Footballers and their pubs

It used to be that becoming a publican was a standard career path for aging footballers and rugby players. We get the impression that’s much less likely to happen in the 21st century. Footballers running pubs used to be newsworthy, as in this from the Walsall Free Press and General Advertiser for Saturday 29 June 1901: A FOOTBALLER PUBLICAN. The license of the Red Lion Inn, Leamore, Bloxwich, was transferred from William Booker to Charles Arrowsmith (the well-known Aston Villa right wing forward). Or this from the Runcorn Weekly News for Friday 4 November 1938: Footballer Publican Jack Arkwright, the Rugby League international, has followed the example of Nat Silcork, the Widnes international, and many other Rugby League footballers in becoming a publican. He has taken over the licence of the Boilermakers’ Arms, Sutton, a district where he was brought up and first started to play football. A 1992 article from the Portsmouth Evening News titled ‘Pompey’s Pub Landlords’ lists six…