You beat me to it Dave because that's exactly what I was about to say. Every lad I work with (and myself) have taken a pay cut recently simply because without doing so none of us would have a job. I'm hardly expecting Joe Cole to do that though.
Across Europe there will be many professionals on short length contracts who will be quite anxious at the moment. With the exception of a few well known culprits, I would expect the majority of clubs to be undertaking the housekeeping exercise that we did i.e. cutting the wage bill. Perhaps for the first time in a long time clubs are finally beginning to see that they actually do live in the 'real' world - and times are hard.
Fair point (I have too - community & voluntary sector) but it wasn't really a choice, us mere mortals need every penny of our weekly income to survive and the industries we work in are not exactly thriving either. Football is as rich as ever and Joe Cole is not being pushed into a corner. The suggestion of him taking a pay cut was for him to volunteer to take one without being asked or pressured