ITS JOB LOT

As Jermain Defoe advertsies for a PA and is offering a salary of between £50-60,000 pa, I was amused to read about Stuart Ripley, a ex-Blackburn Rovers footballer, a flying winger, who won the Premier league with his Lancashire club in 1995. Ripley is now 47 years old and a qualified solicitor and law lecturer working in the north-west.

He started his playing career with Middlesbrough playing over 240 times, he then went to Bolton, Rovers (188 games), Southampton (53) Barnsley on loan and Sheffield Wednesday. He also played for England U21s and the England full team twice. Goal scoring was not his strength though, slotting only 44 goals in his entire career between 1985 and 2001.

Ripley played with some of the greats including the "Shearer and Sutton" forward line, whom he was clearly supplying with great crosses and passes!

He then went to university at 34, read French, Criminology and took a Law course. With a post graduate course in addition, he joined a Manchester firm and described his move as “away from football which is not real life.

Jermain Defoe is clearly not living in the “real world” as he announced today, his need for an Executive Personal Assistant. The job is not quite a cosy as it seems because the lucky applicant will have to water plants, fill his fridge, look after his and his mum's diary, manage family members and pets, turn water into wine and divide the Red Sea ETC ETC.

He or she will have to create a Jermain Defoe Global Brand in London not in Sunderland where the prolific scorer is working at the moment. The position is working for Defoe Enterprise Ltd and this demands being on call for 24/7. Apparently selecting and organising his wardrobe is one task on the list.

I wonder is Stuart Ripley is looking over his shoulder at Defoe's demands and wondering if the PA might also do a degree on behalf of the Sunderland striker.