I’m an ex-Premier League star… the manager said I wasn’t playing so I went into the stands and bet on the opposition
A FORMER Premier League star has admitted that when he wasn’t playing he would go into the stands and bet on the opposition.
Steven Caulker, 31, currently plays in the Championship for Wigan Athletic.
The now-Sierra Leone international formerly starred in the Premier League for sides like Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton.
And he has now bravely opened out on his issues with gambling on the Under the Cosh podcast.
Caulker spoke about being dropped for the opening game of the season against Newcastle by the then Spurs manager Andre Villas-Boas.
The ex-Prem ace ended up in the stands despite him claiming the Portuguese gaffer reassured him he was “one of his three-centre backs” in the summer.
He said: “Straight away that rage I was talking about, I went straight upstairs and said, ‘F*** it, I bet on Newcastle to win’.
“That was where I was at. It was stupid, my head was just full of rage.
“I was sat there thinking, these are my teammates, I want them to win but my bet…and that’s where I realise I was immature.
“It was the heat of the moment and I lashed out”
And the former Spurs star admits that his impulsive behaviour would not have flown in today’s game.
But he says that he now understands his mistakes through “perspective” and describes his actions as leading to “missed opportunities”.
Caulker emerged from Tottenham’s academy as a 19-year-old in 2010, and began competing for a place in the first team during the 2012/13 season.
The centre-back, who scored in his only appearance for England, spent four years at Loftus Road with QPR.
He also enjoyed top-flight spells with Swansea and Cardiff.
And his travels even took him as far as Turkey, where he played for four different sides.
After a brief stint in Scotland with Dundee, Caulker moved to Turkey where he had successes with Alanyaspor and Gaziantep before eventually moving back to the UK earlier this year to sign for Wigan.
It comes as the centre-back admitted that his personal battles when being dropped also involved binging on alcohol.
Caulker admits he did not take well to rejection while at Spurs, turning to drink whenever he failed to make the team.
His binges were so extreme he would often wake up in police custody, in hospital, or even “covered in blood” on the street.
And post-drinking anxiety affected him so badly that he often turned to booze again, going so far as to arrive at training still drunk before “throwing up in the toilets.”