fifthcolumnblue
Vital Football Legend
A lot of footballers fall into the trap of having too much time and too much money.
You have to feel sorry for anyone who has squandered so much cash on absolutely nothing.
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At United it was £60k, Newcastle £1.2m and £3.9m at Blackburn... I gambled away at least £7m, admits Gillespie
Former Manchester United and Newcastle winger Keith Gillespie has revealed how he gambled away more than £7million during his 17-year career.
The 38-year-old - now retired - has lifted the lid on his gambling addiction in his new autobiography How Not To Be A Football Millionaire, serialised in the Daily Mirror.
Gillespie revealed he sat down one afternoon and worked out how much he had blown, and the results were staggering.
'Working out the bonuses was the hard part - the signing-on fees, the appearance money, the inducements', Gillespie told the Daily Mirror's Oliver Holt.
'At Newcastle, we received £50,000 a head for coming second in the league, which was huge money in 1996.
By the time I moved onto Blackburn, the globalisation of the Premier League had inflated the wages and the incentives. We earned £1,500 per league point, so two wins on the trot could be worth an extra £9,000.
'And if you scored a few goals along the way, it helped.So, the calculations took a while.
'Eventually, we reached a club by club consensus. It went like this... Manchester United £60,000, Newcastle £1,102,000 (plus £250,000 in bonuses), Blackburn £3,510,000 (plus £400,000 in bonuses), Leicester £1,050,000 (plus £40,000 in bonuses), Sheffield United £670,000 (plus £75,000 in bonuses), Bradford £15,000, Glentoran £43,875, Total £7,215,875. A substantial amount of cash, eh?
'And that's only a conservative sketch of the incomings. It doesn't include boot deals, promotional appearances, Northern Ireland match fees, libel settlements and all the other elements that come with the territory.'
Gillespie earned 86 caps for Northern Ireland between 1994 and 1998 and played for Blackburn, Leicester and Sheffield United in the Premier League as well as Manchester United and Newcastle
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2431548/Former-Newcastle-winger-Keith-Gillespie-I-gambled-away-7m.html
You have to feel sorry for anyone who has squandered so much cash on absolutely nothing.
-----
At United it was £60k, Newcastle £1.2m and £3.9m at Blackburn... I gambled away at least £7m, admits Gillespie
Former Manchester United and Newcastle winger Keith Gillespie has revealed how he gambled away more than £7million during his 17-year career.
The 38-year-old - now retired - has lifted the lid on his gambling addiction in his new autobiography How Not To Be A Football Millionaire, serialised in the Daily Mirror.
Gillespie revealed he sat down one afternoon and worked out how much he had blown, and the results were staggering.
'Working out the bonuses was the hard part - the signing-on fees, the appearance money, the inducements', Gillespie told the Daily Mirror's Oliver Holt.
'At Newcastle, we received £50,000 a head for coming second in the league, which was huge money in 1996.
By the time I moved onto Blackburn, the globalisation of the Premier League had inflated the wages and the incentives. We earned £1,500 per league point, so two wins on the trot could be worth an extra £9,000.
'And if you scored a few goals along the way, it helped.So, the calculations took a while.
'Eventually, we reached a club by club consensus. It went like this... Manchester United £60,000, Newcastle £1,102,000 (plus £250,000 in bonuses), Blackburn £3,510,000 (plus £400,000 in bonuses), Leicester £1,050,000 (plus £40,000 in bonuses), Sheffield United £670,000 (plus £75,000 in bonuses), Bradford £15,000, Glentoran £43,875, Total £7,215,875. A substantial amount of cash, eh?
'And that's only a conservative sketch of the incomings. It doesn't include boot deals, promotional appearances, Northern Ireland match fees, libel settlements and all the other elements that come with the territory.'
Gillespie earned 86 caps for Northern Ireland between 1994 and 1998 and played for Blackburn, Leicester and Sheffield United in the Premier League as well as Manchester United and Newcastle
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2431548/Former-Newcastle-winger-Keith-Gillespie-I-gambled-away-7m.html
