WTTGT Writer: Jonn Montanye – Follow Me
As a football supporter, are you tired of these players that one summer pledge their alliance to your club, and the very next summer turn in a transfer request and force a move. How? Why? The next question would be; how is a club at the mercy of a player if they pay the wages and have the exclusivity to that player due to a contract? When do governing bodies put the power back with the club?
First I want to tackle are the transfers. I am the first to tell you that if a player is not happy, ship him out as long as you have someone willing to buy him for his value and the price you set. There in lays the problem. Once a rival team knows you have a want-away player, his value goes down in their eyes. What can save you as a club? The only thing really that can save you is if you don’t need the money. Under this situation, you hold the cards.
Fortunately that is the situation we find ourselves in. Fabregas wants to go, in all reality his heart has always been in Barcelona. But Fab4 is not making the mistakes he made last year, he knows Arsenal have a certain asking price and Barcelona must meet it. Cesc is rightly sitting back, unwilling to alienate some of the fan base like last year by making public announcements. He sees the writing on the wall, Barcelona are a club that can’t afford to make a single payment for a player like Real Madrid can, like City and Man United can. When the Financial Fair Play rules start impacting clubs next summer, he understands the likelihood is he will have to wait two more years when his contract is almost up to move.
To give an example, Alexis Sanchez is closing his move to Barcelona for approximately £40m, how are they paying for that? They will make an initial payment of £15m. That will be followed by £12m next year. They will play 2 or 3 friendlies with Udinese which they will earn them £5-6m in credit. They will also have £12m of the deal in easily reachable incentives. Does this sound like a deal you want Fabregas going to Barca under? How long did it take them to pay us for Henry and Hleb? Are you sure those payments are done or are we still owed?
But should a player earning £110k a week and captaining a club really be looking elsewhere? What does that say about a man, as Jack [Wilshere] so clearly pointed out? What does that say about your heart? Arsenal is close to great things, would you not want to see that through before moving on? At the outset, you also have to think that he’d be third choice behind Xavi and Iniesta. So you go from being a captain on the third most valuable team in the world, close to glory, to third choice on a team that might very well be overshadowed in coming years by its main rival and can’t afford to pay transfer fees? Let alone the rumor that Barcelona was late in paying actual salaries last year. That says a lot about the man.
Now we move on to the next point, contracts. Much has been said about getting rid of players if they want to go. Why? They signed the contract in the first place! If you are entering the last year of your contract and you want to go, and you let the club know, good on you! You had the control and maturity to say, “I played out my contract, now I want to move.” At that point the team can make the decision to risk letting you go for free or attempt to re-sign you.
Nasri in this case is not greedy, he may want more money, but at least you did not hear any drama from him before this summer. Cesc we have been hearing drama from since year one of his deal.
Why did he sign a five year deal and then in year one complain about wanting to leave? So at what point does the FA or UEFA step up and give some power to the team? Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, all of these players are tapping up our player, in the media, in private, and they face no repercussions. Why is that the case?
Cesc is under contract; if he is not happy, he should man up, play out his deal and be dealt to Barcelona when it will be cheaper for them and less damaging to us – in the final year of his deal. Otherwise, Barcelona should step-up and pay what is being asked for by the selling team.
UEFA, FA, please give some power to the teams that are paying the bills, paying the wages and taking the risk of signing a player who could or could not perform. We all know if any player under contract were to not perform and their team would come out publicly and say they terminating the deal due to the non performance, we would have a lawsuit. Why must the team endure a situation a player would not?
Like it or not, we have a system where the player is in control, the time has come for that to end.
An excellent and sobering article. To answer your banner question “NO POINT AT ALL“.
In some ways, the Bosman Ruling has been an absolute curse on professional football. The desperate attempts by Clubs to obtain either an extension of contract or a sale, during the last year or so of a player's employment, makes a complete farce of the whole business. Whilst an improvement in a player's condition of employment was long over due, the wheel has now turned full circle and Clubs are now being held to ransom in many cases. This type of situation would not be tolerated in the public and private sectors of employment, so why in professional football.
The answer must be a thorough professional investigation into the whole business of contracts in professional football. Get rid of Bosman and replace it with a system fairer to Clubs.
contracts really don't seem to be worth the paper they are written on nowdays, shame but guess money is most important thing not respect for clubs