Paul Mortimer & Mickey Bennett will be our Guests at the Next Eltham Addicks Branch Meeting. For A Question And Answer session.
The venue has changed for this date as we are only able to have a Tuesday evening at The Conservative club,due to Fixture congestion this has proved to be a problem.
VENUE
Metro-gas sports club
Forty footway
Avery hill Road
New Eltham
se9 2ex
Tel 0208 859 1579
DATE AND TIME
Thursday 27th February
7.45pm start with a 10pm finish
Licensed bar will close at 11pm
Admission on the night will be £2.00, membership is available at £5.00 which will include entry on the night.
There will be a raffle with prizes on the night.
Please try to come along and support the branch.
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Comments
Will try to get along to this one.
There is also a subscription feature that will download all the dates to your smart phone or Outlook type Calendar application. Any probs subscribing let me know.
Mickey Bennett was really interesting and spoke about his role as a member of the PFA. His role within the PFA is a regional role, Education Advisor. He Spoke about his time as a player and how he had many ups and downs, he also wasn't that keen on agents but told a story regarding how agents look after their clients. Some players can't organise themselves and have the agent do everything for them, One player didn't know how to get his teeth done, another was in court on a Speeding offence, the story made the national press, and when asked a question by the judge on the offence his response was I don't open letters, my agent deals with stuff like that, sadly this is not uncommon.
Mickey spends his time offering experience to players after they leave the game, he qualified as a Councillor in 2004 , Many players suffer from mental Health issues, some have debt problems and some need to retrain, About 750 are available at the end of each season and not all of them get taken on. He said he understands them better having been a player himself, sometimes he will take a call from a players agent. The agent will say the player has a problem and then Mickey will step in and get the agent to ask that player to call him.
Mickey was born in New Cross. Before he started his playing career he was a ball boy at Millwall and at the time claims to never have heard of Chartlton. He recalled a moment during a Millwall v Charlton game, he was taking a Throw in when some bloke shouted at him we know where you live Bennett, They did as He Lived close by the ground.
Mickey didn't go through the normal route like most players do, he went straight into the 1st team at 16, his parents weren't really interested in his football career. He Told us about how the Move To Wimbledon Came about, Originally Wimbledon Offered 900k but Charlton said no, Then Lennie Lawrence called him into the office and said the club were selling him for 200k/250k I think and he said No i'm not going. He really didn't want to join Wimbledon.
Mickey said that he didn't want to leave Charlton and Lennie insisted that he go and speak with Wimbledon which he did. He sat down with sam hammam and Bobby Gould and told them He wanted to play football and not long ball into the corner of the pitch were the grass hadn't been cut, anyway he eventually joined and was given a pay rise of £500 I think he said which he later regretted, thought he could of asked for more maky got 1k a month extra.
On his first day at Wimbledon he turned up in tatty clothes expecting some thing to happen to them and spent the morning training, Nothing happened during training but after training he went outside and noticed a cage come boxing ring which had been put in place, apparently Bobby Gould had an offer From Chelsea for Dennis wise and so Gould Said he would Box wise to determine if he could leave or not, wise went to Chelsea. Think he got Gould good and proper in the ribs.
Mickey told the story about The Chelsea v Charlton "Battle of The Bridge" game when he was on the pitch but had a groin strain I think it was 87/88 season, I Remember being in the shed end for this game,fans ended up on the pitch after and said he saw someone coming towards him from the corner of his eye brandishing a Stanley knife, said he was pretty scared.
Mickey was asked about players wages and if he thought that players were paid too much , pretty much said that it's market forces and that it's usually the club offering the salary and in that case he thinks it's okay to accept, if your boss offered you a pay rise you would be delighted and would accept. He also mentioned that a football career is short and that sometimes you need to make what you can to see you oaky for later on in life.
will try and post something up about what Morts had to say shortly.
Mickey was a a top bloke and really friendly, was good value too.
Paul was impressed with the blend of youth and experience in the Charlton team, he was asked about Poyet and Cousins and if he thinks they will stay, this came about after the Mention of Jenkinson Being sold to Arsenal. He said that if a good offer comes in for Poyet or cousins or any other player then they could be sold, It's the same if we go and buy a player from another club on the cheap, the fans don't like losing good players but it happens.
Said that no club should by a player after seeing them on a video, he likes to think that a player needs at least 4 weeks to be able to show if he is any good. Get them playing football.
Spoke about being frozen out By Danny Wilson when he was at Bristol City, was made to train on his own and had an injury during his time there, wasn't given a Chance.
Paul Spoke about how he missed the play-off final, it was between himself and Johnny Robinson, Morts was injured at the time he had pulled a hamstring, it was decided that the 2 players have a train together and in the end Robbo was picked ahead of Paul, it was the right decision.
Paul spoke about how fit players are now and the importance of the sports science that clubs put in place. Said it's becoming more Technical But being mega fit doesn't always make you a better player, plenty of running around is okay but it's scoring goals and winning games that matters.
A good night and both guests were very entertaining.