Has John Carew Disgraced Himself?

Lisa Smith has a report in the Birmingham Mail >> Click Here claiming that John Carew who was a shock omission from the UEFA Cup game v Ajax on Thursday night was seen breaking the players curfew the night before the biggest match in the last 10 years for Villa.

It is claimed that fans saw him in a lap dancing club at 1am.

Martin O’Neill admitted our so called star striker was left out because he was ‘tired’.

TIRED? The man doesn’t know the meaning of the word, try working in a factory for 12 hour shifts or holding down a normal job, or worrying about how the bills are going to be paid next month like many of the Villa faithful have to do.

Lisa says that O’Neill – who is rightly furious – will have showdown talks with the player and he could be fined up to two weeks wages (£100 000) which I believe is the maximum any club is allowed to fine players? He might also be omitted from the Wigan squad. If this report is true, I certainly hope he is, I’ll not cheer him again, he has let down his team, let down his fans and most unforgivably let down this mighty club of ours.

The report quotes Villa fan Mike McKiernen: ‘I was in the club just after midnight when Carew walked in with a female companion. He is such a distinctive guy that there was no mistaking him. We left at 1am and he was still there sitting in a corner near the DJ booth. I was more than a little taken aback to see him bearing in mind Villa had such a major fixture that night and a game of huge significance to the fans.’

He did add that JC wasn’t drinking or with the lap dancers. Adding, ‘Carew is very popular amongst the fans and is a very important player. It beggars belief he would be out just hours before a major game.’

The 6’4′ striker had blood tests as the club doctor was worried the player was run down.

O’Neill, who hasn’t commented about these claims as yet, told the Friday press conference: ‘It has been said to me that John is between illness and fitness but he has come back from two international matches with Norway and then played immediately for us. He has felt under the weather and although he has been training and hasn’t missed that, our club felt he needed a few tests. He is absolutely fine and we will have to see now about Sunday although the team did exceptionally well without him.’

I REALLY hope this isn’t true, if it is then the man is a disgrace who I’d rather see sold than played again. There has to be some respect for the fans from players and if they can’t muster that then at least some respect towards the club and the people paying his wages. This would be a massive slap in the face. JC could be an awesome striker, at the moment he is just ok and on his day when he decides to get stuck in, he shows glimpses of being a real menace. But how many times is he 100% ‘at’ the game? I must admit, as I sit by the bench on the front row, I’ve not seen a player as whiney as him for … I can’t remember that last one actually. He only has to have a slight knock and he is wincing towards the bench, holding his back, or leg, or neck and recently he came over for a drink then pulled a ‘poorly’ face pointing at his throat.

As our former great Dennis Mortimer once told me, in his day you would never show the opponents you were hurt and would be very reticent to tell Ron Saunders either, he would tell them when they were injured! All they wanted to do was play football. Seems the modern era that isn’t always the priority as we’ve seen with other recent articles in the press about a certain striker shooting and scoring a hattrick off the pitch!

Dion Dublin said recently whilst talking about John Carew – and he actually enlarged on the subject talking about the similar Emile Heskey that if they just had that bit more aggression and belief, they could be scoring for fun with their physical attributes being used to maximum benefit.

As said, I hope this is found to be not true, it would be a disgrace and a real slap in the face to the fans who pay their very hard earned money to see such players.

Our latest poll asks if he should be dropped, if the report is true, for the Wigan game.