Would you rather be a club legend, fans favourite, Captain, guaranteed starter, top boy at a midtable club Or a squad player, not the best player, not the worst, more money but less game time at a title challenging club? I know which I would prefer.
Interesting timing. They've just said on SSN that Leeds have signed Stuart Taylor, the ex Arsenal, Villa and couple of other clubs keeper. In a 14 year career he has played something like 90 league games.
Either would be great...most of us never get paid for doing something we love. I would want to play though, so okay being middling at a top club as long as you get game time. Otherwise, I'd rather be a loved player at a middling club.
Off topic Fran but from 1960 to 1963 I was paid by the G.P.O to ride a B.S.A Bantam delivering telegrams, the closest I have ever got to Heaven, could not believe they gave me 4 quid a week, would have done it for nothing.
I'd have gone to Liverpool in his shoes too. Most players don't get that sort of opportunity. Irrespective of money, you are playing with better players and chances to win more trophies. Excluding the threat to strike, I can understand all Lord Twatbeard's other decisions.
I think for about 2 years i had forgotten how good simon and garfunkel are. Must listen more. In response to the OP i like to think it would be the former, but pay rises are relative. I have moved jobs for pay rises, amongst other things.
This is a controversial view but it's not just about the money. Despite our avowed goal to get CL football, even if we do get to the promised land, it certainly won't happen overnight, and by the time we get there, some of our star players won't be able to participate. It could have been handled better, and players stating that outright would have earned a lot more respect than the shabby treatment we have been subjected to.
For us guys its a no brainer. If we got an offer from Saints it would be what we'd always dreamed of and we wouldn't be doing what Luke and Adam have done. We would be doing what Rickie has done. Real could make an offer for us and we would be saying 'No I'm playing for Southampton, the team I always wanted to play for, my childhood dream ' If we get Ings then I could see him saying he would stay here if a Liverpool, Arsenal etc bid for him after a couple of seasons of Success.
Some Saints fans need to get real, what is happening is not new, players have always moved when a "bigger" (or richer) club has wanted them (with the obvious exceptions of Matty and Terry Paine). Ted Drake, Alf Ramsay, Martin Chivers, Mick Channon, Steve Williams, Danny and Rod Wallace, Alan Shearer, Wayne Bridge, Theo Walcott, AOC. Some of them were even Saints fans (Drake, Chivers and Bridge). Sentiment doesn't come into it when you are a professional Footballer, there is a need to be the best that you can be, be successful and back your own ability. If Adam didn't make this move, he may've regretted it for the rest of his life and he has as much right to be as ambitious as those previously mentioned players. He has served the club with distinction but feels that the time is right for him to test himself at a higher level, i'm pretty sure that he backs his ability to be a regular starter at Liverpool.
