"Making players millionaires before the age of 20 is, in my opinion, morally and ethically wrong" Ian Holloway Before I became a professional footballer I was â Iâm not ashamed to admit â a bit of a scrubber.As a young apprentice trying to make the grade at Bristol Rovers, one of my duties before every home game was to clean the *dressing room floors with an *industrial-sized buffing *machine. I would also shine the boots of a first-team player and help sweep the litter from the *terraces of *Eastville Stadium. In fact, as well as putting my heart and soul into doing the things that would earn me a contract â like *training and *playing as though my life depended on it â I became a real Mr Mopp! And so was every single one of the other 37 *apprentices on the clubâs ground staff. In my first year, I was paid £45-a-week for the *privilege and £70-a-week the following *season. I was also given a small allowance to cover my travel expenses â well, enough to buy a bus pass. When Rovers told me they wanted to keep me on, I was so desperate to be a *professional *footballer that I signed the *contract without even asking what the terms were. It was worth £110-a-week â and I felt like the luckiest man alive because I was being paid to play the game I love. Football has changed for the better in so many ways in recent years â especially the rewards that are now on offer. But doing away with the apprenticeship system that used to prepare players for a *career in the game was a big mistake. The Professional Footballersâ Association will say that being a skivvy has nothing to do with scoring a goal or making a tackle.But that misses the point completely. Clubs didnât just train professional *footballers, they accepted a responsibility to produce decent human beings. Those early years taught me the *virtues of hard work. I learned about respect. Those of us that made the grade knew that being awarded a first contract was just the beginning and that to secure a long-term future we could not let our standards slip. I have no problem with *todayâs star players *earning the kinds of sums that were once the preserve of pop and film stars because they have the ability to bring joy to millions. But when I picked up my Sunday Mirror last week and read that Chelsea had lavished a deal worth £1.7million on a boy of 17, it made me sick to my *stomach. Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be financially** *secure for life even if he never kicks a ball in the Chelsea first-team. I donât know young Ruben and I sincerely wish him all the luck in the world as he *embarks on his career. But what kind of game has football become if clubs are prepared to pay the kind of riches the man in the street can only dream of based on potential, *rather than achievement? Football has long been accused of losing touch with the real world. Players may be adored by many, but there is a perception that the average footballer is nothing more than an overpaid egomaniac who is only interested in the size of his bank account. Stories of Premier League stars wiping their backsides on bank notes or treating women like pieces of meat no longer have shock value. Those kinds of things have become the norm. Making players millionaires before the age of 20 is, in my opinion, morally and ethically wrong.I remember when Gary Mabbutt broke into the Bristol Rovers first team at the age of 17. He was still on the same money as the rest of us and he was still expected to do his share of the menial tasks that all apprentices had to muck in with. Gary wasnât just a great professional, he is also an absolute gentleman. They say that you canât halt progress. What a shame, because not all change in football has been for the good of the game.
Having just seen this: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/wayne-rooney-past-best-claims-1793137 I find it hard to take anything he says seriously.
Happy Easter! EDIT: He's right though. The morally corrupt 'super youth' are truly disgusting. Away from football it's a genuine shame to have to see it. Lucky bastards.
Nice choice of words. What exactly do you do dev? Besides from obsessing over the mighty gers? What purpose do you serve?
Ian Holloway has a gift for chatting ****, and his opinion on Wayne Rooney borders on the bonkers. But on the subject of money in football, he's right, the money these kids get early in their careers is obscene. On the other hand, who wouldn't fill their boots given the chance?
Players are paid a huge amount of money because individually we pay a huge amount of money for television every month. Market forces have drove this, and market forces are in this case not correct. If we paid half as much for Sky Sports every month and those top players were paid 30-40k a week instead of 80k a week there would not be any degradation in the quality of football (40k a week is still an incentive to perform). I have no idea how we fix it now we are that this stage - it would involve clubs saying no to high wages, but there are so many distorting playboy owners (with the likes of Chelsea and Man City) that fans of normal clubs would demand that they try compete at the same level - or die trying.
To be fair to Rooney, he's had a lot to overcome. He's quarter Irish, quarter gorilla and half Scouser. That's some ****ing odds to overcome. Give the thing some respect.
Last time I looked, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Alan Shearer, Glenn Hoddle and Matthew LeTissier were all still alive. Ffs, so is Bobby Charlton. And Mick Channon.
