IT is, of course, the fate of many of football's old-time heroes and even of those from not so long ago -- to have to watch ruefully as even moderately-talented players swap clubs today for astronomic fees and wages while they scrape by on small earnings and savings now their playing years are over.

It is, of course, all being down to them being born too soon -- and playing in the era when wages like the £5,000 a week a journeyman First Division footballer might collect today would have been beyond their wildest dreams, whereas the much more massive mega-bucks paid nowadays to Premiership stars would have been literally incredible.

But, even so, am I alone in feeling that Blackburn Rovers all-time leading goalscorer, Simon Garner, who knocked in 168 for them in league games between 1978 and 1992, is particularly hard done by in having to earn a crust as a painter and decorator nowadays as he hangs up his boots at the age of 40?

I mean, it is not just bad luck to have been playing before soccer wages went wild, but truly cruel that players who were following in his footsteps up front for Rovers last season could probably buy and sell him several times over in terms of wealth -- and yet seemed only to excel at NOT scoring.

Not fair? Yeah, that's what I think too.

Perhaps, Simon might be coaxed down his ladder to show them how it's meant to be done.