Former Forest, Derby and Villa waster Gary Charles is behind bars after failing to control his self-confessed alcoholism. The twice-capped rightback flirted with prison after attacking a woman in a taxi-rank earlier in the year – and was warned that any similar types of offence would lead to a spell inside. Instead he had a community service order which he fulfilled.
Unfortunately, his self-control was about as good as the dodgy performances I remember from him in a Forest shirt, he got pissed again earlier this month and threatened a doorman for reasons as yet undermined. The judge said “There really does come a time when the police and everyone else has to have a rest from Gary Charles. I hope it knocks some sense into his head.” Hmm, here’s hoping!
Part of me finds Gary Charles almost twice-yearly humiliations quite funny; admittedly he set the bar quite high when being found in his car covered in his own faeces, but he seems to find new and interesting ways to make an idiot out of himself; but more overwhelmingly I feel sorry for him – he wasn’t the most gifted player I’ve ever seen, but he has clearly struggled to come to terms with alcoholism – hopefully a stretch inside will help to straighten him out.
My abiding memory of Gary Charles will always be a trip to the Baseball Ground, when a Steve Stone shot was deflected over the despairing keeper by a certain hapless right-back – creating chants of “Nice one Gary! Nice one Son! Nice one Gary! Let’s ‘ave another one!”. Happy days!
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