Saturday 13 February 2016 13:38, UK
The Professional Footballers' Association has defended itself after Sunderland goalkeeper Steve Harper accused the union of failing players at the end of their career.
After 20 years at Newcastle, the 40-year-old last month controversially agreed a short-term deal with bitter rivals Sunderland - a move borne out of a desire to get back into a better mental state after being left without a club.
Harper has revealed he could feel depression creeping in again as the playing offers dried up, leaving him "slipping back into that dark hole" after leaving Hull in the summer.
The move to Sunderland helped to lift his spirits and the goalkeeper believes the PFA could have done more to help him.
Harper told the Daily Telegraph: "Retirement is like a very long monsoon season and you need to build an ark to get through it. More needs to be done to support players in that transition.
"I was at a dinner recently and the PFA had a table there. As a former PFA representative, I tore into them. I said: 'You do a lot of fantastic work for players when they are playing, but too many people of my age, or a year or two older, are either getting divorced, going bankrupt or struggle with depression'.
"It's easy to forget it's not just a case of saving for a rainy day. It's a case of saving for the rest of your life. It's not just money, you miss the dressing room, the banter, the comradeship."
Responding to Harper's comments, PFA deputy chief executive Bobby Barnes said: "The PFA exists for the benefit of its membership and I genuinely believe we provide a good service.
"People may well fall through the cracks - I am not saying we are perfect and we will always strive to do more.
"But I can honestly say there has never been a player that has picked up the phone to the PFA and asked for assistance who hasn't received it.
"It is not us saying we disagree with what Steve's saying. What we're saying is a that it is a little bit unfair to label us that we fail players.
"I could show you hundreds of case histories of players who have come to us and been delighted with the work we have done for them and grateful for the work we have done for them. But obviously for reasons of confidentiality, we don't tend to publicise that."
Barnes sympathises with Harper and other players in a similar predicament, saying he was in the same boat when his playing career came to an end.
"When I retired at 33, I'd never been to a doctors surgery in my life," the former West Ham winger added. "I didn't quite know how to deal with going to the doctors.
"As a footballer, a doctor is brought to you if you need one. All of a sudden you go to a surgery and you sit there and wonder why you're not being brought to the top of the queue. Then you realise, actually, I was supposed to go to the
desk at the front to tell them I am here.
"To put it in context, I certainly take on board Steve's views but I'd like to think that for every Steve Harper story there are a lot of other players (we help).
"We get lots of letter every week with stories of players that have gone in to new professions. We've had people graduate and go onto become lawyers, physiotherapists through our education departments.
"We've had really great success stories where people have gone onto a new chapter of their lives, but we will never get 100 per cent of it right. But I do think we are committed to doing the best we can."
