BUENAS WATCHES

Jamie Carragher tells us that young footballers today are "spoiled" by being part of the Academy Generation, molly coddled young men who have lived through modern "football upbringing", overpaid and led astray by the trappings of wealth. Sparkling wrist watches are part of that.

Tap on images of footballers in their day to day casual clothes and you will be blinded by the watches shown on every wrist. Daniel Sturridge wears an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Perpetual Calendar worth £50,000 and supplied by a company regarded as the founding family of watchmakers, originated in 1875.

Jack Wilshere spent nearly £27,000 on his timepiece, an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak offshore, made of stainless steel and regarded as one of the most innovative in history, whilst Jamie Vardy is a shade more flambouyant with his Hublot Rose Gold made by the relatively young Italian company and costing over £27,000.

Kyle Walker has a Rolex Yachtmaster II, ideal for timing yacht races (only £12,600) and Danny Rose shelled out £32,680 on his Rolex Sky Dweller; useful when sky diving???

Blowers Luxury Watches of Mayfair see footballers buying watches as an investment opportunity but this often works against the owner as Jordan Ibe of Bournemouth discovered when his car was rammed by robbers in Surrey Quays, London and his expensive wrist jewellery taken from him. Maybe this was the same mob who were after Andy Carroll recently when he was involved in a car chase in London.

On the other hand, Jose Mourinho donated a £16,000 Big Bang Unico Bi-retrograde Chrono Titanium Ceramic watch....the name says it all, to the Manchester United UNICEF charity evening recently. This was part of a personal donation by the Portugueses manager of £21,500. The evening raised a quarter of a million £s.

Jose's "predecessor" at United obviously had not invested a huge amount on his watch especially if it couldn't keep time like the ref's!