I found myself feeling a little bit sorry for Rob Green this morning IF he is being replaced after such a short time......until i got hold of a copy of the PFA's magazine 'The Players Club' Now Rob is, as we all know, getting a good wage from this wealthy club of ours and after seeing the adverts in this magazine i can see what he can spend it on. There are adverts for cars in the £200k range, kitchens in the £30k range, a lovely 8 bedroom, new build house in Essex for £2.2 mill (I kid you not, the kitchen is 3 times the size of my whole house) and even Steven Reid (WBA) talking about his f****** rolex at £8k. Now i'm not silly, and realise players nowadays live a life of absolute luxury but seeing this really brought it home to me just what these players can afford and how they can live their lives. So tell me chaps........Should i still be feeling sorry for poor old Rob ??
As I put on another thread, No. Nobody has a right to play whatever the position. He has been employed by the club on a contract he agreed to. If we choose to buy another keeper he fights for his place. If he doesn't like it put in a transfer request. That's squad life!
Good question Staines, i suppose at the end of the day they are still human (some of them anyway) and Green seems like an alright sort of chap.
Question is did we pay for an alright sort of chap or a Goalkeeper who would provide some strength and commandment at the back? I know what most R's fans would prefer. He has not lived up to his billing (question if he's past it now) and if we are successful in bringing in another keeper, he should have to fight for his place. By the same token, Cerny has never been a massive influence but he's at least not prone to as many horrendous moments as Green. I say give Cerny a go with a solid defence.
Good article. It's written by the Andrew 'Andy' Cole but all the same makes for reasonable reading. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Andrew Cole Aug 24, 2012 It angers me when I see a football manager speaking out about a player he wants rid of - despite the player doing nothing wrong except being surplus to his requirements. Wayne Bridge, Emmanuel Adebayor and Roque Santa Cruz are three players who signed contracts with Manchester City, only to find that they were not going to feature under Roberto Mancini. They trained hard and were available for selection, despite knowing that they had no future at the club. They dutifully went on loan when asked and never spoke ill of their employers, even went they were sent to different countries, with Santa Cruz going to Seville to play for Real Betis. They fulfilled every detail in their contract. Is it their fault that they were handsomely paid? No. What would you do in the same situation? Decline an offer of £80,000 (Dh465,554) per week and suggest that the weekly salary should be half that? Or leave your job half way through your contract and take a massive pay cut? Some suggest that the desire to play football should overrule all else. What, even the welfare of your family? Every player wants to play, that's why they made it at the highest level in the first place. Ninety per cent of players who are deemed outstanding at 16 don't make it at a professional level. Of the 10 per cent who do, only a handful end up at the top clubs. Yet I've seen managers criticise players they don't want for picking up huge wages and accuse them of being lazy. They have to be careful in the language they use, so they make insinuations, they raise eyebrows or pull silly faces to make it clear that they have no love for the player they want out. That's what the public see. At other clubs, players who have suffered from long-term injuries have been hounded and accused of being wage thieves. There really is a lot more to it than that. Put yourself in the shoes of one of the aforementioned players. You've signed a three or four-year contract because you are so highly rated. That contract is supposed to offer security and it does, both financially and in terms of knowing where you'll spend the next three or fours years of your life. Knowing that, you'll relocate your family and go through the hassle of your kids changing school, of taking them away from their friends and trying to settle them into a city where they know nobody. It's not worth doing that with a one-year contract. Then, after one year, you are told that you have no future at the club. It's unfortunate but that's football, yet to be pushed out is plain wrong. If a club offers a contract then they should honour it and if they really want the player out then they should pay the contract up. Fans don't see the human side. I know players who were mortgaged up to the hilt and were suddenly told that they were surplus to requirement. Few have any sympathy for their cause because the man on the street thinks that every footballer is a millionaire. I've been at a club where I wasn't wanted and it was horrible. I loved playing for Blackburn Rovers, a proper club with a fine tradition. I got on great with the fans and everyone at the club - except the manager Graeme Souness. We fell out and he wanted me out to reduce the club's wage bill, but why, given the circumstances, should I have helped somebody who has made my life difficult? To break my spirit, I was called in for extra training sessions, asked to train with the kids and saw reserve team strikers picked ahead of me. I spoke to the Professional Footballers Association. What a waste of time that was. After years of paying a subscription, my first call to them was to ask what I should do following a breakdown in communications with my manager. Their advice? "Try to sort out the matter with your manager." Thanks for that! What professionals also despise is when former footballers who spoke out for players' rights then change their tune as soon as they become a manager. They know exactly what it's like to be a player, so why do they forget that when they start briefing against their own players in the media? Criticise the farce if a club buys too many players, criticise the manager who mugs off his own players, but don't criticise the player who suffers from these mistakes. [email protected] http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/sport-comment/unfair-to-label-footballers-on-big-contracts-greedy
..Why the transfer window is hell for players The transfer window has become one of the most eagerly-awaited periods of the football season, with fans clamouring to know who their club will sign, where their idols will be going and which superstar names will be snapped up by the staggeringly wealthy men behind City or Real Madrid. Eurosport- ....For the players themselves, however, it is a very different experience. The transfer of Sebastien Bassong from Tottenham to Norwich garnered few headlines this summer, something that is perhaps unsurprising given the details of the deal. It involves a solid-but-not-spectacular player being shipped out to a mid-table club for an unremarkable fee of £3 million. Yet while the move made few ripples in the game, Bassong and his family have been through a chaotic and traumatic summer. The deal might warrant little more than a footnote on our transfer news pages, but the player himself has effectively been forced to change jobs and move house, all with just a few days' notice. "It is different from our side," Bassong told The Times. "The transfer window, for players, is really uncertain. Maybe, if you've had a really good season, it's different. Maybe you know where you will be playing. "But on the other side, it is really uncertain. The clubs will go to your agent and try to get a feeling whether you are interested in moving. The agent relays it to you, and then maybe there's an official offer, and then there's all the talks. "It takes a long time. It is really stressful not knowing what will happen." Bassong was not just grumbling on his own behalf: he also lamented the toll that the move will take on his nearest and dearest. "It is hard for your family. That is another side you don't see," added the former Newcastle star. "You need their support. My wife (Marie) and my daughter, Elyha, will have to reorganise their lives. "It is a difficult world we work in. People think it's an easy life - because we are in the spotlight, because of the money - but money is not happiness. "I was happy at Spurs, but now I have to restart my life to get that happiness back." Bassong was at Tottenham for three years after joining for £8m in 2009, but made just 44 appearances in his three seasons at White Hat Lane and was sent on loan to Wolves in the second half of last season. That loan move meant a third new club in four years for the Cameroon international, and he admitted that settling in with new team-mates is one of the toughest parts of being shunted around from club to club. "It is awkward, being introduced to a new team. It is kind of intimidating," he said. "They are new people, and you don't know if they will welcome you. All you can do is be the best you can, being as sociable as possible. "Every time there is a new signing there is a mixed feeling from one or two players. It might be good for the team, but then they are still an opponent for you to face." Though his career stalled at Spurs, Bassong hopes that by linking up with Chris Hughton (whom he worked with at Newcastle) he will get back on track. "Chris could tell I was not comfortable when I met the Norwich team, but he made some jokes and he made it easy. That's what makes him such a good manager," he said. "He helps a lot. We have a good human relationship. I can't compare him to any other manager." It might be a cliche that footballers cite the desire to play as the reason for their moves to smaller clubs, but Bassong insists that it is true. "I could not take the risk of another year like the last two, where I did not play. I like to play," he said. "It is not about money or glory for me. It is just about playing. I tried really hard not to lose confidence when I was not playing, but it is tough. "You have to keep going because if you do not, when your chance comes, you will not be ready to take it." And he admitted that if all goes to plan, he still has hopes of moving back to a club with ambitions of making waves in the Champions League rather than one which is simply targeting continued top-flight survival. "I have a big ego," he admitted. "When I left Spurs, I said to André that in one or two years he would be back to buy me again. 'Is that right, Seb?' he said. I told him yes - if he's still there." ...
