I see that the rumour is that Man City will try and tempt Van Persie away from Arsenal with a £250k a week offer. Can any player be worth that sort of money! In the current economic climate with double dip recession etc IMO it seems almost obscene! Views
Yes, as value and price propositions are two completely different entities. Obviously city value him at that, so are willing to pay that. Personally I don't think he is worth that. Personally I don't believe any footballer deserves to get paid, they create no value what so ever.
I don't think he'll go there. His body language and vague response when asked about his future would be a bit of a worry for Arsenal fans, but if he's off it'll be to Barcelona. And yes, those sort of figures are obscene, but we've become used to obscene wages in football. I keep thinking the bubble will burst soon, but it seems it never does.
What a load of rubbish! Millions of people are entertained by them every week! You'll be telling us music and television create no value next.
Arsenal have offered him a one of signing fee of £5 million if a new contract is agreed on top of what he will get in wages that's just as mindboggling.
Imo when he is on form, the best striker in the world? Definitely in the top 3, but should someone become a millionaire in a month every month of the year? No. But with more and more money in the game, wages are only going to go up.
The argument about footballers and wages is possibly the dullest subject ever. People seem to forget Football is a very odd industry, the money football is so popular and mass produced it doesn't really matter how much they're being payed as long as the clubs pay it. Just forget about it.
No, no, no These salaries are simply crazy. No player is worth more than £5k a week and that is being generous. The argument that it is a short career so they deserve more doesn't stack up anymore. Gone are the days of jobs for life. Most people change jobs more than once in their working life so why should footballers have the luxury of not needing to work after they finish playing. I really don't understand why there isn't a concerted effort by the authorities in football to crack down on this ridiculous situation. No business can survive when over 90% of turnover goes on wages. And how great would it be for the game itself. Success would depend on the ability to coach and develop youngsters not on who has the most money. Many of the money-grabbing foreigners would return home enabling the development of English players which would have to be good for the national team. Ticket prices could be reduced, agents would disappear and even the cost of Sky TV might come down! Right now for most clubs in the Premier League, success is measure by NOT getting relegated and not going bust. What kind of sport is that? Lets suppose that the FA were able to introduce a proper salary cap, what would happen? Well, some of the top players might go to the bigger teams in Europe but there is a limit to how many players Real Madrid or Barcelona could sign (most of the players we are talking about aren't that good anyway). Some might go properly abroad to China or the USA. I suspect most would simply stay put, earning their paltry £260,000 per year! When you think that most of them would be unskilled workers if it weren't for the ability to kick a ball around (not all I know, I wouldn't want to stereotype footballers as uneducated yobs!) earning what, £20k a year max, then £5k a week is still a fortune. As Archers Road says, when is this bubble going to burst? One of the good things that I thought would happen when Pompey went into administration the first time was that someone, somewhere in the higher echelons of the game would sit up and take notice and not allow it to happen again. Instead of which we get the usual head in the sand reaction. Even with a club as big as Rangers in trouble, you'd have thought that wages would get a mention as the cause of the problem. But in every discussion about Rangers I never once heard anyone say that they were paying too much in wages (even after the players took a 75% reduction). Its going to take a Man Utd to go under for anyone to care. Crazy.
Much as I would like to see all of the Premiership teams on a level playing field, it doesn't work like that, it is money that is buying Championships, minnows that try to keep up have not got a chance, we know of one that fell by the wayside trying. Our task is to remain in the Premier and build a team that can challenge for higher things, but that won't be easy. I expect NC to be careful with the finances and not make the mistakes of others.
I think we're seeing a conflict between what is morally justified and what is economically justified. Like many others, I find it distasteful (to say the least) that anyone is paid hundreds or thousands of times more than the average person, but the fact is we live in a capitalist society where the free market rules everything. Professional footballers are highly skilled and a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to watch them play. In an ideal world the prices we pay would be lower and the wages they are subsequently paid would be lower but that's not the world we live in. Football is a market like any other and prices will naturally rise to the highest tolerable level. If we are to pay these inflated sums for football, surely the players deserve the lion's share of that income? Who else should get it? The only way it will change is by rigging the market (financial fair play rules perhaps?) or by dispensing with our current economic model (not particularly likely).
You're not wrong about there being a moral and an economic argument. But I don't see it as a conflict. These salaries don't work in either compartment. Should the players get the lion's share of the income? I don't know. Workers in any other industry don't. I know people often compare footballers with pop and film stars. Well, thats OK but I don't think they should earn such ridiculous sums either.
Well, they manifestly are economically justified, or they wouldn't happen. Yes, it's true that some clubs pay players more than they can afford, but most players are paid an affordable salary. And, at the risk of getting political, workers in every industry should get the lion's share of the income, they're the ones doing the work after all. But the problem with the system we have is that it tends to concentrate wealth at the top. Footballers are lucky that their skills are highly prized and they are not easily replaceable. So in that sense the industry is similar to the entertainment industry as you suggest.
pass the football - You risked getting political and I think you got away with it! One last point and then I'll go back to bed! It should be noted that not all footballers are on these huge wages. In the lower leagues they are nothing like this. Strangely, I actually think that footballers are easily replaced. Ok, so the ones who replace them might not be quite as good. But they are more likely to be local and perhaps more passionate about the clubs for which they play. Also, last year was fantastic in the Championship. The players weren't as good as those in the Premier League but the product was superb.
Congratulations, one of the most ridiculous things I have ever read (and that is saying something!!!). If it "doesn't really matter how much they're being payed as long as the clubs pay it", would you care to explain the goings on at Portsmouth. Or Leeds. Or Charlton. Or West Ham. Or Bolton. or Leicester...? Or would you care to explain why FIFA have ordered a change in the way clubs operate so that over-inflated wage bills are brought under control to prevent dozens, possibly hundreds of clubs going bankrupt? Why do you suppose so many of us have enjoyed the last few of seasons so much - with all the comments about more realistic process to see games and being with "real fans"?? These ridiculously high wages will destroy the game. Look at the damage it has done in the US to american football and to basketball. I am sorry you think discussions about costs are so dull - thankfully others don't feel the same and something is being done about it. Personally I think it is the most important issue in football. I'll make a forecast....within a few months of being in the Prem, even if we are top (unlikely I know) some people will be thinking about the last few seasons when you didn't have to remortgage your house to see a game.
True, many lower league footballers are not on big wages, but lower league football is not as popular. The wages are probably roughly proportional to the amount of wealth they bring in (I know, it's hard to believe but there is logic at work here!) Lots of footballers are indeed easily replaced, and those ones tend not to be paid very well, but as with most things the best footballers are significantly rarer and in higher demand than the average ones. At the higher end of the game they do become irreplaceable. Barcelona will never sell Messi because he is irreplaceable, and Arsenal will spend as much as they can get away with to keep Van Persie, because he is irreplaceable for them. Even for those who are not irreplaceable, finding and recruiting a replacement tends to be so expensive it is worth offering higher wages to your best players in order to keep them. So I guess it's not really the clubs' fault, this is how you have to operate to be successful. Even with the financial fair play rules, where overall salary expenditure will decrease, some players will be on the same wages because that's really how much they are worth to their clubs.
Norwich seem to have done pretty well without paying a fortune, so have Swansea, so have Wigan, so to a degree have Everton. I for one find the support in the lower divisions quite refreshing - yes the numbers are down, but the atmosphere is good and the sense of "belonging" is infinitely better. If Man U were relegated (let me pause for a second to reflect on that wonderful thought!) thier support would run for the hills as most of them only support them because they are at the top of the league. That is not real support as far as I am concerned - you get more of that in the lower leagues. For me, these last few years have been a real eye opener.
