Trevor Sinclair has admitted that he was arrested after a ‘prank that went wrong’ on a Christmas night out with West Ham team-mates in the late 90s.
The former Hammers, QPR and Manchester City winger was enjoying a festive bash with fellow players in Romford when he says a practical joke soon turned sour.
Speaking on the Ben Heath Podcast last month, Sinclair said: “You know what? It was a prank that went wrong. We were out in Romford – I think we finished fifth in the Premier League, we were top of the social league. When we went out, 25 players would go out.
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“It was unbelievable. Wrighty was there and Neil Ruddock, John Hartson. It was a team full of almost misfits. You know Wrighty obviously was a top player but he’d left Arsenal and he probably weren’t going to play better football than he’d played – so it was a bit of a misfit of players but huge, huge characters.
“And yeah, we had some wild nights. On this occasion, a little bit worse for wear – a car’s pulled over when we’re going from one pub to another. I’ve ended up on the floor in front of a car, a few of the lads have jumped on the car – I’ve ended up getting nicked for it and it’s one of them where I’m not going to grass people up, but all I did say was ‘listen, I wasn’t jumping on the car’.
“I think there was a bit of damage to the car and listen… the papers loved it. They lapped it up. I was the one that was the fall guy and I was going to get in trouble for it – which was, I think it was fair. I shouldn’t have been carrying on like I did.
(Image: The People)
“We were all in high spirits, it was a prank. There was no malice in it, there was nothing sinister about it but a few of the lads got a little bit excited, jumped around on the car a little bit – I think on the bonnet, I can’t really remember.”
Despite being ‘top of the social league’, Sinclair also admitted that he didn’t ‘party all of the time’ due to becoming a dad at 20. He went on: “I had different responsibilities, different commitments. I was always a one-woman man.”