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The secret lives – and hilarious stories – of football's player liaison officers

The popular perception of professional footballers as pampered prima donnas is over-simplistic and wrong... except when it isn’t. Meet the player liaisons who must cater to their every whim

The judgement that rained down upon them was Old Testament Biblical in its fury. England had been eliminated from Euro 2016 by Iceland, and the nation’s pundits – expert or otherwise – sharpened their tongues against all of the players involved.

Radio rager Danny Baker went bananas about “useless, over-indulged, mollycoddled sh*ts”. Rent-a-gob Julia Hartley-Brewer, who should perhaps invest in a dictionary, fumed about them being “overpaid nonces”.