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Modern day player loyalty.. nonexistent??

I know I may be as they say "peeing in the wind' with this but I feel that the Premier league need to take action to get players to show something in the way of loyalty to the clubs that employ them.

How on earth is any club supposed to challenge the money clubs without being given the chance to develop players from their youth systems or by taking a punt on buying players as we did with Bale, Walker, Naughton, Dawson Lennon and so many others and spend years trying to nurture their talent if it exists.

We tie them into long contracts only for them to be torn up in front of our faces when a bigger club asks for them and yet we all know that for every Bale there are at least 10 failures. I ask you if you were on a contract at work would you be allowed to just break it and move wherever you like?? I don't think so! and we are only talking about t 10;s thousands not millions!! If Bale or Modric leave Spurs at the end of this year it will be yet another slap in the face for the club and supporters in their attempt to build/follow a squad skilful enough to challenge for the top spot.

The supporters deserve so much credit for continuing to sell out White Hart Lane every game, year in year out regardless of whether we are high flying or not and deserve to have the Premier league protect the clubs these players are employed by. Why is it that the league allow players to sign contracts and then refuse to play, ala Berbatov and sit on the bench sulking because he says 'cos my head is not right!!" how many of us could get away with going to work on a Monday and saying to our boss 'my heads not right so I am unable to work today' without being told to get lost and pick your cards up from HR!!!

The only players that are loyal are players that play for those top clubs or those that are not good enough to play for the top clubs. There is a middle ground but these guys think they should be playing for the top teams but are not good enough. (Sidwell and Parker at Chelsea as an example) I am asking for the league to ensure that clubs are protected when a player is in contract with the club. see it out or rot in the reserves with no pay!!! Let`s see how many refuse to play then!!

Written by ginola29

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Writer: ginola29

Date:Saturday April 16 2011

Time: 2:54PM

Your Comments

first

ohwellnextseason

let us hope we make the champs league again so modric bale and vdv get the premier competition they so deserve and thus reward us with loyalty.

ohwellnextseason

when looking at this debate, we a;lways have to consider that we are not that far from the top of the football food chain and therefore steal from more clubs than there are to steal from us. in addition to the idea of player loyalty, what about the manner in which clubs treat the players (from accademy upwards) that they dont want? we look at the bigest names like Bale and Modric, but we would make serious money from any sale, reluctant or not, but they are still very much the minority and clubs so easily dump players they dont want, whilst happily giving lont term deals and then changing their manager and then wanting to flog them and cant because only then the player holds the cards on many cases.

oxfordspur

Im pretty sure Simon Jordan is loving this article :)

mwatspurs2

mwatspurs thinking of Bostock too .Why should players be loyal ,it`s their job they`re not fans like us .They have themselves to look after but sometimes they could conduct themselves better i.e Berbatov .Holding a club to ransom is bad considering a contract has been signed if they have to honour it they should do .If someone form Preston was on 5 grand a week & we offered him 60 grand a week & he said "no i`m loyal to preston " you`d think "what a muppet " .Football is an occupation & a career they`re not fans like us it`s their job.If i have a chance to double my salary & get a better contract somewhere else at my job i`ll do it ,what makes them any different ?.Loyalty was there when football was more a sport now it`s more a business

big cockeral

Sadly nothing much the league can do as wage caps don't work, as too many ways round em and am not sure if the new rules regarding revenue will be taken that seriously. Player power is out of control, but its not just players trying to move up a level (as Baloltelli moving from Inter to City has shown). Players/agents now use any excuse to move dont like manager/area/country, need CL or new challenge etc. But then again if someone offered to double your money, with better prospects and a nicer place to live, what would you do?! be honest!

JGinola

I agree with what the article is trying to get at, and I hate "player power". But on the other side of the coin some of the greatest players to grace a pitch have fallen short of the medals they deserve by staying loyal to a team, Shearer and le tissier are just two examples.

mwatspurs2

Loyalty is a two way street....many players would argue that clubs sell them on against their wishes.

Should we force clubs to keep players to the end of their contracts too?

Spursex

agreed spursex, and it is not just the clubs but us supporters too. there were many on here stating that it was time to move lennon on not so long ago, here is a player who has always shown total support for the club, and he is not like defoe in the sense that many clubs would be seriously interested in aaron. but if his performances drop than we supporters are the first to say its time to sell. this summer many a fringe player (hopefully) will be shown the exit so that we can streamline our squad and wage bill. no-one is on here defending their rights. In truth we fans are just as fickle as these players we criticise for their willingness to move to better teams, higher wages and winners medals. Take the recent criticism of VDV, within months the sentiment has shifted from us praying he chooses to grace us with his presence for many years to come to suddenly, if we can 20 million for him lets be rid... personally I have no problem with players wanting to move to progress, especially players like modric and bale who know that during the very very short span of their peak playing years their only chance of achieving anything will be in the domestic rather than international arena. The club will never show allegiance to a player for its own sake, nor will the fans, so why should the players? We support the concept of the club and are happy to toss aside any player if they weaken the team. These players should always put their own short careers first. They are not supporters of spurs, and even when they are - bentley anyone? that hardly transfers to any greater love from the fans, as he found out when he was booed whenever he touched the ball. I hope we keep our top players for at least another season and when the likes of bale and modric inevitably move on I will wish them the very best of luck and will remain grateful for some fantastic memories. I have no problem with player power - the problem lies with the agents and their growing sway. I would never want to see a talented player being forced to rot on the bench - I would love to see rumuneration caps being imposed on agents however

Guernman

and as for ledleys picture - what would anyone really want to bet that ledley would still be with us had he not been plagued with his injuries. if players improve into world class footballers then they deserve to be competing for winners medals. if we can deliver the possibilities then we will keep our best, if we can't they will naturally move on. thats why with our financialy constraints when compared to city, united, arsenal, chelsea and liverpool, we must continue to find the next bale, modric etc and when they do leave rely on levy to get top price for them

Guernman

i wish people would stop taking bout bale and modric leaving there going no where

11ledleykings

Footballers are employees , they sell their talent and their labour to their employer, just as any other employee. If somebody comes along with an opportunity for somebody to better themselves both financially, and perhaps from a success point of view as well, particularly in a profession where most are finished at 30-35 years of age, it is unrealistic to expect them to turn it down. As is the case in business and commerce, if you are particularly good at what you do, you may get head hunted.

Frank

Some use Ledley King as the prime example of loyalty to a club. To an extent I would agree, but I would suggest that the real big teams have long since lost interest in King, due to his injury problems. Had this not been the case, who knows whether he would have been tempted away, as Campbell was, when bigger, more successful clubs came calling. Generally there are still players who choose to stay at their original, often home town clubs, in spite of temptation and interest from others, John Terry, Stephen Gerrard, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes are good examples, but in their cases why move, they have won their trophies, and earned big bucks, whilst staying.

Frank

You mean the same Steven Gerrard who handed in a transfer request 5 years ago Frank? Or the same John Terry who held his own club to ransom flirting wiith City in order to gain a ridiculous new contract?

HuddersfieldYiddo

They are both at their original clubs, in spite of the efforts of the Sun, and th Daily Mirror suggesting they were going.

Frank

" ask you if you were on a contract at work would you be allowed to just break it and move wherever you like" in the real world you could just give in your notice some contracts stipulate that you can't work for a direct rival for 6 months but other than that you can just leave. In football clubs are compensated for their players the two just aren't comparable.

judge

Works both ways, or rather it doesn't. And it's not just the players and clubs that are disloyal. Some fans like to boo their own players. Some fans like to use forums like these and like to go way beyond constructive critisism of their own players into the realms of vitriolic abuse. Also how would everyone feel if we get offers of £10 mil each for Bentley and Jenas with terms superior than what we're currently giving them and they said 'no thank you, I don't care about the money, I'm a loyal spurs player even if I can't get into the 25 man squad?' And just to throw out a question like the OP, how many of us can be told by our employer 'no, you can't quit and take another job somewhere else' or 'ok, you can go and work for someone else but we won't let you go to another employer in this country.' I'm not saying there's no merit in questioning players loyalty's, just pointing out it's not quite as black and white as some people seem to think.

flipper

Owners sell when they want to. Managers walk when they want to. Owners fire managers when they want to. Players leave when they want to. They all get paid ridiculous money, all of which comes from us the fans. We, the fans, pay the freight. We're the only ones that don't walk out. We're the only ones that truly care. Everyone else is well paid for their "caring". That's why I admire BAE so much. Honest and not apologetic. Professional. COYS

peterballb

I also fail to understand how this affects Spurs. We didn't develop Carrick, Berbatov, Keane. We further developed them, but we did the same as we had done to us. How can you insist that any kid stay in our system when there really is little likelihood, as things currently sit, of any of our "developed" players ever getting a shot? We don't play the kids. Even in a 9-1 game we had not a single kid on the bench. Taraabt, KPB, Gio will all have decent careers. No place for them in our system. We're looking at Beckham, Neille, Parker, Ferdinand, Forlan et al anyway. COYS

peterballb

There's no loyalty from anyone in football, including fans, because everybody wants the best. Managers want to manage the biggest clubs, players want to play at the highest level and fans want to see the best players. I'm not going to be a hypocrite and say that it's disgusting that there's no loyalty and slag players off and say they should be sold. Loyalty is a two way thing.

bernio3000

I'm with Spursex on this one... Loyalty is indeed a 2 way street. Look at players like Bassong and Kranjcar. Both signed for a manager that they were happy to play for, both were loyal enough to buy into whatever it was he told them, both have since been treated like $hit. Why should a player show loyalty or respect to anyone or anything that isn't loyal or respectful to them??

coopsieyid

Bernio, I don't agree that fans don't have loyalty. How many Spurs fans do you know that have become Arsenal fans? Or Chelsea fans? Fans may well disagree on how a club is to move forward (OS being a classic example) but they still support the club. Many loved Jol - he got sacked. Who stopped being Spurs fans? The fans stay through thick and thin. They are akin to family. The players, managers, owners are more akin to friends. Some stay for a long time, and some are ousted quickly. Rarely do they become family (Ledley King). COYS

peterballb

Too much money being brandished around.

Madaboutspurs

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