interesting story this, who is the guilty party?

SAM CHOPS 'BIG-TIME' RICKETTS DOWN TO SIZE NO JOKE NOW AS STAR STRUGGLES Alan Nixon THERE'S a cruel joke, told with the dressing- room's jagged wit, that Michael Ricketts has already won two caps for England. His first and his last.

That raised a laugh inside the corridors at Bolton Wanderers when it was first cracked after his debut against Holland. No-one finds it funny any more.

Now, as Sven Goran Eriksson picks his next squad today and Ricketts's rocket-like rise arcs disastrously towards earth, the football world starts to wonder about the Wanderer.

Ricketts has spent the past few days training with the fringe players at Bolton and is in an uneasy truce with boss Sam Allardyce.

Word inside the camp is that Allardyce will leave him at home when the side goes to Charlton for a relegation crunch tomorrow. But that may yet be the manager's not-so-amateur psychology.

Ricketts definitely needs shock treatment to get back to anything like the England prospect he was. Right now he looks more like the Walsall reserve of two years back. Allardyce called in Ricketts for an explanation about his comments that he was not being backed by the coaching staff and "accepted the reasons", according to media hand-outs.

But the truth is that Allardyce felt he had to cut big-time Ricketts down to size and the striker does genuinely believe he is not being backed. Allardyce left out Ricketts after his first England game, partly after hearing that he had gone all star-struck. A tale of snubbing fans wanting autographs reached his ears.

Like the came-up-the-hard-way boss he is, Allardyce wanted to let Ricketts know his responsibilities.

Ricketts, 23, drives a gleaming BMW X5 with a personalised number plate and can come over as flash. He likes the trappings, but also needs his ego massaged.

In truth he is a young man slightly lost in a big Premiership world at the moment and could do with help - although he feels he is not getting it from all quarters.

Ricketts is struggling for his best form after playing so well. His confidence was also shot by a blast from coach Phil Brown after a game at Sunderland. The wounds are healing slowly, if at all, and Ricketts is unwilling to take the blame. Allardyce only told the truth when asked about Ricketts being capped by England again and felt it was not a wise idea.

Ricketts does not see his career path quite the same. Friends reveal he would move in the summer if one of the big clubs come in, although some of those buyers will be puzzled by the current events.

It does not help that Ricketts has two agents working for him and that is at the centre of an FA inquiry. He is signed on a two-year contract to Mark Curtis, but Time Management have also been involved with him. Ricketts played at Walsall with one of Time Management's agents, Gary Porter, and that wheeler-dealer's links with West Ham boss Glenn Roeder prompted talk of a summer switch to Upton Park.

Curtis, who also represents Allardyce in a further complication, has reported Time Management's involvement to the FA. It is yet another piece of extra baggage Ricketts has to carry at the moment.

In an atmosphere of mutual suspicion verging on distrust Ricketts now has to sort his head out and shoot Bolton from the relegation zone before lying back and thinking of England.

Some will say Ricketts's rise and fall was inevitable, sneering at a success story in the unlikely surroundings of Bolton.

There could also be criticism of Allardyce's handling of his star player, but that would be to forget the fact that he found him and sprinkled the first gold dust on him.

England can wait. The next real step up the ladder of fame will be the summer, when Ricketts almost inevitably moves on.

Bolton will expect a record fee, somewhere in the region of £10 million, if they can ever find the right agent to deal with.

So perhaps the sound of laughter about Ricketts will be heard ringing round The Reebok again.

But next time as they take the cheque to the bank. First cap, last cap or not.

HIS RISE AND FALL

SUMMER 2000: Signed from Walsall for £400,000

2000/1: Scored 24 goals in promotion season

FEB 2002: England debut v

Holland after scoring 15 goals in first half of season

MARCH 2002: Dropped to bench for Blackburn match

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Answers

ap

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Has the talent and ego to be the new Stan Collymore, step forward the larger breasted Ulrika ?

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002