Booze! Brawls! Bears stuffed with sex toys! It's the 10 worst football club Christmas parties

Tottenham star Giovani dos Santos was pictured looking very much the worse for wear at the team's Christmas Party last night.

It's safe to assume that the young Mexican isn't feeling too clever this morning, but he can at least take solace in the fact that his behaviour was nowhere as bad as this lot's:

10) Celtic (2002)
Holding your Xmas party in another city altogether is often a wise move, but occasionally it merely adds fuel to an already well-fanned fire.

Celtic's 2001 bash at the Sizzlers steakhouse in Glasgow climaxed with Neil Lennon passing out on a pavement and smashing his head on a kerb. In 2002 they went to Newcastle instead, in what a spokeswoman confirmed was "an effort to avoid attention". Sadly, it didn't work.

A party of well-oiled Bhoys wound-up at the glamorous-sounding Buffalo Joe's Anerican themed bar in Gateshead, only to be greeted by a gang of photographers.

One 'incident' later, and four of them - Neil Lennon, Bobby Petta, Johan Mjallby and Joos Valgaeren - were in police custody.

Perhaps the mean kerbs of Glasgow would have been a safer bet after all.

9) Leeds (2001)
David O'Leary's less than angelic team of 'babes', a Wild West-themed fancy dress pub crawl and 10 solid hours of boozing: what could go possibly wrong?

Everything, which is why the club appointed five security guards to follow the 30 or so players around the city in an attempt to prevent what might euphemistically be termed 'mischief'.

Even so, freshly-signed striker Robbie Fowler still managed to wind up in the cells after a fracas with photographer Ben Lack ended up with the latter's camera being smashed on a garage forecourt.

"I can't understand why they reacted like they did," whined Lack afterwards. "Robbie Fowler is used to having his picture taken."

Yes, Ben. But then again, he isn't usually three, four or even five sheets to the wind at the time.

8) West Ham (2001)
Few Hammers fans can recall anything carrot-topped Australian defender Hayden Foxe did on the pitch during his time at the club, but they all can remember what he got up to off of it.

After reportedly amassing a drinks bill of nearly £2,000 in the VIP section of trendy London 'nite spot' Sugar Reed, Foxe mistook the bar for a urinal (easily done… after twenty pints) and promptly relieved himself all over it.

Frankly, that's just taking the p…

7) AGF Arhus (2004)
Former Bolton midfielder Stig Tofting is the very definition of a footballing nomad, having played for 10 different clubs over the course of his 14-year career.

It's not hard to work out why when you consider that his AGF Arhus career was quickly curtailed after he punched out four team-mates at the team's Christmas party.

The reason? They'd torn the poor fella's shirt.

Presumably the Danish paparazzo breathed a collective sigh of relief that they weren't on hand that night to have their cameras smashed for posterity.

6) Manchester United (2002)
Christmas is, of course, traditionally the time for goodwill to all men. Unless those men happen to be team-mates who haven't pulled their weight, of course.

Manchester United duo Ryan Giggs and Roy Carroll upheld that noble tradition back in 2002 when a row erupted after an all-day session at an Irish pub in Manchester moved on to the Rossetti Hotel.

Team-mates had to separate the pair after they were seen "nose to nose and swearing at each other".

One onlooker said: "It was all pretty nasty but they didn't actually come to blows. I think drink had played its part."

You don't say!

5) West Ham (1998)
Take one large group of overpaid footballers, add copious amounts of alcohol, wrap them in '70s fancy dress and leave the whole thing to simmer for hours in an Essex meat-market and you have a recipe for disaster.

Remarkably, West Ham's players managed to make it to chucking out time before getting into trouble - although they quickly made up for lost time.

A very public fracas with a Mini driven by a 19-year-old beauty therapist led to charges of causing criminal damage for 'Tricky' Trevor Sinclair and affray under the Public Order Act for Neil 'Razor' Ruddock.

4) Liverpool (1998)
The only thing better than football stars behaving inappropriately is footballers behaving inappropriately while in fancy dress.

England international Jamie Carragher managed to do both at Liverpool's bash when he got busy with a can of whipped cream and a gaggle of strippers while dressed as the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

According to a report in the News of the World at the time, Michael Owen allegedly went to stand in the corner when the debauchery kicked off, while Paul Ince remained at the DJ booth looking 'concerned'

3) Leicester City (2001)
Invite one of Dennis Wise and Robbie Savage to a party and you're arguably asking for trouble. Invite them both, and you might as well call the cops before it even starts.

The atmosphere at relegation-threatened Leicester's Xmas bash understandably turned sour when Wise gave Savage a teddy bear impaled on a sex toy and reportedly told him: "Take this, because you're the only p***k in a Leicester shirt at the moment."

Savage responded by smearing chocolate on the former Wimbledon star's face and mocking his relationship with old pal Dave Bassett.

But the mood really went downhill when Wise went on to make sexual remarks about Robbie's then girlfriend. Cue knuckle sandwiches all round.

2) Manchester City (2004)
It's hard to believe that mild-mannered midfielder Joey Barton could get into trouble at a booze-fuelled bash, but that's what happened at City's 2004 Christmas party in the inappropriately named Lucid nightclub.

Reports suggest that young Joey was, as ever, acting the charmer, boasting about his £27k per week contract and attempting to make holes in the other players' fancy dress costumes with a lit cigar.

When youth player Jamie Tandy took umbrage and attempted to return the favour with a cigarette lighter, Barton stubbed said cigar out in the 18-year-old's left eye.

If only the cigarette ban had been enforced three years earlier, then Joey Barton's career could have turned out very differently indeed.

1) Manchester United (2007)
The Reds' last Xmas party is also their last Xmas party, as boss Sir Alex Ferguson was so incensed by what happened at the Great John Street hotel that he cancelled Christmas for good.

And who can blame him? The Rio Ferdinand-organised evening started going downhill when some 80 hand-picked women were corralled to join players who were already well in to a 15-hour drinking marathon.

Early revellers were treated to the sight of Wayne Rooney, strumming a pretend plastic guitar, unknowingly chatting up a Daily Mirror reporter with the immortal line: "I'm dressed like Justin Timberlake tonight - and you can be Beyonce".

But events took a much darker turn as the drink continued to flow. One witness described how she overheard a vile orgy in one of the hotel rooms, during which the men shrieked "like hyenas".

To cap it all, 19-year-old defender Jonny Evans was later arrested on suspicion of rape - although no charges were ever brought.

Bah humbug indeed.

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