Sean O’Driscoll has paid tribute to departing midfielder Cole Skuse, describing the Bristolian as “a fantastic servant” to his boyhood club. Read more at http://www.bcfc.co.uk/news/article/20130514-sodonskuse-821103.aspx#E6ZiXzvyqBLJxcXx.99 Cole Skuse has never been a servant in his life. He is a talented and very well paid employee of an English League Football Club. So why refer to him as if he is a Victorian scullery maid? Players talk about "the Gaffer" instead of the Head Coach never referring to him by name in the same way that every other employee in the country refers to their manager. Football team managers insist on being called Gaffer or Boss to get respect from the players. Respect comes from how one manages and performs in one's job. The year is 2103. When will the media industry and Football personnel stop using language and terminology that disappeared from industry and commerce in Britain nearly one hundred years ago.
And when will pundits and other ignorant people stop calling us Bristol..........? Football in general hasn't moved out of the dark days with it's secular divisions and opinions, rampant racism, supporter bad behavior and such other delights. The only thing that has changed are the ridiculous wages being commanded by some fairly average people. We ought to know, most of them have played for us!
The language of the game as has been pointed out essentially is, or at least was, based on the word respect. Players in the past had the respect of the supporters because they always gave their best and didn't break the bank with their demands. Today's game is full of mercenaries who demand money which is beyond the norm and don't even consider whether or not they have the respect of the paying public because they are only interested in their own greedy agendas. Regrettably we can't turn back the clock but if you look at our current plight then I think you must agree that the players are in a large part to blame for our fall from grace. I am not in any way trying to say that Cole was individually to blame but, like the others, he must accept the mantle of being a co-conspirator by being an overpaid and underperforming constituent part of the problem. So here we are, going to address the so called issues that have led the club down the wrong path to League One and trying to fix the broken parts and repair the image that the supporters have had to face. The cold hard reality of the matter is that unless the overall structure of the game is changed from within then I can see the new BCFC facing the same problems the minute they start to see any kind of success. The days of local lads and their mates being considered as role models for the youth have long since disappeared from the landscape of football, regrettably never to return. The cost of success has gone beyond believable boundaries and don't expect Bristol City to be a shining beacon in the dark for the future sanity of the sport because you are sadly mistaken if you believe that we can go it alone when we need the undying support of the rest of the teams that make up the Football League, and that will never happen when greed is the sole motivator.
Cider - the term "servant" in this context derives from an Act of parliment (Master and Servant Act 1889) which defined the working relationship between an employer and employee and the latter's duties. It is not designed as an expression of servitude (although this was probably accurate when the law was created), just a way of expressing the working relationship which is defined by the legal profession as: A servant is anyone who works for another individual, the master, with or without pay. The master and servant relationship only arises when the tasks are performed by the servant under the direction and control of the master and are subject to the master's knowledge and consent. A servant is unlike an agent, since the servant has no authority to act in his or her employer's place. A servant is also distinguishable from an Independent Contractor, who is an individual entering into an agreement to perform a particular job through the exercise of his or her own methods and is not subject to the control of the individual by whom he or she was hired. The master and servant relationship arises out of an express contract; the law, however, will sometimes imply a contract when none exists if a person was led to believe there was one by the conduct of both the employer and the employee. No contract exists, however, unless both master and servant consent to it.
Your reply proves that the term is archaic! Look at the date that the legislation you refer to was enacted. It might still be a legal way of describing employer - employee relationship, but the world has moved on since 1889. I simply believe that the term "Servant" as used in football parlants is derogatory and demeaning in exactly the same way that football managers insist on being called "The Gaffer". It is archaic in the extreme and if the rest of industry and commerce behaved in this way thirteen years into the 21st Century, every right minded working person would be screaming for change. There is a ray of hope though because I heard an interview a few months ago with Steven Gerrard who referred to the Liverpool manager as "Brendan" so perhaps some clubs are beginning to change. And perhaps the City media person who posted the story on City's web page should reconsider how they write up such releases in the future.
