The crack about Garry O'Connor

When I was a kid I used to love imagining that I would be a professional footballer. Sometimes I still do, usually when I see Gary Caldwell playing for Scotland. Even then, just as now, I couldn't understand why a professional footballer, an athlete, wouldn't make the fairly benign (to me) sacrifices required to become the best you can be; a good diet, dedication to fitness, avoidance of illicit substances, keeping dodgy acquaintances at arms length. If you're being paid a five-figure sum every week, it seems like the least that can be expected of you. Some of those who have the potential to be greats embrace it as a way of life; they are those who become Zidane, or Messi, or, for all his chav-like behaviour on the pitch, Wayne Rooney. There are plenty who, as teenagers, seem only a little above ordinary, but who dedicate themselves to becoming the very best they can be. Sadly, there appear to be very few Scots who fall into the latter category (there are, of course, none in the former either). Depressingly, Garry O'Connor instead appears destined for enshrinement in the ranks of the Might Have Beens. O'Connor was good enough to be capped by Scotland as long ago as May 2002, within a month of turning 19. Yes, it was during the Vogts era of the national team, when there were so few credible options up front that a hat trick in Aberdeen's Wednesday afternoon student league had the potential to attract a call up. But still, even as a teenager O'Connor attracted attention, not least because of his burly 6ft 1in frame. Even as a teenager he proved capable of leading the line for Hibs as a lone striker. He had the odd scrape here and there (I'm sure I remember TV evidence being used to retrospectively ban him for violent conduct once) but by 2005-06, under Tony Mowbray and part of a generation that some optimists felt might go on to provide Scotland's backbone for a generation - Steven Whittaker Scott Brown, Kevin Thomson, Derek Riordan - O'Connor did enough to be the first to earn The Big Move. It wasn't just any move; if the £1.6 million fee raised one or two eyebrows, the destination caused rather more jaws to drop; Lokomotiv Moscow. The wrong move? Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but while it is a lazy stereotype to say that British players tend to struggle playing in foreign leagues, it does also seem to be true more often than not. O'Connor started well, scoring on his debut, but he struggled to settle and was in and out of the team. The move didn't seem to do much harm to his career - Birmingham City paid £2.2 million for him just over a year later - and it certainly didn't harm his bank account either, what with a £16,000 weekly wage in Russia, plus, I presume, hefty signing-on fees. But that Birmingham move was all the way back in the summer of 2007. What happened in the four and a bit years since then? Well, you'd have to have hidden under a rock to have missed the revelations on TV this week regarding how O'Connor served a ban in secret after testing positive for cocaine. Sadly, he doesn't appear to have learned his lesson, having been arrested in May in Edinburgh on charges of cocaine possession; last week it emerged that allegations of trying to run away from the police and of having molested a female police officer are part of this case. At the time of the incident he was without a club, and might have considered himself lucky that Hibs offered him the chance to return to Easter Road. After today, when it was revealed he is now facing a charge of fraud related to an insurance claim over an accident involving his £100,000 Ferrari, he must be incredibly relieved that he already has an employer - an employer in such a crisis that they can't afford not to stand by him. And on the pitch? Er...not very much has happened. Nine goals in three and a half years at Birmingham. Only one cap since 2007. A brief resurgence in form since his return to Hibs, which in fact led to calls for an international recall earlier this month...which probably won't be repeated in a hurry. What a waste. O'Connor would never have been a Wayne Rooney, but he could have been good enough to be a good Premier League striker, and certainly good enough to win far more than sixteen caps. I don't know much about the legal system, but I wonder whether he may be at risk of a custodial sentence if he is found guilty on at least one of the above charges. What a waste. Of course, he might not see it that way; there is that well-known anecdote about the bellboy who delivered champagne to George Best's hotel room, and found him entertaining a scantily clad beauty queen with his bed covered in thousands of pounds of casino winnings, who asked 'Where did it all go wrong?'. Maybe, having probably earned enough to set his family up for life, even at the age of 28, Garry O'Connor thinks the same way. L.