Leeds United’s former Middlesbrough striker Patrick Bamford has spoken of the unusual habit of his former teammate whilst playing for the Teesside club.
In the season Boro were last in the top flight in 2016/17, Bamford, who had joined from Chelsea played alongside former Manchester City and Espanyol forward Alvaro Negredo. The Spanish international, often referred to as ‘The beast’, had a seemingly unknown mid-match ritual that involved hiding in the shower.
Half-time habit
In a video posted on Twitter by BBC Radio Tees Sport, Patrick Bamford is seen speaking about his footballing experiences with comedian Joe Wilkinson. Through bouts of laughter, Bamford asks Wilkinson if he can remember Alvaro Negredo, then proceeds to recall his ritual. He said, “Unbelievable player, like his left-foot was ridiculous. But I remember one time, I don’t know whether it was in the cup, but it was a small changing room. At half-time, like he’d normally do it anyway, but he’d gone off and hid in the showers to have a fag.”
With Joe Wilkinson in disbelief, Bamford, just about composing himself continued, “Obviously, in the small changing room, it’s just filtering straight back into the room.”
It is not the first tale of players smoking, and probably won’t be the last, but it is certainly a habit that is frowned upon much more these days as a player’s athleticism is paramount to their trade, especially with the stats and science present in today’s sports industry.
Fans may remember the constant stream of tabloid reports featuring Jack Wilshere, whose Arsenal days seemed to be littered with smoking related fall-outs with Arsene Wenger. There have been plenty of high profile players who not only lit up stadiums, but cigarettes and cigars too.
Negredo was statement signing
Middlesbrough only managed one season in the Premier League following their promotion in 2016. Striker Alvaro Negredo was very much a statement signing, but unfortunately, both he and the rest of the squad were unable to prevent them slipping straight back down into the second tier.
Negredo did perform pretty well in what you would have to say was a very defensively-minded Aitor Karanka side. It would be harsh to criticise Karanaka for that approach though, especially given that defence was the very foundation he had built such a solid and successful team that earned automatic promotion from the Championship.
Negredo bagged 10 goals overall that season and showed exactly why he was brought to England first time round with City, but it was not enough to save Boro from relegation.