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[Explaining why he threw the England-Germany game] Its funny, but when — Mean Machine

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"[Explaining why he threw the England-Germany game] Its funny, but when youre in that football world, you just dont realise what it means to people. You only find out how disappointed they are, when you let them down. I was 16 when I signed pro forms. Thought I was the business. Didnt take long for standards to start slipping. Cars, booze, bad tips for slow horses... You think you can handle it, then bang, very soon its handling you. Before I was picking up trophies, I was 425 grand down to men nasty enough... well, even they would have put the wind up Mr Sykes. But they did give me two choices - a wheelchair for life, or a deliberate penalty against the Germans. Its not as if Ive prospered. Look where Ive ended up."
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"[After Danny asks him why he hasnt gone insane] Only does your nut in if you dont think you should be here. Look at me. Sweet old geezer, eh? A bit bumbly, full of jail-block wisdom, cornerstone of the nick, put in with the foundations, right? [scoffs] Right. I didnt get to be the oldest lag for breaking windows. Villains spend their lives shitting themselves that other criminals are going to see to them. So they get their retaliation in first, and twice as nasty. A bloke was coming after me. So I, er... I went around to his digs and lobbed a grenade in the window. Left over after the war, you know, army surplus. I didnt know, but he had his little nipper and his bird in there with him. [his eyes filling with tears] The house went up like Guy Fawkes Night. No-one came out. Hed barricaded the door with furniture in case I came around. By the time they got in, the screaming had stopped. [crying] Thirteen months old, learning to walk, apparently. Nothing I can do is ever going to make up for that, is it?"
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Mean Machine