Football Manager: Andros Townsend's wife thought he'd skipped Spurs training

Football Manager has been the catalyst for many hilarious stories down the years.

But the best of them all involves Everton winger, Andros Townsend.

No, not the virtual version of the Englishman, the real-life one. If you haven’t heard the story before, then you’re in luck, because it is absolutely magnificent.

While he was with Tottenham Hotspur, Townsend received a message from his partner, Hazel O’Sullivan, questioning him on why he’d been fined for not showing up to training.

But it wasn’t true. Instead, she had been fooled by a screenshot from Football Manager that had been posted on social media.

Back in March 2021, Townsend made an appearance on talkSPORT and explained what happened.

“I get a text from her one day and I receive a screenshot from Twitter,” Townsend said.

“As you do, she was searching my name on Twitter and a fine came up – Andros Townsend accepts his fine for reporting late to training.

“So her mind is going off; if he wasn’t at training and he wasn’t at home then where was he? It could have been a real sticky one!

“But she’s messaged me and it turns out the screengrab is from the popular video game Football Manager.

“Someone’s obviously posted in on Twitter having a laugh on Football Manager and she’s thought it was real!”