More often than not they are castigated for being so highly paid

More often than not, they are castigated for being so highly paid, as if the rest of us would say an honourable no to 70 grand a week. And I hope that he will respond in appropriate fashion to these latest reports about his lifestyle, by miming somebody exchanging contracts on a property deal.Meanwhile, let’s present a case for the defence of young men paid laughably huge salaries, whose working week is generally limited to five mornings, one afternoon, and perhaps the odd evening. In a match between Liverpool and Everton a few years ago, Fowler responded to taunts from the Everton fans over reports he was a user of hard drugs, celebrating a goal by running to the nearest white line where he simulated the snorting of cocaine.Even as an Everton fan, I found his subsequent vilification absurdly pious. There was a question not asked, but strongly implied, in the Sunday newspaper story about the rise of footballers as property tycoons, which was: by what right has Fowler, who “grew up in Toxteth, then one of the poorest areas of Liverpool”, become a landlord on such a huge scale?Inevitably, there was also a reference to one of his biggest on-pitch misdemeanours. But Bremner had been challenged to explain this phenomenon of footballers buying houses, and gave it his best shot.What he should have said is that top footballers are becoming engulfed by a rising tide of snobbery, condescension and envy.

It is not, on the face of it, an interesting or enlightening comment It’s pretty dull as well. Robbie Fowler apparently owns at least six houses in Limeside Road, Oldham, and nine in Burder Street. The animal!”Many players have got involved in buying up property to let out because of the strong recent performance of the housing market,” said Des Bremner, managing director of the Professional Footballers’ Association’s financial advice team. Besides, when they haven’t been allegedly gang-raping convent girls, they’ve been all but defecating on the cross of St George, threatening not to play for England out of misplaced loyalty to a stupid colleague who forgot to pee into a bottle. And if all that were not enough, it now emerges that they have been rapaciously accumulating huge swaths of housing. In recent weeks they have had roughly the same press as Vikings, who at least had an excuse for all that rape and pillage.

They had to keep warm somehow.But footballers have no excuse for the raping and pillaging, which reportedly they are doing for all they are worth And that, in some cases, is upwards of £70,000 per week. Furthermore, “insiders say post-match dressing room conversations – traditionally dominated by cars, women and nights out – now also often revolve around the merits of different property locations, mortgage rates and housing developments.”
I love the use of the word “insider”, which suggests a furtive rendezvous in a multistorey carpark late at night. “You didn’t get this from me, right,” says the shadowy Deep Throat-figure to the journalist, “but after the Man City v Bolton Wanderers match today there were two players in the shower talking about the cost of conveyancing.”It is time to give highly paid footballers a break. Rather than being dismissive of them, he should be thankful.Andreas Whittam Smith is First Church Estates Commissioner He was the founding editor of ‘The Independent’
More from Andreas Whittam Smith. What are we to make of the story, reported at length in at least one Sunday newspaper, that several Premiership footballers are building up vast property portfolios? The Manchester City striker Robbie Fowler, formerly of Leeds United and Liverpool, is reportedly one of Britain’s biggest “amateur” landlords, with more than 80 properties ranging from terraced houses in Oldham to luxury flats in Airdrie. Mr Green should remember that the people who own his company have made him a very rich man.