Newly victorious Finn Tapp and girlfriend Paige Turley were crowned winners of the Winter edition of Love Island on Sunday.
The couple are now set for the same treatment when they arrive back home from South Africa. Boohoo brand deals, airbrushed photos and endorsements for things they wouldn’t usually be interested in is the usual menu for the latest herd of contestants to leave the Love Island villa.
But Finn may also be getting an angry letter from his club, Oxford City FC, when he returns home.
City has come out and given him a slap on the wrist for going AWOL and deserting his squad to appear on the show as the club sit mid table in the National League South.
Additionally, a spokesperson at the club said they would have to include clauses in their contracts from now on to stop players swanning off as Finn has done.
Taking inspiration from this, MM decided to look back at other times footballers have got into hot water with their clubs over their actions.
Wayne Shaw
Ex-Sutton United keeper, Wayne Shaw, received a harsh reprimand for eating a pie on the bench during his clubs FA Cup fixture against Arsenal in 2017.
The ensuing ‘pie-gate’ resulted in Shaw being booted from the club for breaching betting rules as the FA and Gambling Commission set up an investigation into the light-hearted antic.
Since being dropped, Shaw has had something of a second wind in his life. He picked up around £35,000 from pie-related interviews, eating competitions before an appearance on a Papa John advert after the media locked onto the story of him and his pie.
Shaw, who’s always had a love of food, recently opened a pub in his hometown of Totton where he makes and sells his own ‘Roly Poly Goalie Pies’ to high demand.
Didier Ndong and Papy Djilobodji
Struggling Sunderland were forced into a double termination in September 2018 as defender Papy Djilobodji and record signing Didier Ndong were rubbed off the squad lists.
Djilobodji missed almost the entirety of pre-season for the 18/19 season and when he did eventually turn up, only did so to “comprehensively fail a fitness test”.
Ndong went AWOL and turned up late to the club as a transfer to Torino fell through at the 11th hour on the brink of the new season.
Sunderland managed to recoup £3.5 million of the £13.6 million paid for Ndong through compensation, when the Gabon International finally escaped from Tyneside to flee to Ligue 1 side, Guingamp.
Nicolas Anelka
Nicolas Anelka’s short, and by no means sweet stay, at West Brom during the 13/14 season is another to make the list.
The French international, who was a pretty consistent magnet for criticism and controversy throughout his career made sure his 12 appearances for the Baggies didn’t go unnoticed.
After scoring a brace against West Ham, the only two goals he would score for WBA, he chose the disingenuous decision to perform the ‘quenelle’. A gesture seen by many in France as having anti-Semitic connotations.
The decision saw Anelka banned for five games, an £80,000 fine and summoned to a re-education course for good measure.
West Brom later cancelled his contract and within a few months he was playing in the Chinese Super League. The native home for players who lose interest in their club after a season or two.
Eric Cantona
Another colourfully controversial character and one of the most memorable moments in Premier League history, which brought us the best piece of French philosophy since Voltaire, ends our list.
January 1995 and an away trip to second in the table Crystal Palace waited for United and Cantona. The Frenchman had been targeted throughout the game until he snapped and kicked Palace’s Richard Shaw, bringing out a red.
As Cantona made the lonely walk off field, behind a chorus of jubilant heckles from Selhurst Park, he soon stopped. Remembered that he was indeed, a Frenchman, and proceeded to kung-fu kick Palace fan, Matthew Simmons.
He was swiftly met with a ban until the end of the 95/96 season and spent three hours in prison on top of 120 hours of community service. Sir Alex had to persuade Cantona not to retire after he had spent the majority of 1995 on the side-lines.
This was before the, now iconic, piece of bizarre French wisdom he graced us with as the disciplinary hearing went on.
