Our children are in need of positive influences – that starts at home and shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of young unprepared footballers: SIMON JORDAN

The concept of role models is a strange and increasingly-encouraged phenomenon. One that flourishes due to an abdication of responsibility from some quarters, and a false economy in others.

Taking a peek at the so-called lives of the Instagram world is something so many people seem to want to vicariously live by.

Even in sport, this term role model is currently flung around like confetti as if it has an implicit obligation on those who never asked for it, and are often unworthy if they did.

This culture of celebrity, instantaneous gratification and material possessions rather than work ethic, standards, respect and character is a terrible by-product of the digital world we live in.

Personally, I have always gone by the belief it was not important for me to see something in order to be it.

While it can be interesting and engaging to admire well-known people, it is not necessary to worship or co-opt them as a role model.

Gareth Southgate recently spoke well about the challenges in society for boys and young men

The Netflix series Adolescence has become a national talking point with its grim subject matter of a 13-year-old killer

I studied wingers like Steve Coppell (right) and Peter Barnes, my interest would be in how they beat their full back – not wonder if they were decent people

Even growing up, I found it possible to motivate myself without looking at somebody famous and thinking: ‘If they can do it, so can I.’

My passion was football. Though I studied wingers like Steve Coppell and Peter Barnes, my interest would be in how they beat their full back – not wonder if they were decent people or ponder their societal values to try to emulate them off the field.

Gareth Southgate recently spoke well about the challenges in society for boys and young men, and the Netflix series Adolescence has become a national talking point with its grim subject matter of a 13-year-old killer.

My view is that the greatest role model in any child’s life should be the parents, and that the increasing absence of fathers from playing a meaningful part in their young boy’s life is one of the greatest societal challenges being faced.

To expect so-called celebrities, whether it’s footballers, pop stars or social media influencers, to fill that void and provide a meaningful impact on the values of the younger generation seems to be wholly unsatisfactory. We only to have a look around us to see some of those outcomes.

Let’s take football because it’s an industry I know. I don’t think a 21-year-old with a particular talent for kicking a ball should carry that burden of being a role model so that every aspect of their young lives is held up to an unrealistic standard.

At that age, earning £100,000 per week, most young men are going to have moments where they do things others would suggest isn’t right.

And yet the people who judge footballers and expect them to be unimpeachable role models have never experienced the great wealth and the fawning sycophancy that goes with the territory.

As a former England manager, Southgate is in a position where people listen and he has helped spark a debate about ‘callous, manipulative and toxic’ influencers

I’ve witnessed it. I’ve seen footballers have every door opened for them and be told they are right when they are sometimes wrong.

They don’t have to always be civilised in their approach because they will be given what they want regardless. Everyone bows to them because they are a bloody footballer.

I’ve seen players ushered into rooms like they are members of the Royal Family for crying out loud!

These young men are economic powerhouses without appropriate life experiences. They are not parent substitutes in terms of guidance and shouldn’t be regarded that way.

If we have got to a stage where parents allow the primary influence on their child to be a footballer or another young celebrity, then shame on them.

The breakdown in a child’s life is not because they’ve seen a famous player being sent off or acting up on a night out. It is far more likely due to their parents failing to adhere to their own responsibilities.

Whether that is allowing diets that make their children overweight, or letting them roam the streets waving knives. Or riding pushbikes nicking the latest iPhone, or showing disrespect for teachers and whoever else.

As a former England manager, Southgate is in a position where people listen and he has helped spark a debate about ‘callous, manipulative and toxic’ influencers. We have lost respect in a society where everyone appears to have a sense of entitlement.

Once upon a time, footballers were adored solely for their sporting acumen but somehow the industry has morphed until there is now an encumbrance on them to be a role model

I would watch Crystal Palace and regard Kenny Sansom and Vince Hilaire (above) as footballing heroes, not life lessons 

I don’t think relying on role models is the answer. Too many social media gurus have seen nothing and been nowhere and often have nothing significant to say, yet are saying it too loud and can influence kids – by seemingly putting out their best life on Instagram.

This includes showing off products they often didn’t earn and giving their own version of values, usually centred on perceived wealth and status, rather than character and substance.

Money is wasted on youth sometimes. Those who tend to retain large proportions of great wealth are ones who make it later in life. Things that seemed so important when young – cars, big houses and unlimited Gucci gear – are less so later on. I include myself in that conversation. I made money before I was 30. If it had happened at 40 I probably would have approached life differently.

Once upon a time, footballers were adored solely for their sporting acumen but somehow the industry has morphed until there is now an encumbrance on them to be some sort of role model.

It is an unfortunate side product of the commodification of sport far removed from the days when I would watch Crystal Palace and regard Kenny Sansom and Vince Hilaire as footballing heroes, not life lessons.

Modern players aren’t allowed to be ‘just’ footballers any more. It’s wrong because for any young fan the real role models should be those closest to them at home. Only then can Southgate’s wish for a less toxic country become reality.

Not so fast, Jarrad 

Leaked news that Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite may seek new horizons came after the defender was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.

Don’t be fooled by the timing. Any itchy feet won’t be due to the 22-year-old considering his World Cup prospects, more because Everton have achieved nothing during his time there.

Leaked news that Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite may seek new horizons came after the defender was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad

Marc Guehi showed at the Euros you don’t need Champions League experience to do well for England, even if it helps

Marc Guehi showed at the Euros you don’t need Champions League experience to do well for England, even if it helps.

Rather than looking down on Everton, Tuchel may just think – like me – that Branthwaite is all right but that it’s too early to rave about him being the best centre half in the country.

He has two years left on his contract, so Everton’s new owners still have a big say on his future. And David Moyes would be within his rights to ask: ‘If the club is good enough for me, Jarrad, I don’t know why it’s not good enough for you!’

George Foreman, who died last week aged 76, lived in the shadows of losing to Muhammad Ali in Zaire but would still be in the shake-up for the top five heavyweights of all time

Big George would have schooled any modern fighter

Prime George Foreman would have beaten any of the fighters of the modern era; Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, even the magnificent Oleksandr Usyk.

He was brooding, sinister and a man-mountain in his era at 6ft 3in, now considered a midget by the size of today’s heavyweights!

What George achieved was remarkable. A world champion in boxing’s greatest era in the early 1970s and then reclaiming his title two decades later.

Foreman, who died last week aged 76, lived in the shadows of losing to Muhammad Ali in Zaire but would still be in the shake-up for the top five heavyweights of all time. Joshua and Fury could only dream of a legacy like that.