Spice Boys (footballers)
Encyclopedia
The Spice Boys was a media term used to describe a group of Liverpool F.C.
footballers in the mid-late 1990s, seen typically as being composed of Jamie Redknapp
, David James
, Phil Babb
, Steve McManaman
, Robbie Fowler
, Stan Collymore
and Jason McAteer
. The term is sometimes used to include other members of the squad, like Neil Ruddock
, Dominic Matteo
, Patrik Berger
, Rob Jones, Paul Ince
, Jamie Carragher
and Michael Owen
, whose antics were also scrutinised as being of the "Spice Boy" stereotype
due to association with their team-mates.
Today, the term has largely been expanded to become a generic phrase referring to any football player who behaves in a like manner, and is widely regarded as a regular normative behavioural pattern for 21st century football stars.
band, the Spice Girls
, at the time.
largely emerged in 1996, aided by unfounded tabloid rumours that Fowler was dating Spice Girl Baby Spice (Emma Bunton
) and after which, the Daily Mail
coined the term, which then became synonymous with Liverpool FC's team of the time, with all the other newspapers following subsequently in using the term. Other reasons for the nickname stemmed from the direct links between some of the players and the actual Spice Girls' members. Jamie Redknapp and Steve McManaman were personally described by Mel C (Sporty Spice) as her personal favourite footballers, and that she would always go to Anfield to watch them play. McManaman meanwhile, had Simon Fuller
(the creator of the Spice Girls and Pop Idol
) as his sports agent
, sealing the links off the field.
and FA Premier League
challenges, winning little in spite of their talent, widely due to a lack of discipline. The label is negative and highlights the players' focusing on partying and clubbing
, sports cars, fast women and groupies, fame
and hairstyles
rather than football, making as the Daily Mail
describes, "inroads in the pages of glossy magazines than in the league table." The term, though harsh, was the media's way of describing the negative side of the manner in which talented English Footballers handled new money and popularity and stardom, which the game of football suddenly brought them in unprecedented levels in the 1990s, compared with the 1980s and before.
In 1997, Malcolm Gladwell
's landmark article on coolhunting
, in The New Yorker
discussed how the Spice Boys were seen as making the city of Liverpool "cool" because it involved "soccer blokes in the pubs going superdressy and wearing Dolce & Gabbana
and Polo Sport and Reebok
Classics on their feet. It all began in the early 1990s, where photogenic players (not necessarily tagged as Spice Boys yet as the term had not emerged yet) like Jamie Redknapp
and Ryan Giggs
emerged as merchandising and mass marketed "poster boys" of the English football game, and fronted many football magazine covers and featured in advertisements. This carried on increasingly through the decade, and many good looking players like David Ginola
achieved celebrity
fame
on unprecdented levels where certain football stars had become idols
on par with rock stars and pop stars, by and around the mid-1990s. The Liverpool team of the 1990s seemed to epitomise all the negative combinations of fame and fortune, and because unlike others, were a talented crew with top level potential in the game itself, were criticised for underachievement, and emerged as the face of the label; thus bearing the brunt of the innuendo. More than that however, the Spice boys were noted for also polarising public opinion, as The Daily Telegraph
assessed it: "...Group of high-spirited, fun-loving young players who were a central feature of Liverpool's talented and entertaining, but perpetually under-achieving, squad of the Nineties. At least, that's the generous description. Others saw them as just an irresponsible bunch who were a bad influence in the dressing-room and should not be given house room."
s" interviews to magazines like Loaded
which went down poorly with the media, who labelled them as "scally
" and "hedonist" characters shortly after. Meanwhile, Redknapp (who also married pop star
Louise Nurding) had already been the face of marketing and already fronted scores of magazines, then stepped up a level when he and James were involved in modelling for Armani. The pair flew over to Milan
for catwalk shows, fashion
shoots and missed training in the late 1990s, although it is noteworthy that James said the news media blew those exploits completely out of proportion. McAteer was one of the first footballers to appear in hair shampoo
advertisements since Kevin Keegan
, and it seemed a new era was dawning. McAteer did commercials for Head & Shoulders
, and together with Redknapp, appeared in Top Man catalogues, while James also became an official Armani underwear model in 1997. In the 21st century, it is common for football stars to obtain such commercial deals, but in the 1990s, this was seen as unique, and the Spice Boys were criticised because the media and fans saw these new forays as affecting their results and performances on the pitch, leading to large amounts of criticisms in the press.
s and bedding Page 3 girls before anyone else". The reason Ruddock and the Spice Boys could say this, was because it is statistically accurate that the English footballers in the 1990s were earning at least ten times the amount footballers before then had been earning, widely due to the influx of television and revenue streams for the newly revamped and globally marketed, FA Premier League
. Players' wages swelled to an average of 10-20,000 pounds a week in those days and was constantly rising each season until the present day. With the new found money and fame, many players had to deal with these issues, but the Spice Boys were notable for their very public controversies related to how they went about it, with Stan Collymore stating in his biography that he believes that the television show Footballers' Wives
is based on the stereotypes, many of which were perpetuated from the Spice Boys' antics, and that not only are the depictions very accurate, but that the whole show might have been based on the very idea of dramatising the documentation of the rise of footballers' dealing with new found fame and wealth having been thrust into these lifestyles in the first place.
McManaman meanwhile, told FourFourTwo
magazine that the Spice Boys was based on misconceptions, saying: "The Spice Boys at one time consisted of eight or nine players and the press just used to change the personnel as they fancied. It was unfortunate because when we finished third in the league we got a lot of stick for it. At the time I felt very sorry for some of the lads involved. But it didn't bother me personally as I was playing very good football at the time...When we finished third and people saw us having a laugh and a joke, they thought we didn't care. Nowadays, when you finish third, everyone is thrilled to bits...Everyone's excited about qualifying for the Champions League. Under Roy Evans
we did that a lot, and did it by playing fantastic football, but because there were a few young lads who liked to enjoy themselves at times, people had misconceptions."
The Spice Boys of Liverpool were notable for headlining several scandals covered to great extent in the British Tabloids in the 1990s:
, when the Liverpool stars infamously wore cream Emporio Armani suits and paraded around the pitch prior to kick-off, a game which they went on to lose to rivals Manchester United
. In their defence, McAteer and McManaman both claimed in interviews that they were not doing anything differently from the "lads at Manchester United or Arsenal", but that they were picked on by the media, because of their good looks and because they failed to win the titles and be successful. Robbie Fowler also quipped to the Daily Mirror newspaper about its notoriety in an interview in 2008, 12 years later: "People still remind me about the white suits all the time. It's one of those things - if we had won the game nobody would have mentioned it but we lost and it has become infamous. It was David James' fault we wore white suits, it was his idea. He's bigger than everyone so nobody questioned him and at the time he was an Armani model."
That year, Jamie Redknapp was also castigated by the media and fans for his reputation as chief prima donna
in the Spice Boys team, and Redknapp said it was his good looks that caused deep resentment, even amongst a small minority of Liverpool's own fans. He said: "Don't get me wrong, the Liverpool fans are the best in the world, but there are always one or two who get on your back. They usually wait for it to go quiet then they shout some horrible abuse at you. When you look at them they are usually the ugliest people in the whole of the ground. I'm sensible enough to know that I'm not everyone's cup of tea but I sometimes think the way I look is my biggest problem. I reckon people find it easier to have a dig at a player with long hair because they think you are a bit of a tart. As for the Spice Boys tag - like hell we are the Spice Boys. Let's face it, the Spice Girls are at the top of their profession and we are still trying to get to the top of ours, so I hardly think it is a good nickname."
However, the Spice boys situation was not helped because they also always seemed to get caught in compromising situations by the media, armed with photos and evidence, and because their reputations meant they were targeted and watched, it only exacerbated the negative publicity.
flight cabin with Paul Gascoigne
. This media focus meant that players were caught each time they were behaving like this and their behaviour and lack of decorum- such as their antics at the Liverpool Football Club 1998 Christmas
party with drinking
, sex toys and stripper
s (labelled as the "most debauched Christmas party in the world...ever" by The Independent
) highlighted for the nation their infamy, and got them castigated by the media to such a large degree that it warranted national attention and outcries for lack of discipline and effort, on the basis that these players owed a duty of care to their national team, and that their lack of discipline would affect their professionalism. Older players like Ince and McManaman were also blamed for being a negative influence on the younger stars, like Jamie Carragher
, who was photographed stripping his Hunchback of Notre Dame costume and cavorting with a stripper and wielding whipped cream
, before having sex in front of revellers in Liverpool's 1998 costume party- an incident marked by newspaper The Guardian
as one of the top 10 examples of footballers behaving badly. In the aftermath of that notorious night at the Pen & Wig pub, press reports ran stories filled with lurid details of men tearing off their clothes to have full sex in the name of "unwinding" and "festive fun" in front of guests; the obscenity of which shocked the nation and even Liverpool's own fans claimed that Bill Shankly
's original purpose of Liverpool's Christmas party (to "bond" the players) had been lost in a new generation, focused on debauchery.
Fowler and McManaman were also labelled for being serial pranksters with a scally sense of humour that was not appreciated, reported widely in the media, with reports of them cutting up team mates' shoes, destroying team mates' rooms, and doing pranks at Bisham Abbey
before live cameras, which did not help their shedding of the negative labels, and earned them a cult following of fans. Fowler was reported in the media for several controversies, some of which were on the pitch- including his sending off during an Under-21 game in Austria for swearing; getting punished by the FA for baring his backside to Leicester fans; and an incident on an Under-21 trip to Portugal when a hotel room shared by Kevin Gallen
was damaged, plus an infamous airport punch-up before tabloid cameras with team-mate Neil Ruddock
in 1995/96 where Ruddock punched Fowler up for cutting up his 300 pound Gucci
shoes, when Fowler claimed he only did that because he thought Ruddock had instigated players to urinate into his footwear. Ruddock and McAteer meanwhile had also been making several tabloid headlines following a widely reported "Porsche
incident" involving a coat hanger
where Ruddock called the police over to McAteer's house to help him with his car, and the police told McAteer to get a coat hanger so they could help him open his car doors as he had locked his keys inside, and he went and brought out a wooden one. McAteer was also notorious for several other such stories that filled the tabloids, including a "pizza" story, where McAteer was asked if he wanted a pizza cut in eights and replied, "Nah, I'm not that hungry, just cut it in fours please," where after which, McAteer obtained a new nickname instead of "Dave"- "Double Trigger" (both based on Only Fools and Horses
characters) for his perceived lack of intelligence.
The Spice Boys were also popular for their tongue in cheek antics that were ahead of their time, with them ranging from anything from having half the squad dye their hair platinum blonde or with blonde highlights as part of summer pranks before the 1996 and 1997 seasons, to antics at horseracing festivals, such as the Cheltenham
festival and Aintree
, where McManaman and Fowler led the Spice Boys to collectively purchase two thoroughbred
s and called them "Some Horse" and "Another Horse", just so they could have a laugh (to the commentator's chagrin) when results and the commentary was broadcast.
. Ruddock responded to Cantona's taunts about his weight by turning down the Frenchman's collar (in his after dinner speaking, Ruddock says of the incident- "trust me to pick the only Frenchman around who wanted a tear-up"). Ruddock said in 2011, that Cantona actually made up with him in 1996, by giving him his FA Cup Final shirt in the tunnel after the game, as he must have felt sorry for Ruddock not playing nor winning.
In 1996/97, Ruddock also admitted to deliberately breaking Andrew Cole's two legs in a reserve game between Liverpool and Manchester United in 1996, saying he hated Cole, the violence of which, shocked many fans.
In 1997, Fowler was fined by UEFA
for pulling up his shirt after scoring against Brann Bergen, in a European game, to reveal a mock Calvin Klein
T-shirt
in support of striking Liverpool dockers. McManaman was wearing one, too, and they had agreed between them to swap shirts with the opposition at the end of the game to register their support for the dockers, but subtly.
Fowler and McManaman had also become infamous for pioneering (in the Premiership) several t-shirt related celebrations with political or arrogant slogans such as "God's Job's A Good 'Un",, largely in reference to Fowler's nickname, "god", and, together with a message, the pair would scribble these on t-shirts hidden under their shirts, and unveil them before live television cameras after they scored goals; something unheard of at the time. Fowler and McManaman were infamous for writing on their shirt, a good few years before many other players started imitating them, though manager Roy Evans did threaten to inflict club discipline on them if they continued with it. The trend eventually led to FIFA
and the Premier league's banning or punishment with a yellow card for the removal of shirt tops during a goal celebration a decade later.
In 1997, a spate of defensive errors in the run in for the 1996-97 FA Premier League title race, saw Liverpool fall away badly having led the league for much of the campaign, with David James earning the nickname "Calamity James" for a series of howlers. James responded by putting down his spate of errors to an overindulgence in playing computer games
on his Sony
Playstation
that in turn affected his concentration, due to his gaming addiction.
In 1999, Fowler celebrated a goal by mimicking the action of snorting cocaine
on the goal line, leading the English Football Association to charge him with disciplinary action. Fowler rebutted by saying that he was merely responding to opposition fans from local rivals Everton FC, that had repeatedly taunted him with drug
abuse remarks and even vandalised his home.
Also in 1999, Fowler was charged for deriding fellow England colleague Graeme Le Saux
with homosexual taunts on two occasions, with a report detailing Fowler's words- responding to Le Saux's statement about his sexuality, "But I'm married!" with the quip, "So was Elton John
, mate!" Fowler was fined and banned by the FA for this behaviour, while Paul Ince also joined the stir when he too was penalised for his homophobic taunting of Le Saux during a 1997 Liverpool – Chelsea match- a verdict which resulted in a long running coolness between the two players, despite the fact that Le Saux is not actually gay.
ed and left with a broken nose in a Liverpool nightclub
for the third time in four years, and though Fowler was hardly at fault in these incidents, the constant media and tabloid exposure to such stories describing off the pitch incidents, affected his reputations and some believe that Fowler's departure from Liverpool and lack of recognition with the England team in latter years were related. Fowler also claimed, largely in controversial circumstances, both in his autobiography and in news reports, that a concerted media attack on him was waged by certain sections of the media, and by certain people who were out to slur his reputation and create an image of a person who was a drug
abuser, when in fact, he stated, it could not be farther from the truth and that he would never take drugs and knew its effects as he had a relative of his die due to its effects.
Stan Collymore, notorious for failing to turn up for training, refusing to play for the reserve squad, and simply ringing up the coach to inform him he was not showing up meanwhile, claimed he was not one of the Spice boys, and left the club a year after the labelling began, but was still often lumped with the likes of Jamie Redknapp, Jason McAteer and David James even though he constantly attempted to distance himself from associations with them. Collymore famously tried to argue that he was not like the Spice Boys at Liverpool and gave several press interviews where he bashed the Spice Boys culture, saying: "At Liverpool I sometimes felt I had to pretend to be somebody else. If I was out with the lads there, I felt I had to be like a 'Spice Boy' or something to conform to that image. Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp had people around them I imagined were there just because of who they are, the reflected glory thing. I am not confident with that, trying to be something I am not. Collymore's words angered the Spice Boy Liverpool players of the time, who accused Collymore of lying. Collymore constantly then distanced himself from the image of the past, yet however, ironically turned out to be the most outspoken one on the Spice Boys past in the ensuing years: choosing to speak in a Channel Five
television show Confessions of a Premiership Footballer in 2004, and once again talking about the extent of the issues at the club at the time in his autobiography
titled Tackling My Demons, in 2006- on both occasions revealing sordid details about a lack of discipline at the club, hedonistic sexual romps and threesome
s in hotel rooms, and the problems they all faced, stressing his sexual addiction
and confessing even to having sex with manager Roy Evans
' daughter while the manager was next door in a Knightsbridge
hotel where the team was staying, on the night of the 1996 FA Cup Final.
undertook a radical reordering of the club and slowly transferred most of the Spice Boys out of the squad. Yet, the Spice Boys remained in the public spotlight, and had a different set of problems to cope with. That year, McManaman and Fowler were reported to have gone out drinking late, the night before an England game, and this was reported in all the media as a betrayal of duty and role model leadership example setting, and an affront to the honour of playing for England. However, Robbie Fowler and McManaman both claimed in their biographies that the media had made a mistake based on the past innuendoes they had associated them with, and they had merely gone out for dinner that night, though it is widely believed that their collective lack of squad selection in the England setup, was directly correlated to their Spice Boy image of the past. It is widely believed that controversies like these, regardless of the players' claims to innocence, did nothing to help the public image of both the players and their club, as well as the game of football's reputation. The fact that these controversies arose constantly in the national media concerning the Spice Boys shaped public opinion, and arguably affected the players' England and club careers.
Former Liverpool defender and senior player to the Spice Boys team of the time, Mark Wright, slated the Spice Boys, saying the tag caused them to fail: "I think they liked the tag. Some of them were good-looking lads. They revelled in it and they were having fun. They thought they could just switch it on on the football field and that doesn't happen. Of course the rest of us had nights out but I think some people forget how lucky they are to play for Liverpool and some of them took it for granted." Others have suggested that such stories have led to an accountability and discipline failure both at Liverpool's management and club level on its players. Renowned Liverpool journalists like Paul Tomkins, Tony Evans, Tony Barrett and the like have been critical of the Spice Boys, saying their tomfoolery was linked to their priorities to make money and have fun in the game, and their tendency to "wash up and head on the highway to London" each Saturday after games.Mick McCarthy
famously told of how he bumped into half the squad at the airport on the same flight to London having just also come from watching the very game they were playing in, saying it was only possible if they must have skipped a post-match talk, and headed straight for the airport. Widely spread stories of players playing games like "pass the pound" (where players allegedly passed a coin to each other during Premiership matches and the player who ended up with the coin by the 90th minute would have to buy drinks at the pub after) did not go down well with the media. Further stories of players deliberately parking their sports and luxury cars in the manager's parking space, writing cheques and placing it on the manager's table for a laugh (after directly asking the manager how much the fine was for missing training), or, of burning pound bills as part of "dares" in the pubs in front of fans, upset the Merseyside media further, with Daily Mirror reporter Brian Reade
also heartbreakingly noting in his book, 43 Years With The Same Bird
, that one of the final straws was when some of the Spice Boys mocked Roy Evans' tears (for the sake of a laugh) on the day he resigned. Many of these revelations left many fans upset with the state of the 1990s team's attitude, and justifying for them, Gerard Houllier
's continental revolution of the early 2000s.
McManaman and Redknapp, however, had a different view for their lack of success, stating that it was not so much about the discipline, but that they had ran into a very good Manchester United side at the time, that was the reason for their lack of silverware in the 1990s. Redknapp said: “United were incredible. They had a crop of players that would never ever happen again: Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes, one of the best footballers of any generation. That United team came through at the same time as us and we were always second best to them. That's how it is sometimes.”
In 2004, several of the Spice boys of the ex-Liverpool team found themselves reunited at Manchester City FC, under ex-Liverpool legend, Kevin Keegan
, and the media were quick to point out that the "Spice Boys were reuniting", but Kevin Keegan refused to comment and David James told reporters they had become "old spice": 'We may as well get the Spice Boys nonsense dealt with right from the start because I get the feeling it might be mentioned in a few headlines. Even if it was justified in the first place, and I don't think it was, it is now ancient history. Call us Old Spice.' That year, McManaman and Fowler also got caught up in a sex scandal with a single mother of three, after a failed attempt at obtaining an injunction, with facts emerging in the case that suggested that the pair had well rehearsed their routine of getting the woman in bed, with her saying: "They think they are gods, but they're vultures," which then led to a naming and shaming scandal for both players, that further tainted their reputations.
In 2005, Robbie Fowler responded by summing up the trappings and mistakes he made, and whilst he did not deny nor excuse the Spice Boys' behaviour, he explained the situation as part of "growing up", to the Guardian
newspaper, saying it was only going to get worse with future generations of footballers: "When you're a teenager from inner-city Liverpool, you don't have any training on how to deal with the sideshow that comes with success. 'I've made plenty of mistakes, I know I have, and during my time as a footballer things have changed so that the spotlight is now even more intense. You have to be even more of a role model, a sensible, mature, intelligent professional, even if you're a cheeky little lad who's come from an inner-city council estate and put football before his studies...It strikes me that these days, clubs don't even want players who can truly play any more; they just want athletes, quick guys who don't have a football brain, can just run and run; some of them, Jesus. I can never imagine acting like that. Have a laugh, yeah, dick about, but don't give it the Charlie Big Bollocks. It's inevitable now, because everyone is a superstar, even if they're just an average player, and maybe that was part of the process set in motion when I signed that contract in 1994."
In 2011, Dominic Matteo also explained this behaviour by the team of the 1990s (in his autobiography), as a result of the "traps" that befell many players from the era, saying: "I think lots of players from my era will read the book and relate to what I am saying. It was a time when there was lots of money flying about. Add that to the spare time a player has, and it is easy to fall into the traps I did."
Also in 2011, due to widely fired protests by Liverpool fans regarding the antics that the Spice Boys were accused of, Neil Ruddock appeared on LFCTV's 60 Minutes, the club's official website television program, and categorically said that the game of "pass the pound" exclusively took place only during training, and not in competitive games. Some fans however, highlighted that this was in stark contrast to what Ruddock had ghost written in his own autobiography years earlier where it was recorded that "pass the pound" took place during competitive matches "for a laugh", because it was there that the revelations came to light in the first place. The issue continues to upset or cause dissension amongst Liverpool fans till today, who are eager to find a scapegoat for the failures of the 1990s.
In 2011, the Spice Boys of Liverpool were listed alongside some of the most widely known scandal hit footballers in the world, in a list of the Top 50 Most Controversial Players of All Time.
, Jamie Redknapp and Ryan Giggs
had become icons in football already, and football stars had become idols
on par with rock stars and pop stars, in and around the mid- to late 1990s. Though this trend has largely carried on and is normative
in football these days and where it is common for modern day footballers to be associated with scandal, women and drinking culture, the reason why the Spice Boys are notable is largely down to the fact that they were doing this en masse in the public eye for the first time, and a good decade before concepts of footballers exploiting their fame, getting caught up in scandal and doing modelling became mainstream media material and widely accepted in football culture. The obsession with celebrity
, fashion
and hairstyles
also raised a new side to footballers as icons, a decade before the era of the metrosexual
and several years before the rise of David Beckham
, and a decade before the rise of Cristiano Ronaldo
and the era of the marketed footballing fashion icon.
, launch an application for it.
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
footballers in the mid-late 1990s, seen typically as being composed of Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Frank Redknapp is a retired English footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is now a football pundit with Sky Sports, and an editorial columnist with the Daily Mail....
, David James
David James (footballer)
David Benjamin James is an English footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Bristol City.On 14 February 2009, he achieved the all-time Premier League appearance record with 536 appearances, overtaking Gary Speed. He held this record until being overtaken by Ryan Giggs on the 14th May 2011...
, Phil Babb
Phil Babb
Philip 'Phil' Andrew Babb is an English-born Irish former footballer who played as a central defender.Active in England and Portugal, he made over 300 professional career appearances, namely spending six Premier League seasons with Liverpool...
, Steve McManaman
Steve McManaman
Steven McManaman is a retired English footballer who played as a midfielder, winger and playmaker. Having spent his playing career at two of European football's most successful clubs of the 20th century, Liverpool and Real Madrid, as well as a spell at Manchester City, McManaman is the most...
, Robbie Fowler
Robbie Fowler
Robert Bernard Fowler is an English footballer who is currently player/manager for Thai Premier League club Muangthong United....
, Stan Collymore
Stan Collymore
Stanley Victor "Stan" Collymore is an English football pundit and former footballer, who played from 1990 until 2001. He held the British transfer record when he moved from Nottingham Forest to Liverpool for £8.5 million in 1995 and was capped three times at senior level by the England...
and Jason McAteer
Jason McAteer
Jason Wynne McAteer is a retired Irish footballer, who represented the Republic of Ireland at international level. He announced his retirement from professional football on 12 June 2007,...
. The term is sometimes used to include other members of the squad, like Neil Ruddock
Neil Ruddock
Neil "Razor" Ruddock is a retired English footballer, who played as a central defender.He made his debut at Millwall , and he had a long career playing for Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, Liverpool, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and finally a short-lived spell as a player/coach at Swindon Town Neil...
, Dominic Matteo
Dominic Matteo
Dominic Matteo is a former Scottish footballer and a Scottish national football team international. He has played most recently as a defender for Stoke City, but spent most of his career at Liverpool and Leeds United.-Club career:...
, Patrik Berger
Patrik Berger
Patrik Berger is a retired Czech footballer. He has played in Czech Republic, Germany, and England. He is best remembered for his time at Liverpool....
, Rob Jones, Paul Ince
Paul Ince
Paul Emerson Carlyle Ince is an English football manager and a former professional player. He has managed Blackburn Rovers, Milton Keynes Dons and Macclesfield Town...
, Jamie Carragher
Jamie Carragher
James Lee Duncan "Jamie" Carragher is an English footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League side Liverpool...
and Michael Owen
Michael Owen
Michael James Owen is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Manchester United.The son of former footballer Terry Owen, Owen began his senior career at Liverpool in 1996. He progressed through the Liverpool youth team and scored on his debut in May 1997...
, whose antics were also scrutinised as being of the "Spice Boy" stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
due to association with their team-mates.
Today, the term has largely been expanded to become a generic phrase referring to any football player who behaves in a like manner, and is widely regarded as a regular normative behavioural pattern for 21st century football stars.
Term
The "Spice Boys" emerged as a term coined to characterise the antics and lifestyles off the pitch of the Liverpool 1990s players as high earning playboys who were underachieving in the game, based on a play on words based on the name of the hugely popular pop musicPop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
band, the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
, at the time.
Comparisons to the Spice Girls
The comparisons to the Spice GirlsSpice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
largely emerged in 1996, aided by unfounded tabloid rumours that Fowler was dating Spice Girl Baby Spice (Emma Bunton
Emma Bunton
Emma Lee Bunton is an English pop singer/songwriter and TV and radio presenter. She was a member of the 1990s girl group, the Spice Girls, in which she was known as Baby Spice as she was the youngest member. In 2010, she joined the judging panel on ITV's Dancing on Ice...
) and after which, the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
coined the term, which then became synonymous with Liverpool FC's team of the time, with all the other newspapers following subsequently in using the term. Other reasons for the nickname stemmed from the direct links between some of the players and the actual Spice Girls' members. Jamie Redknapp and Steve McManaman were personally described by Mel C (Sporty Spice) as her personal favourite footballers, and that she would always go to Anfield to watch them play. McManaman meanwhile, had Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller
Simon Fuller is a British artist manager, television producer and creator of the Idol franchise, first seen as Pop Idol in the UK. Fuller is also the co-creator and executive producer of the Fox TV reality show So You Think You Can Dance and other U.S...
(the creator of the Spice Girls and Pop Idol
Pop Idol
Pop Idol is a British television series which debuted on ITV on 6 October 2001. The show was a talent contest to decide the best new young pop singer in the United Kingdom, based on viewer voting and participation. Two series were broadcast - one in 2001-02 and a second in 2003...
) as his sports agent
Sports agent
A sports agent procures and negotiates employment and endorsement contracts for an athlete.In return, the sports agent generally receives between 4 and 10% of the athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, though these figures vary...
, sealing the links off the field.
Football & Pop Culture in the 1990s
The 1990s was not a successful era for Liverpool, in terms of footballing success, and the group were cast as "nearly men" and failed to oust Manchester United in both the FA CupFA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English football and is the oldest association football competition in the world. The "FA Cup" is run by and named after The Football Association and usually refers to the English men's...
and FA Premier League
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
challenges, winning little in spite of their talent, widely due to a lack of discipline. The label is negative and highlights the players' focusing on partying and clubbing
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
, sports cars, fast women and groupies, fame
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
and hairstyles
Hairstyles
Hairstyles is a title used for international editions of a professional hairdressing magazine originally published in Barcelona, Spain under the name Peluquerias. The founder of the magazine is Spanish hairdresser Lluis Llongueras....
rather than football, making as the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
describes, "inroads in the pages of glossy magazines than in the league table." The term, though harsh, was the media's way of describing the negative side of the manner in which talented English Footballers handled new money and popularity and stardom, which the game of football suddenly brought them in unprecedented levels in the 1990s, compared with the 1980s and before.
In 1997, Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell, CM is a Canadian journalist, bestselling author, and speaker. He is currently based in New York City and has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996...
's landmark article on coolhunting
Coolhunting
Coolhunting is a term coined in the early 1990s referring to a new breed of marketing professionals, called coolhunters. It is their job to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends...
, in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
discussed how the Spice Boys were seen as making the city of Liverpool "cool" because it involved "soccer blokes in the pubs going superdressy and wearing Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana
Dolce & Gabbana is an Italian luxury industry fashion house. The company was started by the Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy. By 2005 their turnover was €597 million....
and Polo Sport and Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
Classics on their feet. It all began in the early 1990s, where photogenic players (not necessarily tagged as Spice Boys yet as the term had not emerged yet) like Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Redknapp
Jamie Frank Redknapp is a retired English footballer who was active from 1989 until 2005. He is now a football pundit with Sky Sports, and an editorial columnist with the Daily Mail....
and Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
emerged as merchandising and mass marketed "poster boys" of the English football game, and fronted many football magazine covers and featured in advertisements. This carried on increasingly through the decade, and many good looking players like David Ginola
David Ginola
David Karl Ginola is a French former international football player who has also worked as an actor and model.Ginola was born in Gassin, Var...
achieved celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
fame
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
on unprecdented levels where certain football stars had become idols
Pop icon
A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The categorization is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, "pop icon" status is distinguishable from...
on par with rock stars and pop stars, by and around the mid-1990s. The Liverpool team of the 1990s seemed to epitomise all the negative combinations of fame and fortune, and because unlike others, were a talented crew with top level potential in the game itself, were criticised for underachievement, and emerged as the face of the label; thus bearing the brunt of the innuendo. More than that however, the Spice boys were noted for also polarising public opinion, as The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
assessed it: "...Group of high-spirited, fun-loving young players who were a central feature of Liverpool's talented and entertaining, but perpetually under-achieving, squad of the Nineties. At least, that's the generous description. Others saw them as just an irresponsible bunch who were a bad influence in the dressing-room and should not be given house room."
Early Criticisms
A lot of the criticism stemmed from perceptions the media and fans had forged about the Liverpool players of the time. Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler gave raunchy "birds, booze and BMWBMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the Mini marque, and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands...
s" interviews to magazines like Loaded
Loaded (magazine)
Loaded, first published in 1994, is a British magazine for men that is considered to be the "original lads' mag". Its motto is "For men who should know better".-History:...
which went down poorly with the media, who labelled them as "scally
Scally
Scallie or Scally, is originally short for Scallywag, but is now most-often used in the context of a slang term for a hooligan youth subculture, similar to "chav", but with different origins. It describes mostly young, "dole class" people....
" and "hedonist" characters shortly after. Meanwhile, Redknapp (who also married pop star
Pop Star
"Pop Star" is a 2005 single from Japanese singer Ken Hirai. The single went on to top the 2005 Oricon Charts and is known for its remarkable music video, featuring Ken in seven different personas, including a raccoon and his own manager. The Video also helped Ken break into the US and Canadian...
Louise Nurding) had already been the face of marketing and already fronted scores of magazines, then stepped up a level when he and James were involved in modelling for Armani. The pair flew over to Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
for catwalk shows, fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
shoots and missed training in the late 1990s, although it is noteworthy that James said the news media blew those exploits completely out of proportion. McAteer was one of the first footballers to appear in hair shampoo
Shampoo
Shampoo is a hair care product used for the removal of oils, dirt, skin particles, dandruff, environmental pollutants and other contaminant particles that gradually build up in hair...
advertisements since Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
, and it seemed a new era was dawning. McAteer did commercials for Head & Shoulders
Head & Shoulders
Head & Shoulders is a brand of anti-dandruff shampoo produced by Procter & Gamble. Head & Shoulders Classic Clean Shampoo is the top-selling shampoo in the United States by dollar sales.- History :...
, and together with Redknapp, appeared in Top Man catalogues, while James also became an official Armani underwear model in 1997. In the 21st century, it is common for football stars to obtain such commercial deals, but in the 1990s, this was seen as unique, and the Spice Boys were criticised because the media and fans saw these new forays as affecting their results and performances on the pitch, leading to large amounts of criticisms in the press.
Scandals and controversies
Neil Ruddock spoke in an interview in 2010, saying he was delighted to be in the "Spice Boys" team because they were "earning tons of money, driving FerrariFerrari
Ferrari S.p.A. is an Italian sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari in 1929, as Scuderia Ferrari, the company sponsored drivers and manufactured race cars before moving into production of street-legal vehicles as Ferrari S.p.A. in 1947...
s and bedding Page 3 girls before anyone else". The reason Ruddock and the Spice Boys could say this, was because it is statistically accurate that the English footballers in the 1990s were earning at least ten times the amount footballers before then had been earning, widely due to the influx of television and revenue streams for the newly revamped and globally marketed, FA Premier League
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
. Players' wages swelled to an average of 10-20,000 pounds a week in those days and was constantly rising each season until the present day. With the new found money and fame, many players had to deal with these issues, but the Spice Boys were notable for their very public controversies related to how they went about it, with Stan Collymore stating in his biography that he believes that the television show Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives
Footballers' Wives is a British television drama surrounding the fictional Premier League Association football club Earls Park F.C., its players, and their wives. It was broadcast on the ITV network from 8 January 2002 to 14 April 2006...
is based on the stereotypes, many of which were perpetuated from the Spice Boys' antics, and that not only are the depictions very accurate, but that the whole show might have been based on the very idea of dramatising the documentation of the rise of footballers' dealing with new found fame and wealth having been thrust into these lifestyles in the first place.
McManaman meanwhile, told FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo
FourFourTwo is a football magazine published by Haymarket. Published monthly, costing £4.50, and at about 164 pages long, it published its 200th edition in February 2011...
magazine that the Spice Boys was based on misconceptions, saying: "The Spice Boys at one time consisted of eight or nine players and the press just used to change the personnel as they fancied. It was unfortunate because when we finished third in the league we got a lot of stick for it. At the time I felt very sorry for some of the lads involved. But it didn't bother me personally as I was playing very good football at the time...When we finished third and people saw us having a laugh and a joke, they thought we didn't care. Nowadays, when you finish third, everyone is thrilled to bits...Everyone's excited about qualifying for the Champions League. Under Roy Evans
Roy Evans
Roy Evans CBE was a Liverpool football player who eventually rose through the coaching ranks to become team manager.-Career:...
we did that a lot, and did it by playing fantastic football, but because there were a few young lads who liked to enjoy themselves at times, people had misconceptions."
The Spice Boys of Liverpool were notable for headlining several scandals covered to great extent in the British Tabloids in the 1990s:
Cup Final cream suits
Perhaps the most defining moment for the players was seen as the 1996 FA Cup Final1996 FA Cup Final
The 1996 FA Cup Final was the 51st to be held at Wembley Stadium after the Second World War and was held between two of the biggest rivals in English football, Manchester United and Liverpool.- Build-up :...
, when the Liverpool stars infamously wore cream Emporio Armani suits and paraded around the pitch prior to kick-off, a game which they went on to lose to rivals Manchester United
Manchester United F.C.
Manchester United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, that plays in the Premier League. Founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, the club changed its name to Manchester United in 1902 and moved to Old Trafford in 1910.The 1958...
. In their defence, McAteer and McManaman both claimed in interviews that they were not doing anything differently from the "lads at Manchester United or Arsenal", but that they were picked on by the media, because of their good looks and because they failed to win the titles and be successful. Robbie Fowler also quipped to the Daily Mirror newspaper about its notoriety in an interview in 2008, 12 years later: "People still remind me about the white suits all the time. It's one of those things - if we had won the game nobody would have mentioned it but we lost and it has become infamous. It was David James' fault we wore white suits, it was his idea. He's bigger than everyone so nobody questioned him and at the time he was an Armani model."
That year, Jamie Redknapp was also castigated by the media and fans for his reputation as chief prima donna
Prima donna
Originally used in opera or Commedia dell'arte companies, "prima donna" is Italian for "first lady." The term was used to designate the leading female singer in the opera company, the person to whom the prime roles would be given. The prima donna was normally, but not necessarily, a soprano...
in the Spice Boys team, and Redknapp said it was his good looks that caused deep resentment, even amongst a small minority of Liverpool's own fans. He said: "Don't get me wrong, the Liverpool fans are the best in the world, but there are always one or two who get on your back. They usually wait for it to go quiet then they shout some horrible abuse at you. When you look at them they are usually the ugliest people in the whole of the ground. I'm sensible enough to know that I'm not everyone's cup of tea but I sometimes think the way I look is my biggest problem. I reckon people find it easier to have a dig at a player with long hair because they think you are a bit of a tart. As for the Spice Boys tag - like hell we are the Spice Boys. Let's face it, the Spice Girls are at the top of their profession and we are still trying to get to the top of ours, so I hardly think it is a good nickname."
However, the Spice boys situation was not helped because they also always seemed to get caught in compromising situations by the media, armed with photos and evidence, and because their reputations meant they were targeted and watched, it only exacerbated the negative publicity.
Vandalism, Humour, Pranks and Orgies
The Spice boys were largely showcased in the media because they involved high profile players, many of whom played for their National Teams, where McManaman and Fowler had already been associated with the drinking games and dentists' chair incident and the trashing of a Cathay PacificCathay Pacific
Cathay Pacific is the flag carrier of Hong Kong, with its head office and main hub located at Hong Kong International Airport, although the airline's registered office is on the 33rd floor of One Pacific Place...
flight cabin with Paul Gascoigne
Paul Gascoigne
Paul John Gascoigne , commonly referred to as Gazza, is a retired English professional footballer.Playing in the position of midfield, Gascoigne's career included spells at Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur, Lazio, Rangers, Middlesbrough, Everton and Gansu Tianma, where he scored at least a goal...
. This media focus meant that players were caught each time they were behaving like this and their behaviour and lack of decorum- such as their antics at the Liverpool Football Club 1998 Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
party with drinking
Drinking
Drinking is the act of consuming water or a beverage through the mouth. Water is required for many of life’s physiological processes. Both excessive and inadequate water intake are associated with health problems.-Physiology:...
, sex toys and stripper
Stripper
A stripper is a professional erotic dancer who performs a contemporary form of striptease at strip club establishments, public exhibitions, and private engagements. Unlike in burlesque, the performer in the modern Americanized form of stripping minimizes the interaction of customer and dancer,...
s (labelled as the "most debauched Christmas party in the world...ever" by The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
) highlighted for the nation their infamy, and got them castigated by the media to such a large degree that it warranted national attention and outcries for lack of discipline and effort, on the basis that these players owed a duty of care to their national team, and that their lack of discipline would affect their professionalism. Older players like Ince and McManaman were also blamed for being a negative influence on the younger stars, like Jamie Carragher
Jamie Carragher
James Lee Duncan "Jamie" Carragher is an English footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League side Liverpool...
, who was photographed stripping his Hunchback of Notre Dame costume and cavorting with a stripper and wielding whipped cream
Whipped cream
Whipped cream is cream that has been beaten by a mixer, whisk, or fork until it is light and fluffy. Whipped cream is often sweetened and sometimes flavored with vanilla, in which case it may be called Chantilly cream or crème Chantilly ....
, before having sex in front of revellers in Liverpool's 1998 costume party- an incident marked by newspaper The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
as one of the top 10 examples of footballers behaving badly. In the aftermath of that notorious night at the Pen & Wig pub, press reports ran stories filled with lurid details of men tearing off their clothes to have full sex in the name of "unwinding" and "festive fun" in front of guests; the obscenity of which shocked the nation and even Liverpool's own fans claimed that Bill Shankly
Bill Shankly
William "Bill" Shankly, OBE was a Scottish football player and manager, most noted for managing Liverpool between 1959 and 1974. One of Britain's most successful and respected football managers, Shankly was also a fine player whose career was interrupted by the Second World War...
's original purpose of Liverpool's Christmas party (to "bond" the players) had been lost in a new generation, focused on debauchery.
Fowler and McManaman were also labelled for being serial pranksters with a scally sense of humour that was not appreciated, reported widely in the media, with reports of them cutting up team mates' shoes, destroying team mates' rooms, and doing pranks at Bisham Abbey
Bisham Abbey
Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the traditional resting place of many Earls of Salisbury...
before live cameras, which did not help their shedding of the negative labels, and earned them a cult following of fans. Fowler was reported in the media for several controversies, some of which were on the pitch- including his sending off during an Under-21 game in Austria for swearing; getting punished by the FA for baring his backside to Leicester fans; and an incident on an Under-21 trip to Portugal when a hotel room shared by Kevin Gallen
Kevin Gallen
Kevin Andrew Gallen is an English professional footballer who is without a club. He most recently played for Braintree Town and is currently working for Queens Park Rangers academy in a youth development role similar to that previously held by his brother Joe Gallen.A former England Under-21...
was damaged, plus an infamous airport punch-up before tabloid cameras with team-mate Neil Ruddock
Neil Ruddock
Neil "Razor" Ruddock is a retired English footballer, who played as a central defender.He made his debut at Millwall , and he had a long career playing for Tottenham Hotspur, Southampton, Liverpool, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and finally a short-lived spell as a player/coach at Swindon Town Neil...
in 1995/96 where Ruddock punched Fowler up for cutting up his 300 pound Gucci
Gucci
The House of Gucci, better known simply as Gucci , is an Italian fashion and leather goods label, part of the Gucci Group, which is owned by French company PPR...
shoes, when Fowler claimed he only did that because he thought Ruddock had instigated players to urinate into his footwear. Ruddock and McAteer meanwhile had also been making several tabloid headlines following a widely reported "Porsche
Porsche
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
incident" involving a coat hanger
Clothes hanger
A clothes hanger, coat hanger or coathanger, is a device in the shape of:* Human shoulders designed to facilitate the hanging of a coat, jacket, sweater, shirt, blouse or dress in a manner that prevents wrinkles, with a lower bar for the hanging of trousers or skirts.* Clamp for the hanging of...
where Ruddock called the police over to McAteer's house to help him with his car, and the police told McAteer to get a coat hanger so they could help him open his car doors as he had locked his keys inside, and he went and brought out a wooden one. McAteer was also notorious for several other such stories that filled the tabloids, including a "pizza" story, where McAteer was asked if he wanted a pizza cut in eights and replied, "Nah, I'm not that hungry, just cut it in fours please," where after which, McAteer obtained a new nickname instead of "Dave"- "Double Trigger" (both based on Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...
characters) for his perceived lack of intelligence.
The Spice Boys were also popular for their tongue in cheek antics that were ahead of their time, with them ranging from anything from having half the squad dye their hair platinum blonde or with blonde highlights as part of summer pranks before the 1996 and 1997 seasons, to antics at horseracing festivals, such as the Cheltenham
Cheltenham
Cheltenham , also known as Cheltenham Spa, is a large spa town and borough in Gloucestershire, on the edge of the Cotswolds in the South-West region of England. It is the home of the flagship race of British steeplechase horse racing, the Gold Cup, the main event of the Cheltenham Festival held...
festival and Aintree
Aintree
Aintree is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside. It lies between Walton and Maghull on the A59 road, about north of Liverpool city centre, in North West England....
, where McManaman and Fowler led the Spice Boys to collectively purchase two thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
s and called them "Some Horse" and "Another Horse", just so they could have a laugh (to the commentator's chagrin) when results and the commentary was broadcast.
On-field issues
In 1996, Ruddock was famously involved in an on-field scuffle with Manchester United star Eric CantonaEric Cantona
Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona is a French actor and former French international footballer. He played for Auxerre, Martigues, Marseille, Bordeaux, Montpellier, Nîmes and Leeds United before ending his professional footballing career at Manchester United, where he won four Premier League titles in...
. Ruddock responded to Cantona's taunts about his weight by turning down the Frenchman's collar (in his after dinner speaking, Ruddock says of the incident- "trust me to pick the only Frenchman around who wanted a tear-up"). Ruddock said in 2011, that Cantona actually made up with him in 1996, by giving him his FA Cup Final shirt in the tunnel after the game, as he must have felt sorry for Ruddock not playing nor winning.
In 1996/97, Ruddock also admitted to deliberately breaking Andrew Cole's two legs in a reserve game between Liverpool and Manchester United in 1996, saying he hated Cole, the violence of which, shocked many fans.
In 1997, Fowler was fined by UEFA
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
for pulling up his shirt after scoring against Brann Bergen, in a European game, to reveal a mock Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein
Calvin Richard Klein is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc. in 1968. In addition to clothing, Klein has also given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and jewelry....
T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
in support of striking Liverpool dockers. McManaman was wearing one, too, and they had agreed between them to swap shirts with the opposition at the end of the game to register their support for the dockers, but subtly.
Fowler and McManaman had also become infamous for pioneering (in the Premiership) several t-shirt related celebrations with political or arrogant slogans such as "God's Job's A Good 'Un",, largely in reference to Fowler's nickname, "god", and, together with a message, the pair would scribble these on t-shirts hidden under their shirts, and unveil them before live television cameras after they scored goals; something unheard of at the time. Fowler and McManaman were infamous for writing on their shirt, a good few years before many other players started imitating them, though manager Roy Evans did threaten to inflict club discipline on them if they continued with it. The trend eventually led to FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
and the Premier league's banning or punishment with a yellow card for the removal of shirt tops during a goal celebration a decade later.
In 1997, a spate of defensive errors in the run in for the 1996-97 FA Premier League title race, saw Liverpool fall away badly having led the league for much of the campaign, with David James earning the nickname "Calamity James" for a series of howlers. James responded by putting down his spate of errors to an overindulgence in playing computer games
Computer Games
"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...
on his Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Playstation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
that in turn affected his concentration, due to his gaming addiction.
In 1999, Fowler celebrated a goal by mimicking the action of snorting cocaine
Cocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
on the goal line, leading the English Football Association to charge him with disciplinary action. Fowler rebutted by saying that he was merely responding to opposition fans from local rivals Everton FC, that had repeatedly taunted him with drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
abuse remarks and even vandalised his home.
Also in 1999, Fowler was charged for deriding fellow England colleague Graeme Le Saux
Graeme Le Saux
Graeme Pierre Le Saux is a retired English footballer of French ancestry who played for the Premier League clubs Chelsea, Blackburn Rovers and Southampton, and for the England national football team. Primarily a left back, he was sometimes also played in midfield or on the left wing.After...
with homosexual taunts on two occasions, with a report detailing Fowler's words- responding to Le Saux's statement about his sexuality, "But I'm married!" with the quip, "So was Elton John
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John, CBE, Hon DMus is an English rock singer-songwriter, composer, pianist and occasional actor...
, mate!" Fowler was fined and banned by the FA for this behaviour, while Paul Ince also joined the stir when he too was penalised for his homophobic taunting of Le Saux during a 1997 Liverpool – Chelsea match- a verdict which resulted in a long running coolness between the two players, despite the fact that Le Saux is not actually gay.
Other Off-field & Image Issues
In 2001, Fowler was assaultAssault
In law, assault is a crime causing a victim to fear violence. The term is often confused with battery, which involves physical contact. The specific meaning of assault varies between countries, but can refer to an act that causes another to apprehend immediate and personal violence, or in the more...
ed and left with a broken nose in a Liverpool nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
for the third time in four years, and though Fowler was hardly at fault in these incidents, the constant media and tabloid exposure to such stories describing off the pitch incidents, affected his reputations and some believe that Fowler's departure from Liverpool and lack of recognition with the England team in latter years were related. Fowler also claimed, largely in controversial circumstances, both in his autobiography and in news reports, that a concerted media attack on him was waged by certain sections of the media, and by certain people who were out to slur his reputation and create an image of a person who was a drug
Drug
A drug, broadly speaking, is any substance that, when absorbed into the body of a living organism, alters normal bodily function. There is no single, precise definition, as there are different meanings in drug control law, government regulations, medicine, and colloquial usage.In pharmacology, a...
abuser, when in fact, he stated, it could not be farther from the truth and that he would never take drugs and knew its effects as he had a relative of his die due to its effects.
Stan Collymore, notorious for failing to turn up for training, refusing to play for the reserve squad, and simply ringing up the coach to inform him he was not showing up meanwhile, claimed he was not one of the Spice boys, and left the club a year after the labelling began, but was still often lumped with the likes of Jamie Redknapp, Jason McAteer and David James even though he constantly attempted to distance himself from associations with them. Collymore famously tried to argue that he was not like the Spice Boys at Liverpool and gave several press interviews where he bashed the Spice Boys culture, saying: "At Liverpool I sometimes felt I had to pretend to be somebody else. If I was out with the lads there, I felt I had to be like a 'Spice Boy' or something to conform to that image. Robbie Fowler and Jamie Redknapp had people around them I imagined were there just because of who they are, the reflected glory thing. I am not confident with that, trying to be something I am not. Collymore's words angered the Spice Boy Liverpool players of the time, who accused Collymore of lying. Collymore constantly then distanced himself from the image of the past, yet however, ironically turned out to be the most outspoken one on the Spice Boys past in the ensuing years: choosing to speak in a Channel Five
Channel Five
Channel 5 is a television network that broadcasts in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1997, it was the fifth and final national terrestrial analogue network to launch. The station was branded as Five between 2002 and 2010...
television show Confessions of a Premiership Footballer in 2004, and once again talking about the extent of the issues at the club at the time in his autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
titled Tackling My Demons, in 2006- on both occasions revealing sordid details about a lack of discipline at the club, hedonistic sexual romps and threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...
s in hotel rooms, and the problems they all faced, stressing his sexual addiction
Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control...
and confessing even to having sex with manager Roy Evans
Roy Evans
Roy Evans CBE was a Liverpool football player who eventually rose through the coaching ranks to become team manager.-Career:...
' daughter while the manager was next door in a Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
hotel where the team was staying, on the night of the 1996 FA Cup Final.
Break Up & Later Revelations
Whilst not nearly as controversial, the other "Spice Boys" had left Liverpool too by 2000/01, as new Liverpool coach Gerard HoullierGérard Houllier
Gérard Houllier, OBE , is a French football manager, who was last manager of Premier League club Aston Villa. He stepped down on 1 June 2011, following hospitalisation over heart problems towards the end of the 2010-2011 season....
undertook a radical reordering of the club and slowly transferred most of the Spice Boys out of the squad. Yet, the Spice Boys remained in the public spotlight, and had a different set of problems to cope with. That year, McManaman and Fowler were reported to have gone out drinking late, the night before an England game, and this was reported in all the media as a betrayal of duty and role model leadership example setting, and an affront to the honour of playing for England. However, Robbie Fowler and McManaman both claimed in their biographies that the media had made a mistake based on the past innuendoes they had associated them with, and they had merely gone out for dinner that night, though it is widely believed that their collective lack of squad selection in the England setup, was directly correlated to their Spice Boy image of the past. It is widely believed that controversies like these, regardless of the players' claims to innocence, did nothing to help the public image of both the players and their club, as well as the game of football's reputation. The fact that these controversies arose constantly in the national media concerning the Spice Boys shaped public opinion, and arguably affected the players' England and club careers.
Former Liverpool defender and senior player to the Spice Boys team of the time, Mark Wright, slated the Spice Boys, saying the tag caused them to fail: "I think they liked the tag. Some of them were good-looking lads. They revelled in it and they were having fun. They thought they could just switch it on on the football field and that doesn't happen. Of course the rest of us had nights out but I think some people forget how lucky they are to play for Liverpool and some of them took it for granted." Others have suggested that such stories have led to an accountability and discipline failure both at Liverpool's management and club level on its players. Renowned Liverpool journalists like Paul Tomkins, Tony Evans, Tony Barrett and the like have been critical of the Spice Boys, saying their tomfoolery was linked to their priorities to make money and have fun in the game, and their tendency to "wash up and head on the highway to London" each Saturday after games.Mick McCarthy
Mick McCarthy
Michael Joseph "Mick" McCarthy is an English-born former Irish international footballer who is currently the manager of Premier League club Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he has been in charge since July 2006....
famously told of how he bumped into half the squad at the airport on the same flight to London having just also come from watching the very game they were playing in, saying it was only possible if they must have skipped a post-match talk, and headed straight for the airport. Widely spread stories of players playing games like "pass the pound" (where players allegedly passed a coin to each other during Premiership matches and the player who ended up with the coin by the 90th minute would have to buy drinks at the pub after) did not go down well with the media. Further stories of players deliberately parking their sports and luxury cars in the manager's parking space, writing cheques and placing it on the manager's table for a laugh (after directly asking the manager how much the fine was for missing training), or, of burning pound bills as part of "dares" in the pubs in front of fans, upset the Merseyside media further, with Daily Mirror reporter Brian Reade
Brian Reade
Brian Reade is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author who has two weekly opinion columns, one on sports, for the Daily Mirror. He was born in Wavertree and grew up in Huyton attending De La Salle School in Croxteth. He has interviewed many well-known people including Mohammed Ali and...
also heartbreakingly noting in his book, 43 Years With The Same Bird
43 Years With The Same Bird
43 years with the same bird is a book written by Daily Mirror columnist Brian Reade. It documents his life-long following of Liverpool F.C..- References :...
, that one of the final straws was when some of the Spice Boys mocked Roy Evans' tears (for the sake of a laugh) on the day he resigned. Many of these revelations left many fans upset with the state of the 1990s team's attitude, and justifying for them, Gerard Houllier
Gérard Houllier
Gérard Houllier, OBE , is a French football manager, who was last manager of Premier League club Aston Villa. He stepped down on 1 June 2011, following hospitalisation over heart problems towards the end of the 2010-2011 season....
's continental revolution of the early 2000s.
Latter Years & Players' Reflections
Even the players themselves were open about their own admissions, where Stan Collymore himself described the lack of authoritative respect for the management of the club, with the likes of players walking out of training when they did not agree with the regimen for the day, of players like Ruddock dousing himself with water just before the physio returned so as to pretend to have "trained", or of players like Fowler just playfully grabbing a hold of manager Roy Evans before gripping him in an armlock and then ruffling up his hair- ultimately saying that such behaviour would never happen under Alex Ferguson and that this summed up the difference between the talents on both sides and how they ended up. Doubtlessly, such stories led to some outcries of lack of effort and letting down the Liverpool fans by taking the club and the fans for granted.McManaman and Redknapp, however, had a different view for their lack of success, stating that it was not so much about the discipline, but that they had ran into a very good Manchester United side at the time, that was the reason for their lack of silverware in the 1990s. Redknapp said: “United were incredible. They had a crop of players that would never ever happen again: Nicky Butt, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, the Neville brothers, Paul Scholes, one of the best footballers of any generation. That United team came through at the same time as us and we were always second best to them. That's how it is sometimes.”
In 2004, several of the Spice boys of the ex-Liverpool team found themselves reunited at Manchester City FC, under ex-Liverpool legend, Kevin Keegan
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan, OBE is a former international footballer and former manager of the England national football team and several English clubs, most notably Newcastle United....
, and the media were quick to point out that the "Spice Boys were reuniting", but Kevin Keegan refused to comment and David James told reporters they had become "old spice": 'We may as well get the Spice Boys nonsense dealt with right from the start because I get the feeling it might be mentioned in a few headlines. Even if it was justified in the first place, and I don't think it was, it is now ancient history. Call us Old Spice.' That year, McManaman and Fowler also got caught up in a sex scandal with a single mother of three, after a failed attempt at obtaining an injunction, with facts emerging in the case that suggested that the pair had well rehearsed their routine of getting the woman in bed, with her saying: "They think they are gods, but they're vultures," which then led to a naming and shaming scandal for both players, that further tainted their reputations.
In 2005, Robbie Fowler responded by summing up the trappings and mistakes he made, and whilst he did not deny nor excuse the Spice Boys' behaviour, he explained the situation as part of "growing up", to the Guardian
Guardian
-In the United Kingdom:* The Guardian, founded in 1821 as the Manchester Guardian and renamed in 1959* The Guardian , founded in 1713 and running only briefly...
newspaper, saying it was only going to get worse with future generations of footballers: "When you're a teenager from inner-city Liverpool, you don't have any training on how to deal with the sideshow that comes with success. 'I've made plenty of mistakes, I know I have, and during my time as a footballer things have changed so that the spotlight is now even more intense. You have to be even more of a role model, a sensible, mature, intelligent professional, even if you're a cheeky little lad who's come from an inner-city council estate and put football before his studies...It strikes me that these days, clubs don't even want players who can truly play any more; they just want athletes, quick guys who don't have a football brain, can just run and run; some of them, Jesus. I can never imagine acting like that. Have a laugh, yeah, dick about, but don't give it the Charlie Big Bollocks. It's inevitable now, because everyone is a superstar, even if they're just an average player, and maybe that was part of the process set in motion when I signed that contract in 1994."
In 2011, Dominic Matteo also explained this behaviour by the team of the 1990s (in his autobiography), as a result of the "traps" that befell many players from the era, saying: "I think lots of players from my era will read the book and relate to what I am saying. It was a time when there was lots of money flying about. Add that to the spare time a player has, and it is easy to fall into the traps I did."
Also in 2011, due to widely fired protests by Liverpool fans regarding the antics that the Spice Boys were accused of, Neil Ruddock appeared on LFCTV's 60 Minutes, the club's official website television program, and categorically said that the game of "pass the pound" exclusively took place only during training, and not in competitive games. Some fans however, highlighted that this was in stark contrast to what Ruddock had ghost written in his own autobiography years earlier where it was recorded that "pass the pound" took place during competitive matches "for a laugh", because it was there that the revelations came to light in the first place. The issue continues to upset or cause dissension amongst Liverpool fans till today, who are eager to find a scapegoat for the failures of the 1990s.
In 2011, the Spice Boys of Liverpool were listed alongside some of the most widely known scandal hit footballers in the world, in a list of the Top 50 Most Controversial Players of All Time.
Changing football culture
At the time the Spice Boys emerged, certain players like Lee SharpeLee Sharpe
Lee Stuart Sharpe is an English former footballer. Predominantly a left winger, Sharpe joined Manchester United from Torquay United as a youngster in 1988, playing for the club up until 1996...
, Jamie Redknapp and Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs
Ryan Joseph Giggs OBE is a Welsh professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. Giggs made his first appearance for the club during the 1990–91 season and has been a regular player since the 1991–92 season...
had become icons in football already, and football stars had become idols
Pop icon
A pop icon is a celebrity, character, or object whose exposure in pop culture constitutes a defining characteristic of a given society or era. The categorization is usually associated with elements such as longevity, ubiquity, and distinction. Moreover, "pop icon" status is distinguishable from...
on par with rock stars and pop stars, in and around the mid- to late 1990s. Though this trend has largely carried on and is normative
Normative
Normative has specialized contextual meanings in several academic disciplines. Generically, it means relating to an ideal standard or model. In practice, it has strong connotations of relating to a typical standard or model ....
in football these days and where it is common for modern day footballers to be associated with scandal, women and drinking culture, the reason why the Spice Boys are notable is largely down to the fact that they were doing this en masse in the public eye for the first time, and a good decade before concepts of footballers exploiting their fame, getting caught up in scandal and doing modelling became mainstream media material and widely accepted in football culture. The obsession with celebrity
Celebrity
A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...
, fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
and hairstyles
Hairstyles
Hairstyles is a title used for international editions of a professional hairdressing magazine originally published in Barcelona, Spain under the name Peluquerias. The founder of the magazine is Spanish hairdresser Lluis Llongueras....
also raised a new side to footballers as icons, a decade before the era of the metrosexual
Metrosexual
Metrosexual is a neologism derived from metropolitan and heterosexual coined in 1994 describing a man who spends a lot of time and money on shopping for his appearance...
and several years before the rise of David Beckham
David Beckham
David Robert Joseph Beckham, OBE is an English footballer who plays midfield for Los Angeles Galaxy in Major League Soccer, having previously played for Manchester United, Preston North End, Real Madrid, and A.C...
, and a decade before the rise of Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, OIH, , commonly known as Cristiano Ronaldo, is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger or striker for Spanish La Liga club Real Madrid and is the captain of the Portuguese national team...
and the era of the marketed footballing fashion icon.
Usage today
In recent times, the term has become a conjectural phrase associated with humour today, rather than pejorative innuendo, and has even seen fans of the popular social networking site FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, launch an application for it.