Kissing the badge

We are witnessing an era where, in top flight football at least, players are generally overpaid and under committed to individual clubs and the fans who currently happen to be paying their inflated salaries and pandering to their even more inflated egos at any given point in time.

Kissing the badge once looked upon by fans as a clear illustration of a players love and commitment to their beloved team is increasingly been seen for what it is - an easy and thinly veiled con, designed to keep fans sweet for as long as required; i.e. until a better, usually financial, offer comes along. I’d advise players to stop right now – we know where we stand. The only real loyalty in football lies with us; humble supporters of clubs up and down the country, we know this, the players know this, and the clubs know it.

So how to cope in the current climate with the inevitable departure of one of our better performing players, who decides to ply his trade elsewhere in the interests of furthering his “footballing ambitions” you understand, nothing at all to do with tripling his wages. It would be a start, I believe, if our departing hero was honest enough to say just that; listen boys and girls your clubs been good to me. I’ve performed well for you, and consequently there is a much better financial offer on the table, and I’ve decided to make hay while the sun shines – I could live with that personally. I wouldn’t feel like to add insult to injury the player in question, whose brains are usually in his feet, attempts to con me, and himself, into thinking otherwise with some lame attempt at convincing us that the move is for deeper footballing reasons – Bollocks!

My strategy therefore going forward is to steadfastly support my team, as I’ve always done; Ha’way The Lads! But to equally steadfastly refuse to make individual heroes of players in that team, or consider for one moment they are with us for anything more than a brief period in our history, or for any other reasons beyond that’s how they put bread on their table. I know that they will want to win of course, but make no mistake it is ultimately for their CV not for us.

Whether I can hold this position in the heat and passion of the game will be an interesting challenge to myself, but I’ve got to do something to seize back the power, and preserve my sanity.

Kisses the badge. . .

 

Yet another excellent article, Blackcat.
The thing is that it's difficult to avoid the "he is ours" feeling when a player signs. It's like family, isn't it? Like, I miss Andy Reid because he was a big part of recent success.
It's amusing, to me anyway, that thousands of scousers now look on Ladyboy as "theirs".

But I know what you mean. Good luck!

 

Thanks Blackcat - nice post. I once had a row with a bloke who told me that I had no right to say "we" as I don't play for the club. What a Muppet viewpoint. Players are temporary, supporters are permanent.

No more scrapbooks for me, either!

KTF

 

an interesting article, that gets you thinking about players loyalty v salary. not so long ago we saw bent kissing the badge which turned out to be a false show, but what if young jordan was to do it, would you think it was for show or actually for affection for his home town club. i expect carroll did the same and we know what happened there. what about mary poppins i do believe he did have a loyalty to his club (shame really, another great player wasted). but there are cases when the ridiculous salaries and loyalty balance out, gerrad for example is on stupid money but on several occasions could have increased it, but stayed loyal. but these cases are few and far between, they say they want sucess and to win things, but only a certain amount of silverware is up for grabs, so ultimately it about money, but at the end of the day its their job, like blackcat says we should not expect loyalty from them, its business and nothing more. sentiments are out the window

 

Thank you for the comments gentlemen. Commachio the point you raise about home grown players who come through like Jordan, or even come back to their home town club like Shearer is an interesting one, and I'd concede muddies the waters a little.
For me I think young emerging talent like Jordan will initially play with their hearts but as they become more accustomed to the rarified atmosphere that seems to surround the average EPL player these days will generally start to see things from a more detached stand point. I hope in Jordan's case this takes a while longer yet, as it seems he, with the support of his family, is a well grounded kid. Time will tell.

 

Great article mate and you are right. I support my club and enjoy my heros of today but I'm very concious that they are for today. How can players born in foregin climbs who play for countries other than mine and had no idea where Sunderland was before signing, how can they be anything other than employees.

I have no problem with that and dont think many have, all I ask is that they committ 100& to my club for the time they are here. When a player says the fans are great, I like the manager and my team mates and I want success for Sunderland then again thats good to hear and fine by me.

The problem with Bent was he said more than that and if he had left saying I loved my time at Sunderland, loved the place and the fans but Villa came in with an offer I could not refuse so I'm sorry to be going but thats football, again I could have accepted it.

He soured things with booking into an hotel giving the impression he could not get away to soon but its Bent I blame, not the others.

 

Says it all. And he seemed so genuine, too!

 

I think that when we start to think, are they all like that, we should remeber Quinn

 

There are undoubtedly some notable exceptions to the rule Syd, and Quinn is perhaps the best example of all from SAFC perspective. What he has done for this club, born out of a love that came about during his playing time here is nothing short of astonishing. Shearer's loyalty to NUFC was also admirable - in my opinion, unfortunately for him NUFC did not ultimately reciprocate, but they did the same with Bobby Robson, ultimately to re-write history fairly swiftly when that great man passed away.

 

Good article Blackcat, Iam not in the same industry as Bent or Carroll.
but if another job came up offering me another £30 per hour over four years,
Id be off like a shot, but then I never kiss my overalls, tell the company I will
be there forever, let my workmates down, so the comparrisons differ, but in
industry there is more loyalty to your workmates, than you will find in any football club.
also a lot more respect given and taken.

 

Excellent Bill, kissing the overalls...it might just catch on!

 

I'm BP til I die. Doesn't sound right, somehow.

 

I think we just have to take it for what it is now.
They kiss the badge to show how proud they are to be playing for the team, lets not forget this cuts both ways when clubs sell players who actually love playing for the team.

Footballers have turned into commodities, well paid ones, but still commodities.

Gary Neville, love him or hate him was a badge kisser who did it to wind up the opposition, but at the same time was a hell of a servant to Utd.

Rooney who I think is a great player let himself down kissing the Utd badge. (I think it was in response to the Everton supporters that were abusing him mind.) Deep down we know he will still love Everton.