Jake Livermore tests positive for cocaine
- Thread starter Blockbuster
- Start date
slartibartfast
Grunge baby forever
- Oct 21, 2012
- 18,320
- 33,955
Can see both sides of the argument but it doesn't sit right with me.
Its tragic he lost a child, can't imagine it but I just don't see how you make the jump from that to 'I need some cocaine I'll go get some.'
Because its a footballer we are so easy with handing out excuses.
If a brick layer got done for cocaine and had lost a child recently then used that as a defence I think the general consensus would be what the fk has that got to do with it.
I may be barking up wrong tree here but to be honest who cares lol.
Its tragic he lost a child, can't imagine it but I just don't see how you make the jump from that to 'I need some cocaine I'll go get some.'
Because its a footballer we are so easy with handing out excuses.
If a brick layer got done for cocaine and had lost a child recently then used that as a defence I think the general consensus would be what the fk has that got to do with it.
I may be barking up wrong tree here but to be honest who cares lol.
slartibartfast
Grunge baby forever
- Oct 21, 2012
- 18,320
- 33,955
Good point...
I should have thought about that a bit harder really lol.
Still it raises the question was this a one off. Or is it just that he got caught.
Probably a good thing he did and can now count himself lucky it was dealt with before he fked his life up.
E17yid
Well-Known Member
- Jan 21, 2013
- 17,088
- 30,884
Bad example with the bricklayers. They're all on it anyway.
If people can't see why someone might turn to drugs or drink after such a tragedy then they must be emotional retards.
People do it for the same reasons as people who aren't going through tragedy's. It's a form of escape. It's pretty basic.
If people can't see why someone might turn to drugs or drink after such a tragedy then they must be emotional retards.
People do it for the same reasons as people who aren't going through tragedy's. It's a form of escape. It's pretty basic.
Geyzer Soze
Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd
- Aug 16, 2010
- 26,056
- 63,362
Not at all, it would be like you losing a daughter and self medicating on a drug in order to try to ease the pain.
The major difference being that smashing someone in the face is harmful to them. Taking a drug is only harmful to yourself.
Edit. Sorry, replied before finising the thread. I see taht this point has been made and acknowledged!
As you were!
mightyspur
Now with lovely smooth balls
- Aug 21, 2014
- 9,789
- 27,071
Not quite. It would be like you losing your daughter, taking cocaine, getting found out you had taken cocaine and getting away with it because you were grieving.
slartibartfast
Grunge baby forever
- Oct 21, 2012
- 18,320
- 33,955
Turn to drink, of course. Prob go on a 12mth bender.
I probably start smoking again and get stoned as fk..... again lol.
Or take so much Prozac I'd take off.
But cocaine?
Can see it happening if someone offered it I suppose. Would more than likely say 'fk it' to pretty much anything after that.
Unless I was a pro footballer.
But who knows?
I'm only blabbing about this because its been boring as fk the last 2 weeks lol.
Couldn't really give a shit one way or the other (about the drugs not the child :/ ...)
TheHoddleWaddle
Well-Known Member
- Dec 13, 2013
- 11,351
- 20,379
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37188459
Jake Livermore, interview saying the positive test saved his career. Can see where he's coming from. Interesting read.
Jake Livermore, interview saying the positive test saved his career. Can see where he's coming from. Interesting read.
Poor guy I didn't know that about his son, well done to everyone at Hull and the FA and PFA.
nailsy
SC Supporter
- Jul 24, 2005
- 30,536
- 46,630
It sound's like it might have saved his life.
mike_l
Well-Known Member
- Jul 29, 2005
- 5,171
- 3,676
"We were on a high that season..." Poor turn of phrase!
PCozzie
Well-Known Member
- Sep 9, 2020
- 4,177
- 19,408
Good article from yesterday's Times about Jake Livermore's career after he left Spurs - including an anecdote about a typically classy gesture from Rafa VDV.
www.thetimes.co.uk
Jake Livermore: Drugs were an outlet. If I had a gun I wouldn’t be here
Watford’s former England and Tottenham Hotspur player reveals how football saved his life after the downward spiral that followed the death of his newborn son
www.thetimes.co.uk
It only takes a moment for Jake Livermore to say how low it really got for him and whether he wanted to give up football, felt depressed or became suicidal. “All three of those,” he says. “And more. When something like that happens, nothing is off limits. Rock bottom is rock bottom.”
The day after playing for Hull City against Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley in 2014, Livermore and his partner, Danielle, lost their newborn son. At the time, they were told Jake Jr died of natural causes but an inquest revealed that mistakes were made during the delivery.
“The circumstances in which we lost our little boy, it wasn’t natural,” Livermore says. “There was a catalogue of errors. He’d cracked his skull. My partner had the wrong amount of a drug injected. They didn’t have the right apparatus.
“But I was originally told it was a stillborn and that was hard to take. That was when I started to take [in] my own feelings and I had to numb myself. I realised it wasn’t God’s plan, it was something that should have been stopped.”
Livermore turned to drugs as “an outlet to the sadness” and tested positive for cocaine in May 2015, almost a year after Jake Jr had died. “Drugs wasn’t the issue for me, it was just the easy thing,” he says. “If a gun were easier to get hold of, it probably would have been that, truth be told.”
An initial ban was dismissed by the FA and Livermore signed permanently for Hull, moving north after leaving his boyhood club, Tottenham Hotspur, to seek a fresh start. The defensive midfielder played seven times for England, including in games against Germany, Italy and Brazil. He secured promotion to the Premier League with Hull and then West Bromwich Albion. Last summer, aged 34, and after his West Brom contract expired, he joined Watford, where so far he has been one of the players of the season.
In many ways, the grief and despair that once consumed Livermore will always be there but he has three more children now, aged eight, seven and two. He says that his bond with tthe Watford manager Valérien Ismaël, whom he also worked under at West Brom, gives him “an extra couple of per cent” while the return south means that he and his family spend more time together close to their Enfield roots. “What happened has shaped the character I am,” he says. “I appreciate my children more than anything. They come first now.”
https://archive.is/o/kULeW/https://...ps://www.thetimes.co.uk/&feature=emb_imp_woyt
How did he find stability? “Yeah, I’ll let you know when that happens,” he says. “At the time I didn’t have time to think about myself. I had no idea if I was coping. I was looking after my mum, my partner ‒ my dad, he was a rock for me, but I was constantly worrying about other people.
“The only release I had was an hour and a half on the pitch where I could run around. I remember feeling like the bigger the stadium, the better, because more noise meant less for me to worry about. It was once a week when I could be free.
“When do you feel stable? I think you go through waves. Football saves a lot of people and it saved me. It gives you that outlet. It gives you that time to be yourself. I look forward to training every day, it’s part of me now and it’s something that helped me move forward. I’ve got a beautiful family and I’m so thankful for that but it never leaves you. You just learn to live with it.”
Livermore’s family will be there in the stands on Sunday at Vicarage Road, with his older children increasingly aware of what their dad does for a job. “They went to school and started collecting some old versions of those Premier League sticker books,” Livermore says. “I know they’d swap me out for [Bukayo] Saka in an instant! But that’s when they realised what I do. Before, they just thought I was playing football with lots of friends.”
Watford play Southampton in the FA Cup fourth round and Livermore admits this competition still carries emotional weight for him and that it is hard to separate the feelings of playing in that final at Wembley, when Hull lost 3-2, and what followed the day after.
“I’ve never watched the game back. I’ve seen the goals but I’ve never gone out of my way to see it,” Livermore says. “I’d like to finish my career having a high in this competition and having a better feeling about the FA Cup. I need to enjoy football because it comes and goes so quickly. There’s enough downs that you have to really appreciate the ups as well.”
For Livermore, the ups these days are more about those around him and in helping Watford’s talented youngsters such as Ryan Andrews, Ismaël Koné and Yáser Asprilla flourish. He is the club’s oldest outfield player but enjoys nurturing others, prioritises it even. One Watford member of staff describes how Livermore often has lunch with “five or six of the youngsters”. Another puts him in their “top three Watford people” from the past 20 years.
Livermore believes the trauma changed him. “It shaped me to be a different person, to appreciate people and be more conscious almost of people’s feelings,” he says. “They may not be themselves and you have to know there could be anything going on behind those eyes.
“Everyone has a story to tell. I was young when it happened to me and I think now I look at other players and try to help them, or make myself available, if they want to talk to me or someone; I think that’s very important. I just wish I would have known the outlets that were there to speak to — my family, my manager, the FA, the PFA — and that’s why I urge people now that it’s fine to talk.”
Two weeks ago, Livermore scored two almost-identical goals from outside the area in a win over Queen’s Park Rangers. They were brilliant strikes and many wondered why his celebrations were so muted.
“I was saving my legs! If I did a knee slide I’d still be there now,” Livermore jokes. “To be honest my mindset is always about the next thing. I didn’t think I would but I almost get as much of a thrill now trying to figure out the game and other teams’ plans and how we can hurt them. Having that responsibility, that’s something else that gives me a buzz at the moment.
“Goals are great but, ‘What is causing us problems? Where are we getting joy?’ I scored my goal and five minutes later, I scored another one from the same thing, by putting pressure on and staying higher up. When you’re 19, your cares are different. You’re a bit more free, maybe. So I say to the young ones, ‘Go and express yourself’ and I’ll do the rest. It’s my job to free them up.”
He remembers coming through the ranks at Tottenham, when he played in the Harry Redknapp team of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale and recalls how the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Robbie Keane and Scott Parker looked out for him. His mum has never forgotten Rafael van der Vaart bumping into them in a Tottenham restaurant and secretly paying their bill while Livermore says Parker was “one of the biggest influences” of his career.
The way Livermore talks, it is not hard to see him as a coach himself one day and he admits he would like to work with youngsters and become an assistant or even a manager. For now, he is the fulcrum of a Watford side that is still in touching distance of the play-offs and while his contract expires at the end of the season, the expectation is he will soon be offered a new one.
“I love it here,” he says. “My kids, Watford, being old enough to enjoy football, the manager; the combination of all those things has given me a real lift again. I’ve had to play for so many years holding back a lot of emotions so to play with a smile on my face is something I will never take for granted.”
The day after playing for Hull City against Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley in 2014, Livermore and his partner, Danielle, lost their newborn son. At the time, they were told Jake Jr died of natural causes but an inquest revealed that mistakes were made during the delivery.
“The circumstances in which we lost our little boy, it wasn’t natural,” Livermore says. “There was a catalogue of errors. He’d cracked his skull. My partner had the wrong amount of a drug injected. They didn’t have the right apparatus.
“But I was originally told it was a stillborn and that was hard to take. That was when I started to take [in] my own feelings and I had to numb myself. I realised it wasn’t God’s plan, it was something that should have been stopped.”
Livermore turned to drugs as “an outlet to the sadness” and tested positive for cocaine in May 2015, almost a year after Jake Jr had died. “Drugs wasn’t the issue for me, it was just the easy thing,” he says. “If a gun were easier to get hold of, it probably would have been that, truth be told.”
An initial ban was dismissed by the FA and Livermore signed permanently for Hull, moving north after leaving his boyhood club, Tottenham Hotspur, to seek a fresh start. The defensive midfielder played seven times for England, including in games against Germany, Italy and Brazil. He secured promotion to the Premier League with Hull and then West Bromwich Albion. Last summer, aged 34, and after his West Brom contract expired, he joined Watford, where so far he has been one of the players of the season.
In many ways, the grief and despair that once consumed Livermore will always be there but he has three more children now, aged eight, seven and two. He says that his bond with tthe Watford manager Valérien Ismaël, whom he also worked under at West Brom, gives him “an extra couple of per cent” while the return south means that he and his family spend more time together close to their Enfield roots. “What happened has shaped the character I am,” he says. “I appreciate my children more than anything. They come first now.”
https://archive.is/o/kULeW/https://...ps://www.thetimes.co.uk/&feature=emb_imp_woyt
How did he find stability? “Yeah, I’ll let you know when that happens,” he says. “At the time I didn’t have time to think about myself. I had no idea if I was coping. I was looking after my mum, my partner ‒ my dad, he was a rock for me, but I was constantly worrying about other people.
“The only release I had was an hour and a half on the pitch where I could run around. I remember feeling like the bigger the stadium, the better, because more noise meant less for me to worry about. It was once a week when I could be free.
“When do you feel stable? I think you go through waves. Football saves a lot of people and it saved me. It gives you that outlet. It gives you that time to be yourself. I look forward to training every day, it’s part of me now and it’s something that helped me move forward. I’ve got a beautiful family and I’m so thankful for that but it never leaves you. You just learn to live with it.”
Livermore’s family will be there in the stands on Sunday at Vicarage Road, with his older children increasingly aware of what their dad does for a job. “They went to school and started collecting some old versions of those Premier League sticker books,” Livermore says. “I know they’d swap me out for [Bukayo] Saka in an instant! But that’s when they realised what I do. Before, they just thought I was playing football with lots of friends.”
Watford play Southampton in the FA Cup fourth round and Livermore admits this competition still carries emotional weight for him and that it is hard to separate the feelings of playing in that final at Wembley, when Hull lost 3-2, and what followed the day after.
“I’ve never watched the game back. I’ve seen the goals but I’ve never gone out of my way to see it,” Livermore says. “I’d like to finish my career having a high in this competition and having a better feeling about the FA Cup. I need to enjoy football because it comes and goes so quickly. There’s enough downs that you have to really appreciate the ups as well.”
For Livermore, the ups these days are more about those around him and in helping Watford’s talented youngsters such as Ryan Andrews, Ismaël Koné and Yáser Asprilla flourish. He is the club’s oldest outfield player but enjoys nurturing others, prioritises it even. One Watford member of staff describes how Livermore often has lunch with “five or six of the youngsters”. Another puts him in their “top three Watford people” from the past 20 years.
Livermore believes the trauma changed him. “It shaped me to be a different person, to appreciate people and be more conscious almost of people’s feelings,” he says. “They may not be themselves and you have to know there could be anything going on behind those eyes.
“Everyone has a story to tell. I was young when it happened to me and I think now I look at other players and try to help them, or make myself available, if they want to talk to me or someone; I think that’s very important. I just wish I would have known the outlets that were there to speak to — my family, my manager, the FA, the PFA — and that’s why I urge people now that it’s fine to talk.”
Two weeks ago, Livermore scored two almost-identical goals from outside the area in a win over Queen’s Park Rangers. They were brilliant strikes and many wondered why his celebrations were so muted.
“I was saving my legs! If I did a knee slide I’d still be there now,” Livermore jokes. “To be honest my mindset is always about the next thing. I didn’t think I would but I almost get as much of a thrill now trying to figure out the game and other teams’ plans and how we can hurt them. Having that responsibility, that’s something else that gives me a buzz at the moment.
“Goals are great but, ‘What is causing us problems? Where are we getting joy?’ I scored my goal and five minutes later, I scored another one from the same thing, by putting pressure on and staying higher up. When you’re 19, your cares are different. You’re a bit more free, maybe. So I say to the young ones, ‘Go and express yourself’ and I’ll do the rest. It’s my job to free them up.”
He remembers coming through the ranks at Tottenham, when he played in the Harry Redknapp team of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale and recalls how the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Robbie Keane and Scott Parker looked out for him. His mum has never forgotten Rafael van der Vaart bumping into them in a Tottenham restaurant and secretly paying their bill while Livermore says Parker was “one of the biggest influences” of his career.
The way Livermore talks, it is not hard to see him as a coach himself one day and he admits he would like to work with youngsters and become an assistant or even a manager. For now, he is the fulcrum of a Watford side that is still in touching distance of the play-offs and while his contract expires at the end of the season, the expectation is he will soon be offered a new one.
“I love it here,” he says. “My kids, Watford, being old enough to enjoy football, the manager; the combination of all those things has given me a real lift again. I’ve had to play for so many years holding back a lot of emotions so to play with a smile on my face is something I will never take for granted.”
james82mckay
Active Member
- Sep 28, 2006
- 609
- 244
Nice little bump
mightyspur
Now with lovely smooth balls
- Aug 21, 2014
- 9,789
- 27,071
I see what you did there
Good article from yesterday's Times about Jake Livermore's career after he left Spurs - including an anecdote about a typically classy gesture from Rafa VDV.
Jake Livermore: Drugs were an outlet. If I had a gun I wouldn’t be here
Watford’s former England and Tottenham Hotspur player reveals how football saved his life after the downward spiral that followed the death of his newborn son
It only takes a moment for Jake Livermore to say how low it really got for him and whether he wanted to give up football, felt depressed or became suicidal. “All three of those,” he says. “And more. When something like that happens, nothing is off limits. Rock bottom is rock bottom.”
The day after playing for Hull City against Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley in 2014, Livermore and his partner, Danielle, lost their newborn son. At the time, they were told Jake Jr died of natural causes but an inquest revealed that mistakes were made during the delivery.
“The circumstances in which we lost our little boy, it wasn’t natural,” Livermore says. “There was a catalogue of errors. He’d cracked his skull. My partner had the wrong amount of a drug injected. They didn’t have the right apparatus.
“But I was originally told it was a stillborn and that was hard to take. That was when I started to take [in] my own feelings and I had to numb myself. I realised it wasn’t God’s plan, it was something that should have been stopped.”
Livermore turned to drugs as “an outlet to the sadness” and tested positive for cocaine in May 2015, almost a year after Jake Jr had died. “Drugs wasn’t the issue for me, it was just the easy thing,” he says. “If a gun were easier to get hold of, it probably would have been that, truth be told.”
An initial ban was dismissed by the FA and Livermore signed permanently for Hull, moving north after leaving his boyhood club, Tottenham Hotspur, to seek a fresh start. The defensive midfielder played seven times for England, including in games against Germany, Italy and Brazil. He secured promotion to the Premier League with Hull and then West Bromwich Albion. Last summer, aged 34, and after his West Brom contract expired, he joined Watford, where so far he has been one of the players of the season.
In many ways, the grief and despair that once consumed Livermore will always be there but he has three more children now, aged eight, seven and two. He says that his bond with tthe Watford manager Valérien Ismaël, whom he also worked under at West Brom, gives him “an extra couple of per cent” while the return south means that he and his family spend more time together close to their Enfield roots. “What happened has shaped the character I am,” he says. “I appreciate my children more than anything. They come first now.”
https://archive.is/o/kULeW/https://...ps://www.thetimes.co.uk/&feature=emb_imp_woyt
How did he find stability? “Yeah, I’ll let you know when that happens,” he says. “At the time I didn’t have time to think about myself. I had no idea if I was coping. I was looking after my mum, my partner ‒ my dad, he was a rock for me, but I was constantly worrying about other people.
“The only release I had was an hour and a half on the pitch where I could run around. I remember feeling like the bigger the stadium, the better, because more noise meant less for me to worry about. It was once a week when I could be free.
“When do you feel stable? I think you go through waves. Football saves a lot of people and it saved me. It gives you that outlet. It gives you that time to be yourself. I look forward to training every day, it’s part of me now and it’s something that helped me move forward. I’ve got a beautiful family and I’m so thankful for that but it never leaves you. You just learn to live with it.”
Livermore’s family will be there in the stands on Sunday at Vicarage Road, with his older children increasingly aware of what their dad does for a job. “They went to school and started collecting some old versions of those Premier League sticker books,” Livermore says. “I know they’d swap me out for [Bukayo] Saka in an instant! But that’s when they realised what I do. Before, they just thought I was playing football with lots of friends.”
Watford play Southampton in the FA Cup fourth round and Livermore admits this competition still carries emotional weight for him and that it is hard to separate the feelings of playing in that final at Wembley, when Hull lost 3-2, and what followed the day after.
“I’ve never watched the game back. I’ve seen the goals but I’ve never gone out of my way to see it,” Livermore says. “I’d like to finish my career having a high in this competition and having a better feeling about the FA Cup. I need to enjoy football because it comes and goes so quickly. There’s enough downs that you have to really appreciate the ups as well.”
For Livermore, the ups these days are more about those around him and in helping Watford’s talented youngsters such as Ryan Andrews, Ismaël Koné and Yáser Asprilla flourish. He is the club’s oldest outfield player but enjoys nurturing others, prioritises it even. One Watford member of staff describes how Livermore often has lunch with “five or six of the youngsters”. Another puts him in their “top three Watford people” from the past 20 years.
Livermore believes the trauma changed him. “It shaped me to be a different person, to appreciate people and be more conscious almost of people’s feelings,” he says. “They may not be themselves and you have to know there could be anything going on behind those eyes.
“Everyone has a story to tell. I was young when it happened to me and I think now I look at other players and try to help them, or make myself available, if they want to talk to me or someone; I think that’s very important. I just wish I would have known the outlets that were there to speak to — my family, my manager, the FA, the PFA — and that’s why I urge people now that it’s fine to talk.”
Two weeks ago, Livermore scored two almost-identical goals from outside the area in a win over Queen’s Park Rangers. They were brilliant strikes and many wondered why his celebrations were so muted.
“I was saving my legs! If I did a knee slide I’d still be there now,” Livermore jokes. “To be honest my mindset is always about the next thing. I didn’t think I would but I almost get as much of a thrill now trying to figure out the game and other teams’ plans and how we can hurt them. Having that responsibility, that’s something else that gives me a buzz at the moment.
“Goals are great but, ‘What is causing us problems? Where are we getting joy?’ I scored my goal and five minutes later, I scored another one from the same thing, by putting pressure on and staying higher up. When you’re 19, your cares are different. You’re a bit more free, maybe. So I say to the young ones, ‘Go and express yourself’ and I’ll do the rest. It’s my job to free them up.”
He remembers coming through the ranks at Tottenham, when he played in the Harry Redknapp team of Luka Modric and Gareth Bale and recalls how the likes of Jermaine Jenas, Robbie Keane and Scott Parker looked out for him. His mum has never forgotten Rafael van der Vaart bumping into them in a Tottenham restaurant and secretly paying their bill while Livermore says Parker was “one of the biggest influences” of his career.
The way Livermore talks, it is not hard to see him as a coach himself one day and he admits he would like to work with youngsters and become an assistant or even a manager. For now, he is the fulcrum of a Watford side that is still in touching distance of the play-offs and while his contract expires at the end of the season, the expectation is he will soon be offered a new one.
“I love it here,” he says. “My kids, Watford, being old enough to enjoy football, the manager; the combination of all those things has given me a real lift again. I’ve had to play for so many years holding back a lot of emotions so to play with a smile on my face is something I will never take for granted.”
Just came in to post that - maybe someone to bring back to the spurs family caoching our youngsters
