Players better behaved these days - Mills

England defender Danny Mills has insisted that the behaviour of professional footballers off the pitch is better now than it has been for a number of years.

At a time when allegations surrounding three Leicester City players on remand in Spain have made for more lurid newspaper headlines, the Middlesbrough full-back believes that things have actually improved since he took the formative steps of his career.

“I think they’re probably better now, the overall picture,” he said.

“The way you look at players now, they’re more disciplined and better behaved.

“Unfortunately, you get one or two cases that are blown out of all proportion that spoil that.

“It was the culture when I first got involved as an apprentice. The lads would be straight in the bar after a game Wednesday night, day off Thursday and then straight in the bar after Saturday and out until the early hours of Sunday morning.

“And that was week-in, week-out, but as everybody was doing it, it was just accepted as the norm.

“The game has now changed. You can’t get away with that any more and obviously money has had a small influence as well.

“People expect us to be in prime condition all of the time and that, in the main, means not drinking or behaving to excess in any way.

“But it’s always going to happen at some point that you’re going to enjoy yourself a little bit too much and someone might take offence.

“But I think, in general, people are better behaved now than they’ve ever been.”

The allegations against the Leicester players and other high-profile situations, such as England international Rio Ferdinand’s failure to take a drugs test and subsequent ban, have catapulted the conduct of players on to the front pages as well as back, and Mills admits that the media spotlight has brought with it new responsibilities.

“It’s difficult,” he said. “Unfortunately, because of the way the game has gone in the last five or 10 years, we’re now under the media spotlight more than ever and every part of our lives is scrutinised and criticised to a certain degree.

“We now have to be whiter than white. I read one of the articles not so long back where footballers had been out drinking and they’d been absolutely slaughtered for it – five years ago, this was the norm, it wasn’t a problem.

“Of course, there are things that players do that they shouldn’t do, but the media hype and the judgements that are made before we know all the facts and all the details – even players can be guilty of that – and the England situation and the Rio thing, people are making decisions and making judgements before they know all the facts of the case.

“You’ve got to realise with the job that you do that you’ve got to take it upon yourself that you’ve got to be responsible.

“You know from day one as soon as you get involved in football, especially these days, that you’re going to be scrutinised by the media.

“Of course, from time to time you’re going to let your hair down and you’re going to enjoy yourself and maybe do something that you quite shouldn’t, but I think in general, as long as it stays like that, that’s not a problem.”

Mills’ comments came as he used his spare time to help launch a £300,000 (€447,500) campaign to set up and maintain a helpline for children and adults with Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus.

The 26-year-old became involved in the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus initiative after his wife Lisa lost their baby Archie five months into her pregnancy in November 2002.

“I’m just trying to give something back,” said the father-of-three.

“When we lost Archie, it was a tragic, tragic time for our family and the people involved with us.

“But once we got over the initial shock and came to terms with it, I decided that I wanted to some something useful and make what happened to us in some way worthwhile. We didn’t want it just to be a meaningless tragedy.”