PROFESSIONAL footballers might earn astronomical wages these days but I can honestly say I don't envy them in the slightest.

I say that because it's no longer possible for a Premiership footballer to go to the toilet without the rest of the world wanting to know about it.

In my day, it was possible to enjoy a night on the tiles without running into people who were desperate to stitch you up, but that's not the case anymore, which is why I would find it so hard to make a living as a player now.

Because footballers are such high profile figures these days, people are queuing up to make a fast buck by selling stories about them to the tabloid press.

You can't pick up a copy of a Sunday paper without seeing lurid kiss and tell stories, but does that mean the behaviour of our top players is getting worse? Or is the media intrusion into their private lives becoming even greater than it was before?

Take Blackburn striker Craig Bellamy. On Sunday morning, the 26-year-old woke up to find one of the tabloids had printed a story in which it was reported that the police wanted to talk to him in connection with an alleged attack on a teenage girl.

I don't know the circumstances surrounding the alleged incident, but what I do know is that he hasn't been charged with anything or even questioned as yet. If it transpires that he's guilty of any wrongdoing, then I'l be the first to condemn him.

But it seems to me that he's been judged already by many people - and that's what worries me.

As a player, when you've got something like that hanging over you, football provides a welcome release. So I wasn't surprised to see him turn on the style against Sunderland on Wednesday night.

I remember a freelance journalist once wrote a story about me in which he claimed I'd smashed all the windows in my house and hit the bottle following a bust-up with a manager.

What had actually happened was I'd had my 30th birthday that weekend so I held a party at my house, which explained all the bottles in my bin on the Monday morning. By coincidence, I also had double glazing fitted around that time as well, which explained why all my windows were being replaced, but the reporter put two and two together and made eight.

Next thing I knew, those revelations started appearing in the papers and it was quite a stressful time, but the way I got through it was by throwing myself into my football, which is something Craig appears to be doing now.