Nice and Not Nice

[The Great Mass Debater]

My other half reads DigitalSpy. One of the things they have is a Nice and Not Nice thread, where people post when they have met certain celebrities in person, and who has been nice, and who has really been vile.

Not sure if it would work as I dont know how many people come across people in football in real life, but maybe we could have something like that here? Might be interesting.

Have you ever met anyone from the world of football (doesnt have to be Norwich related) and what were they like? 

Only example I can think of myself is when I have tried to get autographs or I have written.

I went to Norwich V Inter Milan and the entire Inter side totally ignored the Norwich fans hoping to get an autograph, all except Roberto Mancini. He made a point of acknowledging the fans and signing a few programmes. He gained my respect for that.

Also, when I was a little boy, Mark Robins signed my programme and John Deehan hung around because he thought I wanted him to, but I didnt have a pen, but he didnt ignore me. I wrote to both Deehan and Jeremy Goss when I was a boy too, and both wrote me lovely letters back. Goss's was hand-written, Deehan's was a club letter I think, but it seemed to be him who wrote it.

Not very interesting, but thats all I've got!

Hoping for better contributions

 

[Din]

Met both Alex Tettey and Fraser Forster in Morrisons before. They were both nice. Also met Dion Dublin who was obviously nice as well.

I've also met Robert Eagle, but can't remember what he was like. Which is a bit of a metaphor for his playing career tbh.

 

[Suffolk Canary]

I  met Kammy in the Lions Club car park a couple seasons ago.  I don't know if he was late or just in a bad mood, but he was a right grumpy a***hole.  He made it very apparent that he wasn't in the mood to have a picture (i got one anyway).  I wouldve understood if there was a 100-long queue to meet him but there was no one else about! 

But i met him again at Villa away (the 1-1) and he was a bit nicer.  

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Oh and I've met Huckerby in the city a few times.  Great guy, always seems happy to chat to fans 

 

[Din]

Also, Adrian Forbes lives down my road, and Elliott Bennett lives the next road down from me. As did Leroy Fer when he was here. Never spoke to any of them though I just thought I'd say that.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Update: On telling my other half I had honoured her with a thread inspired by her she has told me of her own experiences.

She met John Barnes at Barbados Airport, agreed to pose for a photo but was a grumpy git. Also she met Harry Redknapp at the same location - didnt speak to him personally but observed his interactions with other people and seemed a nice guy.

Met Ron Atkinson on the next table at a restaurant in Tenerife - very friendly, talking about how he was missing a big storyline on Emmerdale! 

Saw Kammy at Donny races, was ok, not overly friendly, not really like his TV persona

 

[crabbycanary]

Had Phil Neal staying at same hotel once, but he kept on looking at himself in the mirrors

When on honeymoon (during Euro 96) we had Sasa Curcic, and Savo Milosevic also staying at the hotel, and when we England fans congregated to watch the England games, they came and sat with us all, cheering England on

 

[Gorlestongirl]

My daughter worked at Yellows when she was a student, mainly in the Roeder era. She really liked Delia and Michael Wynn Jones, who were friendly and liked that she knew a bit about wine! She once waited on the whole first team squad and coaches, including Roeder. She was treated with distain or ignored by the lot except David Marshall, who was a real gentleman, apparently and made a point of thanking the waiting staff at the end of the meal.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

She also says Owen Hargreaves messaged her on Facebook once to ask her about Arcade Fire. He never messaged her back after that though

 

[morty]

Not some kind of stalker, I just live and drink in the fine city, and used to take the kids autograph hunting.

Met Worthington, Delia, Huckerby, Dion, Eadie, Ruddy, Iwan, Rob Green, Gary Doherty struggling to think of more but there probably is.

Oh and went to a few player of the season dinners where shared a table with Mark Barham and Paul Gallagher (Him and his wife were completely lovely)

All of them were great. I see Iwan round the city a lot, he is probably the friendliest of them all.

 

[Fenway Frank]

Craig Flemings a nice bloke too

 

[Safri15]

My mates went to a festival a year or so ago and met Dion Dublin (promoting his sound box invention or something of the like). They proceeded to ring me and say they were with Dion and passed the phone over to him to say hello. My mates were all pretty drunk so I didn't believe a word of this and assumed it was all a wind up. I proceeded to be quite horrible to Dion, not believing it was him, telling him to F off etc etc and that I'm not buying onto the joke. About 10 minutes later a picture message popped through with my mates, arms around Dion. I felt really bad, got them to get him back on the phone so I could apologise. Tongue in cheek Dion can back on and hurled me some abuse back, in a friendly jokey manner. Was a good laugh looking back at it.

Other than this, I met the whole Man Utd team (when they were good  Talking the Nevilles, Butt, Scholes, Teddy etc) as they trained at Bisham Abbey when playing in London and that was my local squash club. The whole team stayed out to sign autographs for everyone, except David Beckham, he went straight onto the coach and wouldn't interact with anyone.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

My mates went to a festival a year or so ago and met Dion Dublin (promoting his sound box invention or something of the like). They proceeded to ring me and say they were with Dion and passed the phone over to him to say hello. My mates were all pretty drunk so I didn't believe a word of this and assumed it was all a wind up. I proceeded to be quite horrible to Dion, not believing it was him, telling him to F off etc etc and that I'm not buying onto the joke. About 10 minutes later a picture message popped through with my mates, arms around Dion. I felt really bad, got them to get him back on the phone so I could apologise. Tongue in cheek Dion can back on and hurled me some abuse back, in a friendly jokey manner. Was a good laugh looking back at it.

Other than this, I met the whole Man Utd team (when they were good  Talking the Nevilles, Butt, Scholes, Teddy etc) as they trained at Bisham Abbey when playing in London and that was my local squash club. The whole team stayed out to sign autographs for everyone, except David Beckham, he went straight onto the coach and wouldn't interact with anyone.

That surprises me about Beckham - interesting 

 

[Fenway Frank]

I found Jerry Goss a bit of an odd bloke. Nothing wrong with him as such, polite and quite articulate but he didn't seem to have any affinity with the club. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to walk around in a replica shirt !

 

[Matt Gascoine]

I worked in a large hotel near an airport in Norwich and met loads of "stars"

 but as far as the Norwich players past and present;

Huckerby- a complete Arse unless you were a woman or worshiping him ( sorry loved him as a player)

Michal Nelson; really nice bloke

Wes Hoolahan; funny guy (likes to do back flips but vomits if he eats a little fish)

Eadie, Sutton, Iwan; all very chatty

 Yobo; Grumpy

as for other people

Girls aloud; make up does wonders

Jon Thaxton; I dislike this man a lot

Frank Bruno; gentleman and one hell of a laugh

Kathrine Jenkins; wow easily the most naturally bootiful women i have ever met.

I could add many more but they are the ones at the front of my mind

 

[Din]

Wes Hoolahan; (vomits if he eats a little fish)

How did you even find that out?

 

[Matt Gascoine]

Footballers party at the hotel

 

[Dubai Mark]

I have been lucky to have met a few old timers over here at a couple of functions over the years....

Chris Waddle - great guy, very chatty

Paul Gasgoine - was with Waddle who was looking after him. Gazza was charming, a little drunk (No surprise) said yes to every request for a photo or autograph, buy anyone a drink..... and Chris Waddle told me that was his problem, as so many people take advantage of him. 

Ian Rush - very friendly,loves to share a few stories

Viv Anderson - big head

Ruel Fox - really nice guy

Lee Sharpe - another nice guy, was with Abbie Titmus at the time, actually very sassy lady in the flesh

There were others too I have been fortunate to meet....including Hucks a few times when I occasionally go in the hospitality at Carrow Road, dont get me wrong a real legend, but little personality and not a natural people person....unlike Phil Hoadley who is one of the match day hosts alongside Hucks, a great bloke, time for everyone!

 

[Canaryboy]

Mike Milligan, very drunk in a pub. Lovely bloke.

Entire Arbroath squad in Tenerife. Doesn't really count because they are part-timers with real jobs, but they were a good laugh. Also all very drunk.

I'll refrain from sharing my "not nice" ones, could mention a few.

 

[Canaryboy]

I've actually got a story that I'd love to tell about an encounter I had with a few Norwich players from that era, but I won't put that in text because I can't afford to get myself sued.

Also, Alex Notman very pleasant chap (met whilst he was trying to recover from that career ending injury).