Loyalty in football

[Chris]

I noticed Ronan Murray shared this video, he wrote:

Which pundit do you agree with? What do you think on the matter?

Interesting subject, personally I feel footballers are using excuses to force moves but sometimes its best to just let them go. There is little loyalty yes, however you can't stereotype everything. At the end of the day I can understand someone wanting to earn more money would want to leave a club, yet to fake an injury is totally wrong.

For Payet, I think he's acting like a spoilt child and he's been one of West Ham's major issues this season.

Though I don't understand why anyone would hold a grudge on a player wanting to better themselves, wanting to earn their family more money or to win trophies. Sometimes the vibe around the club is enough, yet without allowing for the free movement of players to leave I feel this only makes the subject point all that much bigger.

[DangerousSausage]

I'll watch that tonight. It's an intereasting debate.

Fans used to demand absolute loyalty to their club, but compared to 20 years ago I think there is a lot more understanding that to the players it is just a job and they have to look after themselves. People generally accept that very few if any of our squad grew up dreaming about playing for Notts County.

On the other hand, when players played for two or three clubs in their entire career, in many cases if they wanted to play in a higher league they had to win promotion at their existing clubs. Nowadays it's more commonplace to angle for a move to a higher-division club.

[Dripsey3]

Player loyalty is rare these days. The latest examples are Costa and Payet. Costa throws a fit when Chelsea won't sell him to a club in China who would pay him his own weight in gold. He's a multi millionaire, when is enough money enough? He'd rather more cash than trophies. Nuts. Payet then decides I don't want to play for West Ham anymore. I'll still want paying though.

[upthepies]

Lets face it, these days its a different type of loyalty.

The videos right fans are the only ones who do show true loyalty, most do not cut and change based on what happens but there are fans who do switch. This is the case in football where people want to be paid more and more, yet to say no player has loyalty is wrong. Its a shame football clubs these days offer little loyalty to the people who keep returning, rather favouring new people who get lost. This point can be applied to players they release, so its not all about the footballer.

Call me old fashioned but I think football in the last 20 odd years has became all about the money involved. That is the real problem.

[liampie]

think fans think this is what happened to alan sheehan, he was offered a deal at bradford and decided to leave for just money.

never understood how anyone can get all that upbeat about a player wanting to leave, provided its done respectfully it should not be a problem. the premier league is full of drama, nobody knows if costa is injured or faking it because he wants out. likewise with payet, its only people talking and he seems happy enough. west ham have been very poor this season, so has their recruiting so can you blame him?

if a player wants to go, i dont think loyalty comes into it myself. i would question a player who just hung around when wanting out, playing poorly or faking an injury to force the move because its not honest behaviour.

[CliftonMagpie]

Well if its a problem now, it will only get worse with time.

How much blame falls down to the players agent for encouraging a player to make a switch?

[allardyces tash]

I would say football has changed massively, so not only is money the problem but it does impact player loyalty (even management).

United in the 1990's had a very good squad, the players was friends and the club had the belief that each season they could win something. This gave them a much better chance at gaining loyalty that won't be repeated, Giggs, Scholes, Butt, etc never left United for this reason. Clubs and fans can play a part in keeping players grounded, if agents kept to their jobs and didn't get involved I agree it would help.

Though times have changed and there is not as much loyalty in football for many reasons.

I do not expect it to come back anytime soon either.

[Joe Jones]

There's two different tiers of football involved here.

The first is the top tier, which is the one with the top leagues and the rich leagues. With this, greed can take over. So if you're earning, say £60k a week and you get an offer for £100k, it's kind of like "well, if I stay here I miss out on £40k a week". Sure, you don't really need that much money in life, but you get accustomed to a certain kind of lifestyle. Especially if you're a player with no particular fondness for a particular club, although you'd think you'd grow to become fond of that club, like Harry Kane (an Arsenal fan in his youth).

The second is the lower leagues, where players are on less than, say £1k a week. You can't really afford to be picky there, sure, it's still good money compared to the average person but in this case you can say "they've only got a short career" and in this case they need to put as much money as they can aside.

[liampie]

people forget most footballers even in the lower leagues have their own businesses.

so i do not buy that earning an extra 15k is all that important, we all know that the money paid to players is silly as it is.