Football’s a funny old game. Isn’t it just! Where else would you get ridiculously praised and worshipped for the job you do everyday? Where else would you receive such a large pay cheque for such little work? Where else would you be the boss even if you were employed by someone else? Where else would you punch someone in the stomach unprovoked and get away with it in the name of self defence?!
I think it was Alex Ferguson that said ‘the only thing that’s surprising about football is that people are still surprised’. To a certain extent we all have to agree with the sentiments of Fergie. How often do we, the supporters, and the various media gasp in horror as a player refuses to sign a new contract or states his intent to leave his club? Should we really be that surprised? I mean, just where is the loyalty in our game these days?
Loyalty is often seen as a two way street. If someone is loyal to you then you feel obliged to be loyal to them, and vice versa. So how come this doesn’t transfer over into football? Is it the money? Is it the personal greed and ambition? Or is it something darker under the water that we aren’t exposed to?
On the most part footballers get the brunt of it for not being loyal. Supporters and pundits alike claim that they’re spoilt, are ruled by money and have no loyal backbone. Players who have been ambassadors for their clubs have fallen to the lure of money time and time again. Rio Ferdinand was the leading star of Leeds’s young successful generation but when Manchester United came knocking, his dedication soon changed. Steve Gerrard spent an entire summer in 2007 claiming he was going to stay at Liverpool before it came out that he actually wanted to sign for Chelsea. After months of ‘will he, won’t he?’ Gerrard finally stayed. Then there’s Captain Chelsea himself, John Terry. I’ll always be a Chelsea boy said the ex-West Ham trainee who has allegedly done wrong by his missus on several occasions. Manchester City came calling and JT confirmed he was going nowhere. Weeks passed with rumours rife that JT wanted to stay whilst other sources suggested he wanted to move. Eventually it came out that he wanted to stay… well, he stayed, but did he want to? Senor Terry was adamant he never had any intention of leaving… so why did he have a meeting with Chelsea’s elite where the discussions ‘confirmed that Chelsea are the team for me’, as said by John Terry.
It seems in this modern game no player’s word can be trusted. They’re just puppets for their agents. When a player says ‘I have signed a contract with this club and I intend to see it out’, is his agent actually saying ‘He’s signed this contract on this amount of money and when that’s up, he’ll move onto another club for a free and the money they save on transfer fees he’ll gain in a signing on fee and weekly wage’.
Ok, so maybe now the paranoia is setting in, but is it really that far from the truth? I mean, a footballer’s shelf life isn’t that long really is it? How many of us can look forward to retirement in our thirties? Even if I sold my body I would still be looking at forties or fifties at the earliest! So are we really in a position to criticise players who are just looking after their own well being? If footballers did play for longer would the money be such a big deal?
A classic example of a player who chose the loyalty over money was Alan Shearer. Back in 1996, during that halcyon summer of football coming home, Alan Shearer was involved in a tug of war between two teams for his signature. Champions of England, Manchester United and their title rivals Newcastle United were both vying for his signature. Many felt Manchester’s lure of glory and medals would be too much for an England striker who had achieved little domestically. However, in a move that stunned football, Shearer turned down the temptation of glory and medals in favour for playing for his hometown club. It could be said that Mr Shearer was one of the last great romantics.
Since then we’ve seen players given such nicknames as Cashley Cole and Judas Floyd Moneybags. It seems as if football is on a downward spiral and the accelerator is coinage.
Are we focusing too much on the players though? Maybe the clubs are at fault. Have the players lost faith in the clubs and are therefore looking after no.1, believing they are the only ones they can trust? Do clubs have an obligation to stand by the players through the bad times, even if the players wouldn’t return the favour?
I guess from the beginning of their careers players have a subconscious fear of the clubs they play for. Clubs held their fate when they were 15 year old trainees hoping for an apprenticeship. That day has probably scarred many a footballer and is a constant reminder of just how one decision from their employer’s can affect their lives. So why hang around and show commitment to a club who could finish you as quickly as they started you? Why not move from nest to nest, club to club, making as much money as you can as quickly as possible? Is that really disloyal? Or is it just sensible?
Saying that, there have been times when clubs have shown a huge amount of loyalty to a player who hasn’t necessarily warranted it. We look at the sticky situations that Duncan Ferguson and Joey Barton got themselves into. Everton and Newcastle respectively stood by their players, unlike Plymouth and West Brom with Luke McCormick and Lee Hughes respectively. Then there’s the personal
problems that the likes of Tony Adams and Michael Chopra have had with alcoholism and gambling addiction.
In this day of age there is a general theme of self. Facebook focuses on people updating their status to tell the world what they’re doing or thinking, whilst posting up pictures of themselves. Twitter is designed for individuals to tell the world their feelings on a regular basis. Myspace… the name says it all! It’s all about no.1 these days and this trend has filtered through to football. Surely it’s understandable to see players making the most they can of their short careers. One tackle could end it all and then turning down that big move to the Premiership might seem like a big mistake after all. However, some will always take it too far. For some £100k a week just won’t be enough and they’ll do as much as they can to gain as much as they can with as little regard as possible for anyone they can.
Like it or lump it, football is controlled by money. The owners have lots of it, club progress is defined by it and player loyalty is seemingly divided by it. Still, even these days with all the money floating around, there are still those white knights keeping the faith alive that football isn’t all about the money. Ian Ashbee hasn’t been tempted away from Hull whilst Gary Speed has always been famous for turning his nose up to the big guns in favour of regular football.
So next time we ridicule a player for leaving our club for bigger money, don’t be so hasty to abuse him. Think about it, wonder why he’s really doing it. Maybe he’s concerned about his long term financial future and wants a sound upbringing for his family? Maybe he is worried about getting injured and what’s to achieve as much as possible as quickly as possible? Or maybe he’s just a selfish so and so… then we can fire the first shot. That’s the great thing about football. It’s never black and white. It’s always grey.
I think it was Alex Ferguson that said ‘the only thing that’s surprising about football is that people are still surprised’. To a certain extent we all have to agree with the sentiments of Fergie. How often do we, the supporters, and the various media gasp in horror as a player refuses to sign a new contract or states his intent to leave his club? Should we really be that surprised? I mean, just where is the loyalty in our game these days?
Loyalty is often seen as a two way street. If someone is loyal to you then you feel obliged to be loyal to them, and vice versa. So how come this doesn’t transfer over into football? Is it the money? Is it the personal greed and ambition? Or is it something darker under the water that we aren’t exposed to?
On the most part footballers get the brunt of it for not being loyal. Supporters and pundits alike claim that they’re spoilt, are ruled by money and have no loyal backbone. Players who have been ambassadors for their clubs have fallen to the lure of money time and time again. Rio Ferdinand was the leading star of Leeds’s young successful generation but when Manchester United came knocking, his dedication soon changed. Steve Gerrard spent an entire summer in 2007 claiming he was going to stay at Liverpool before it came out that he actually wanted to sign for Chelsea. After months of ‘will he, won’t he?’ Gerrard finally stayed. Then there’s Captain Chelsea himself, John Terry. I’ll always be a Chelsea boy said the ex-West Ham trainee who has allegedly done wrong by his missus on several occasions. Manchester City came calling and JT confirmed he was going nowhere. Weeks passed with rumours rife that JT wanted to stay whilst other sources suggested he wanted to move. Eventually it came out that he wanted to stay… well, he stayed, but did he want to? Senor Terry was adamant he never had any intention of leaving… so why did he have a meeting with Chelsea’s elite where the discussions ‘confirmed that Chelsea are the team for me’, as said by John Terry.
It seems in this modern game no player’s word can be trusted. They’re just puppets for their agents. When a player says ‘I have signed a contract with this club and I intend to see it out’, is his agent actually saying ‘He’s signed this contract on this amount of money and when that’s up, he’ll move onto another club for a free and the money they save on transfer fees he’ll gain in a signing on fee and weekly wage’.
Ok, so maybe now the paranoia is setting in, but is it really that far from the truth? I mean, a footballer’s shelf life isn’t that long really is it? How many of us can look forward to retirement in our thirties? Even if I sold my body I would still be looking at forties or fifties at the earliest! So are we really in a position to criticise players who are just looking after their own well being? If footballers did play for longer would the money be such a big deal?
A classic example of a player who chose the loyalty over money was Alan Shearer. Back in 1996, during that halcyon summer of football coming home, Alan Shearer was involved in a tug of war between two teams for his signature. Champions of England, Manchester United and their title rivals Newcastle United were both vying for his signature. Many felt Manchester’s lure of glory and medals would be too much for an England striker who had achieved little domestically. However, in a move that stunned football, Shearer turned down the temptation of glory and medals in favour for playing for his hometown club. It could be said that Mr Shearer was one of the last great romantics.
Since then we’ve seen players given such nicknames as Cashley Cole and Judas Floyd Moneybags. It seems as if football is on a downward spiral and the accelerator is coinage.
Are we focusing too much on the players though? Maybe the clubs are at fault. Have the players lost faith in the clubs and are therefore looking after no.1, believing they are the only ones they can trust? Do clubs have an obligation to stand by the players through the bad times, even if the players wouldn’t return the favour?
I guess from the beginning of their careers players have a subconscious fear of the clubs they play for. Clubs held their fate when they were 15 year old trainees hoping for an apprenticeship. That day has probably scarred many a footballer and is a constant reminder of just how one decision from their employer’s can affect their lives. So why hang around and show commitment to a club who could finish you as quickly as they started you? Why not move from nest to nest, club to club, making as much money as you can as quickly as possible? Is that really disloyal? Or is it just sensible?
Saying that, there have been times when clubs have shown a huge amount of loyalty to a player who hasn’t necessarily warranted it. We look at the sticky situations that Duncan Ferguson and Joey Barton got themselves into. Everton and Newcastle respectively stood by their players, unlike Plymouth and West Brom with Luke McCormick and Lee Hughes respectively. Then there’s the personal
problems that the likes of Tony Adams and Michael Chopra have had with alcoholism and gambling addiction.In this day of age there is a general theme of self. Facebook focuses on people updating their status to tell the world what they’re doing or thinking, whilst posting up pictures of themselves. Twitter is designed for individuals to tell the world their feelings on a regular basis. Myspace… the name says it all! It’s all about no.1 these days and this trend has filtered through to football. Surely it’s understandable to see players making the most they can of their short careers. One tackle could end it all and then turning down that big move to the Premiership might seem like a big mistake after all. However, some will always take it too far. For some £100k a week just won’t be enough and they’ll do as much as they can to gain as much as they can with as little regard as possible for anyone they can.
Like it or lump it, football is controlled by money. The owners have lots of it, club progress is defined by it and player loyalty is seemingly divided by it. Still, even these days with all the money floating around, there are still those white knights keeping the faith alive that football isn’t all about the money. Ian Ashbee hasn’t been tempted away from Hull whilst Gary Speed has always been famous for turning his nose up to the big guns in favour of regular football.
So next time we ridicule a player for leaving our club for bigger money, don’t be so hasty to abuse him. Think about it, wonder why he’s really doing it. Maybe he’s concerned about his long term financial future and wants a sound upbringing for his family? Maybe he is worried about getting injured and what’s to achieve as much as possible as quickly as possible? Or maybe he’s just a selfish so and so… then we can fire the first shot. That’s the great thing about football. It’s never black and white. It’s always grey.
