Football Food For Thought / Tommy Mooney / 02 October 2008 /

Tommy Mooney continues his Spanish adventure, protecting his head from the sun and watching from the touchline as Mooney Jr takes his first steps in the game.

A footballer's life is such that you end up living a bit of a routine. Away from the game, I've got my golf but right now I'm still very much adjusting to the different way of life out here.

Most things are related to football right now; obviously I'm training and playing and then I take my boy Kelsey to train with his team and watch him play.

I leave at ten to nine for training and pick one of the other lads up on the way. We're there for half-nine and start at ten. But I'm back home by half-12 so that's the routine finished. After that, the next regular slot in the daily diary is the kids finishing school at two.

It's all outdoor stuff from there. And, as I've said before, because the Spanish day doesn't really start until after siesta time, you've got eight, nine or ten hours to really get into our new way of life.

It's more natural to rest here when you have the chance to do so. Most of the local lads still take the traditional siesta. I'm not consciously making an effort to go to bed in the afternoon. To be honest, the sunshine's still new to us and you feel drawn to sit out in it - I suppose that's the English in us.

The sun's strong, of course, so we have to be fairly careful. And one area of my body I've got to look after particularly is the old bonce!

I started to shave it when I was at Watford and I'm not one of those that was going to try and disguise it so as soon as it started to go anything thinner than tennis ball level it had to go. I used to clipper it but the first time I actually took the whole lot off was at Birmingham - then I've been doing it every day since. I can do it virtually anywhere now, I've got a great touch, borne of experience!

I'd been taking it down to a number one for a few years and I'm lucky that I've got one of those heads it suits. There's no kidding nature, you know, and I'm happy to put the old cream on. Going down the Graham Gooch or Shane Warne route never appealed to me!

My boy Kelsey wants his hair shaved now but I've told him there's plenty of time when it turns from choice to necessity. We've settled on a grade two for now.

Back to the football then, and it's Barcelona at home to Atletico Madrid this weekend. I haven't seen a great deal of Lionel Messi recently but one thing's for sure, Barca are still building their side around him. You forget he's still young because he's been about since he was 17. He looks a bit older than he is because of the number of games he's played.

Actually, he's one of those players footballers - including me - would pay to watch, and that's a real compliment in the modern game. It's easy to become quite flippant about football when you've been in it for years but he's one I would hand my hard-earned over to watch.

As for the game, even though Atletico have had a half-decent start, I don't think they'll have enough to stop Barca. So have a go at 3-1 to the home team at odds of [14.0].

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