Pulis to get tough and show Fuller the door. They're all kicking off on the website of my local paper, The Sentinel.
With the January transfer window about to open, who knows whether Fuller will be on his way.
And whatever happens, Pulis has got to leave his players in little doubt that this kind of behaviour is bang out of order.
It'll do Stoke City no good in their current campaign, and it'll play straight into the hands of those stuck-up pundits who barely travel past the North Circular and reckon Stoke has no place in football's top league.
The bargains first revealed in the Boxing Day sales might be tempting, Ric, but I'd keep a low profile if I were you.
For all hell broke loose at Upton Park when Stoke City took on West Ham today. And Fuller was in the thick of it.
Now I know about as much about football as the chiefs in charge at Woolworths apparently know about steering a high street favourite through the choppy waters of a credit crunch.
But I know that Fuller has landed himself in hot water for hitting his team-mate (and captain) Andy Griffin at a time when every point counts for Premier League new boys Stoke City.
And as somebody who knows so little about football, and until recently cared very little about it too, I have to say I'm gutted.
Because some so-called pundits apparently reckon Stoke City shouldn't be in the Premier League. They don't have the skill or the panache of the big boys like Manchester United and Liverpool, these know-it-alls claim.
Well I say balls to that. Stoke getting into football's top-flight is one of the best (and relatively few) positive things ever to happen in the history of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. And the city's people (whether they're football fans or not) need it to continue.
It's good for our name. It should be good for the regeneration of the city. And that has to be good for everyone.
So I'm gutted at Fuller's outburst. You can't deny that passion is to be applauded, but when it spills over into violence, things have gone too far. And besides denying Stoke vital points in their struggle to succeed in the Premier League, I can't help feeling Fuller has committed a PR own goal for the whole city.
He's now facing disciplinary action, a three-match ban, and he'll have his wages docked.
But should he be allowed to pull on a Stoke City shirt again? The fans are raging and many of them say he shouldn't. They're calling on Tony Pulis to get tough and show Fuller the door. They're all kicking off on the website of my local paper, The Sentinel.
With the January transfer window about to open, who knows whether Fuller will be on his way.
And whatever happens, Pulis has got to leave his players in little doubt that this kind of behaviour is bang out of order.
It'll do Stoke City no good in their current campaign, and it'll play straight into the hands of those stuck-up pundits who barely travel past the North Circular and reckon Stoke has no place in football's top league.
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