Loyalty In Football

Niall

Teams that are on the way up in the Premier League (or any league for that matter) often make grand proclamations about 'having arrived' a long time before they actually do. After their rollercoaster ride in Europe's top competition last year, Spurs count themselves as one of the biggest clubs these days, but a quick glance at the gossip columns tells a different story.

Luka Modric was plucked from relative obscurity by Spurs several years ago, after an indifferent start, he broke his leg just as he was coming into form. Spurs, obviously, stood by him and when he recovered he produced some top class performances that grabbed attention around the league.

In the wake of the retirement of Paul Scholes, United were obviously interested in bringing in a creative midfielder and Modric fitted the bill. Although their bid was turned down, it was evident that the interest of United had turned the player's head, and rumours began to come out that he would soon request a transfer.

United and Spurs have history as far as high profile transfers are confirmed. The Manchester club shelled out nearly £20m for Michael Carrick, who at that time was the heartbeat of the Spurs midfield, and then pulled off a last minute coup to secure Berbatov for nearly £30m just a few seasons later.

In both cases the players wanted to leave, Spurs at that time were not the force they are now, and the opportunity to step up to Manchester United was too good to turn down. Regardless of their progress, Spurs are still in the same bracket (as most of the league is) looking up to United, and hoping that the bigger clubs don't come in for any of their players.

If Modric thought that Spurs had a genuine shot at the title or the Champions League next year, would he want to leave? Probably not, unfortunately, he clearly doesn't, and if one of their best player's doesn't rate Spurs' chances, what will the others be thinking?

That said, it's not all a one way road into Old Trafford. Cristiano Ronaldo clamoured to get out of Manchester, having been attracted by the bright lights of Madrid, does this mean that Madrid are the bigger club? Hard to say, they are probably are in the minds of most neutrals, and they were certainly willing to pay an enormous sum to both the player and the club to make the deal happen.

And that, ultimately is the point. Fans expect players to love their clubs as much as they do, but as Torres pointed out when he ditched Liverpool for Chelsea, players have other considerations. Players, at the end of the day, think of football as neutrals, they tend to gravitate towards the bigger clubs, although as Manchester City demonstrated before they got Champions League football, players also gravitate towards bigger pay packets.

So does loyalty exist in football? Yes, if you're one of the big clubs, Giggs, Scholes and Neville are (were) all fantastic servants to United, but if they started their careers at other clubs, does anyone think they'd have stayed there? No, they'd have been snapped up by bigger clubs. Loyalty does exist in football, but only for the big clubs, if not, it's money, not loyalty, that drives the game.

If you want to follow the progress of Manchester United this season in the post-Scholes era, you'll need to get a subscription to MUTV, just ask Sky for an add-on to your existing package or visit the club's website for more details.

Feeky_Magee

Pretty sure we've been confused with Chelsea there.

marcosdeto

well, no matter what we think, in the end, footballers are just workers that want to get more money for the same job

no matter how much we want them to stay, the fact is that they are here for the money

and lets face it, we owe them as much as they owe us, how many times a loyal player was sold to another club because it was good business for us?

why should the club ask for the footballers for life long loyalty when the club wont pay in the same way?

Dr. Dwayne

I'd get a subscription to MUTV if they offered it in Canada.

Ahem, pay attention MUTV. Ahem.

stubie1234

You can subscribe to it on United's official website

I'm always right

It's not live MUTV though is it?

stubie1234

Not to sure, unless it's a watered down version online

Badunk

I think it's a bit shit that our channel is £6 extra a month. If it was £1 or £2 I'd get it.


I mean, Liverpool's is free, ffs.

Sarni

He has a point about it being much easier to be loyal when you are at a big club. The likes of Maldini, Raul, Giggs etc. never really had any significant incentives to move. They played at top European side where they achieved everything, they earned very good money and had legendary status among fans.

Shimo

MUTV from the website is pretty crap, some videos and such from reserve games and then on match days you get the radio broadcasts - this was a couple years ago when I bought the year subscription thinking it was full MUTV just online.

Snow

I don't expect loyalty from a United player that didn't grow up at the club. I have no grudge against Nistelrooy, Ronaldo or Keane. Was more disappointed when Beckham went away.

stubie1234

Virgin have given MUTV free to me after I took out Tivo with them


Liverpool have made a blunder by not making LFC TV a premium. Imagine how much money they could make off that if they charged £5 per month for the channel.

Randall Flagg

Dont think RVN, Keane and even Becks had much choice to be fair.

In fact Ronaldo (and Tevez I suppose) are 2 of the only players I can remember since Paul Ince who actively looked to move.

Any one else was the clubs choice or left due to lack of chances

So why would you hold a grudge against any of them?

Sarni

The part about Tottenham standing by Modric when he broke his foot - well, what else were they supposed to do? Release a player they just spent £16.5m on and let him go to one of their league rivals because he was going to be unavailable for three months?

It's a bit like people saying that we supported Hargreaves during his injury when we never really had a choice. Even if we released him we would still have had to pay out his remaining contract worth.

Snow

I mentioned Ronaldo with Keane and Nistelrooy. Ronaldo grew up watching Spanish football in Portugal. I didn't expect him not the be enticed with a move to Spain.

The players always have a choice as long as they have a contract but they mostly left without a fuzz. It's a good club we have.

Ince was a prick. I started watching football in his final season there. Hated when he scored against us with Liverpool. Fucking prick.

Varun_Utd

Its hypocritical criticising players for their supposed lack of loyalty when we have comments like "I'd swap wilshere for cleverley/ando in a heartbeat'', ''i'd sway hernandez for aguero in a jiffy'', "i'd sway vidic for messi" etc.

rcoobc

Rio just tweeted asking if it's easier to be loyal to a successful club

Varun_Utd

Yes it is.

Sky1981

Loyalty? there's no loyalty in a professional paid job.

You do your job, you clock in, you got paid. The day United failed to pay it's player, they will leave. Was that unloyal? Not really. It is a profession after all, hence professional footballer.

Some have developed bonds through out their career with certain employer, and probably can stick in a bad time, but at the end of the day, it's just another job.

Most of us have been working, do we have an ounce of loyalty to our employer? when a bigger firm with a better paycheck comes knocking? Do we say to ourselves, I feel loyal so I reject a 100% raise in paycheck. No, we don't.

It probably helps if you're playing for your childhood teams, and if they're paying you the market price , it's a win-win situation, but it doesn't always happens that way.

Sky1981

And let's not forget that Modric broke his foot while playing for Totenham's cause. The same with Hargreaves. :P

jojojo

Of course. In fact when we see a player stay loyal to an unsuccessful club people question his brains and his guts.

And money?
Well yes, at the top end, there are players who'll go for glory over money - even a successful and wealthy club like Chelsea can't always get their man, but there are limits.

People talk about Barcelona players being loyal because most are "home grown" and they are, and it being a great place to live and work, but that doesn't stop them being amongst the best paid (with 5 of the top 20 best paid) players in the world.

Same with United, we've got loyal players, an atmosphere that many describe as a family, and success, but we're also good payers.

Colin129

That's not the way I saw it, we all know it was his boyhood dream to go to Madrid.

duffer

He was a boyhood Benfica fan I thought?

Colin129

Only god knows...

forrie_x

If you want loyalty, buy a dog.