da wazamba：
da luck：
Once again this summer there was a noticeable trend whereby certain players were content to move clubs to gain astronomical wages, despite the fact that they may have little impact or fail to improve their career in any way. Whether it’s Cesc Fabregas leaving Arsenal for Barcelona, Asamoah Gyan leaving Sunderland or Samuel Eto’o going east to Anzhi Makhachkala, it is becoming more and more obvious that players are driven less by ambition and more by greed.
Sunderland’s Gyan is the latest in a long list of players whose behaviour raises questions over the mindset of the modern day footballer. The Ghanaian’s lucrative move to the UAE is a loan one, but it seems to offer him little in the way of a challenge on the field and perhaps nothing more than an enormous pay packet. Gyan could play in any of the top four leagues in Europe and be a success, yet he is content to draw a huge amount of money by plying his trade in the UAE.
It could be argued that a player’s career is short, they are only in the limelight for a limited time period, and they need to do all they can to maximise their gains from this time in their career. Many would have found it hard to turn down the reported £200,000 a week offered to Gyan, and it is this sort of greed at the expense of ambition that now sadly characterises the game. Gyan has described the move as exciting. Well, in terms of his bank balance it may well be, but he can’t seriously be comparing the standard of football in the UAE to the Premier League?
It seems astonishing that greed has taken over in the absense of any sort of ambition from players. Surely at one point they simply played because they loved the game, and there was little they wanted to do other than play football professionally. Clearly when they are offered obscene amounts of cash, they tend to lose all sense of perspective.
Cesc Fabregas was another to move this summer. His move is slightly different in that he said he wanted to go back to his boyhood club, and was more likely to win trophy’s at Barcelona than Arsenal. Valid enough reasons, but if Andres Iniesta wasn’t injured, would he really be playing more than a bench-warming role at the club? Is that enough for the modern player? To content themselves with a minor role, watching on as their teammates bring them success and trophies?
[ad_pod id=’qs-2′ align=’left’]
Alexis Sanchez left Udinese – a successful club in their own right – to also join Barcelona this summer and play little more than a bit-part role, at least for this season. Of course everyone wants to play for the world’s best club, and improve themselves by plying their trade there, but the willingness of players to go somewhere where they will do little more than warm the bench while drawing a huge wage seems at conflict with the reasons they will have got into football for. The same applies to a lot of Manchester City stars who have been blinded by the huge amounts of money thrown their way. Several notable talents – James Milner, Adam Johnson – have believed money to be the be-all and end-all and subsequently been forced into little more than minor supporting roles as victims of their own greed. They could have advanced their on-field careers substantially had they made better choices and gone somewhere they could actually hope to make a difference.
Samuel Eto’o also moved on this summer. The experienced Cameroonian could play in any of the top leagues in Europe, and have a devastating effect both domestically and continentally – yet he has accepted the chance to become the highest paid footballer ever by moving to Russia in the twilight of his career. This is a place with a terrible record for racism and racist violence – but apparently that doesn’t matter so much when you are earning obscene amounts of money.
Increasingly nowadays players who turn down the money are rare; players also inevitably hold their clubs to financial ransom to ensure a better wage for themselves. Greed seems to engulf the modern day footballer, and surely football agents must take some of the blame for some of the excessive player demands and the negative influence on young players thoughts. Fame, money and glamour has clouded most players perspectives at the expense of their ambition within the game. The days of the likes of Scholes, Giggs and Carragher are becoming less and less likely, as players put themselves first before the people who have shown loyalty and faith in them. Players now seem to care little about the clubs they represent, as ridiculous salaries and decadent lifestyles have taken over that see them willing to sacrifice any sort of ambitions they originally held within the game as a result of greed.
Do you think the modern day player lacks ambition? Let me know your thoughts by commenting below or following me on Twitter @LaurenRutter
[ad_pod id=’unruly-2′ align=’centre’]