Jack Rodwell, wasted careers and players not playing football

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Just watching Sunderland Till' I Die... and the Rodwell stuff interests me.

There you had a player earning a ridiculous amount of money, not playing any football. The club can't afford to pay him any more 'cos his wages are so high, nor they can offered to play him because of the bonuses in his contract (not that they'd probably want to, due to him being consistently crap)

As the club offered him the contract in the first place, I half think Rodwell entirely within his right to sit there an earn the money. Maybe he should have sense of duty to the club/fans to cancel his contract and play elsewhere - but I mean, he'd be losing so much money doing so, so would it even be realistic to ask him to do that?

On the other hand, I just can't imagine a footballer not actually wanting to play football, and wasting away the best years of their playing career....

Also, what does it say about Jack himself? This is player lest we forget who was said to have huge potential, who we were heavily rumored to buy at one point. And yet in the last 7 years he's averaged about 12 league games a season (and I have no idea how many of those will have been substitute appearances) .... it's a monumental waste of talent.

Earning a shed load of money is probably great, but I cant imagine he won't look back on this when he's an old man and have a bit of regret about how his career turned out... then again he might not, who knows.
 

youngrell

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It's been debated quite a lot in the Sunderland 'til I Die thread, if you missed it.

My opinion is that I don't think he did anything wrong really. It was ridiculous for them to try and pin on him that the club couldn't afford him and that he should move on or cancel his contract while the club was owned by a billionaire. I know Elis Short had said he will not plough anymore money into the club but it's still unfair to go after Rodwell while Short was the owner.

He was also young enough to sit that year out and still make a decent move at the end of the season.
 

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It's been debated quite a lot in the Sunderland 'til I Die thread, if you missed it.

My opinion is that I don't think he did anything wrong really. It was ridiculous for them to try and pin on him that the club couldn't afford him and that he should move on or cancel his contract while the club was owned by a billionaire. I know Elis Short had said he will not plough anymore money into the club but it's still unfair to go after Rodwell while Short was the owner.

He was also young enough to sit that year out and still make a decent move at the end of the season.
Yeah I saw - but thought it was worth its own thread - and it can be a wider discussion about wasting careers, which I do think Rodwell has done.

I mean he's 27 now, he's only got 2 or 3 years at his best level left... and his best level could have been much higher with different career choices.
 

youngrell

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Yeah I saw - but thought it was worth its own thread - and it can be a wider discussion about wasting careers, which I do think Rodwell has done.

I mean he's 27 now, he's only got 2 or 3 years at his best level left... and his best level could have been much higher with different career choices.
For sure. The waste started when he moved to Man City with very little prospect of making an impact there. But as you say, he's made a lot of money so who knows how much he'll regret it.

His statement about sacrificing since he was 7 to make it as a footballer can be looked at both ways – that he deserves the money or that he really wanted to play football but his Sunderland predicament stopped him. Probably the money.
 

Adisa

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As for Rodwell, how he was treated is a disgrace imo. If you sign a contract, honour it.
If you want to rescind the contract, pay him off. Trying to blackmail a player into taking a financial loss is a cnuts way of doing things.
 

WolfInSharp'sClothing

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I'm not saying for any moment that footballers are hard done by, but they do have a limited earnings window. A player with Rodwell's injury record would probably have known that the Sunderland contract was probably going to be the last 'big' contract of his career, so it's OK saying morally he should cancel the contract, but there's absolutely no reason why he should.

Rodwell was probably thinking more about the long-term future of him and his family, than the opinion of a fan-base that he owes nothing to.
 

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A. van der Meyde played about 50 games total after he left Ajax and he was 22 then. injuries did their part but he also had personal problems.

Zeki Fryers with 40 professional games so far and he's 26 (will turn 27 this year). how the time flies :annoyed:
 

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Remember Winston Bogarde? Didn’t he just see his contact out in the reserves on a massive weekly wage (for the time)
 

steakpie

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I never understood why Rodwell was moved to CM, never looked comfortable there.

He had the potential to be an England international CB.
 

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If they didn't wanna pay Rodwell, or couldn't, they shouldn't of offered him the contract, simple as that really.
 

Broad Street Bullies

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A. van der Meyde played about 50 games total after he left Ajax and he was 22 then. injuries did their part but he also had personal problems.

Zeki Fryers with 40 professional games so far and he's 26 (will turn 27 this year). how the time flies :annoyed:
Ah yes. Forgot about him. Remember the big commotion it caused between us and Spurs when he moved? Hard to fathom now.
 

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A. van der Meyde played about 50 games total after he left Ajax and he was 22 then. injuries did their part but he also had personal problems.

Zeki Fryers with 40 professional games so far and he's 26 (will turn 27 this year). how the time flies :annoyed:
Andy VDM was an alcy with a lot of issues.

My old man's an Everton fan and he always goes on about players leaving Everton and not making it. Rodwell, Jeffers, Barkley maybe. Sure there are more. I actually think 12 months more at Everton for Rooney would have been better. Tough isn't it I guess as the player wonders if that is there one shot to get to a big club and earn that HUGE money.
 

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Jack made atleast 20 appearances in each of his three seasons with Sunderland whilst still in the premier league. He had problems with injuries, which may have limited his playing time during those seasons. It was only really the 17-18 season where he didn't play much. Sure, he should have tried to find a club over the summer maybe, if he has a view he wouldnt play much due to contractual stipulations, but also don't agree he should have just ripped up his contract. Its not his fault that the club offered him that without a relegation clause.

Dont feel bad for him necessarily, but does feel the club and doc were trying to paint him as the bad guy here.
 

Jack - City Fan

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For sure. The waste started when he moved to Man City with very little prospect of making an impact there. But as you say, he's made a lot of money so who knows how much he'll regret it.
To be fair to him, when he moved to City it was as a potential replacement to DeJong and/or Barry, both of whom he was at least as good as at the time, shortly after he went through a spate of injuries before getting sold. If he'd avoided injury and managed to develop he'd be the back-up/competition to Fernandinho we still desperately need. IIRC his move happened when he was highly rated and off the back of an absolute shutdown of Silva at the Etihad.
 

youngrell

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To be fair to him, when he moved to City it was as a potential replacement to DeJong and/or Barry, both of whom he was at least as good as at the time, shortly after he went through a spate of injuries before getting sold. If he'd avoided injury and managed to develop he'd be the back-up/competition to Fernandinho we still desperately need. IIRC his move happened when he was highly rated and off the back of an absolute shutdown of Silva at the Etihad.
Yeah, there was no doubting he had potential and was being highly touted but to me his City move came a little too soon. He hadn't even cemented a position at Everton and would have probably been better off staying there another season or so.

Unless of course, he saw the money and decided that was more important. Granted he could have had both had he stayed fit, like you say, but to me it was a hasty decision joining City at that time. Much like Scott Sinclair.
 

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Why did Jack not play?

Did he refuse or did Sunderland refuse to play him, for whatever reason?
 

kentafuji

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I think some players just make the wrong moves, and ultimately it doesnt work out, and they lack playing time because it. Maybe its money motivated.

Zeki Fryers as he was mentioned, he probably saw Spurs as a good chance to break into a first team set up, but it just didnt work out, and he struggled for playing time with his subsequent clubs. He seems to be getting regular game time at Barnsley now
 

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I'm sure Bobo Balde did the same at Celtic, sat on his contract for a couple of years knowing he was surplus to requirements.
I'm in 2 minds about it, on the 1 hand, i'd want to playing regular football if i was still young and hungry, on other, if the club give me a big contract that i wouldn't get anywhere else, why should i move?
 

kentafuji

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Why did Jack not play?

Did he refuse or did Sunderland refuse to play him, for whatever reason?
Dont think its ever been officially stated. Rodwell's camp always mantained he was fit and training, and ready to play. Club just didnt select him. Most likely reason is he had appearance bonuses etc, that would have meant that playing him would have just cost too much
 

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Jack made atleast 20 appearances in each of his three seasons with Sunderland whilst still in the premier league. He had problems with injuries, which may have limited his playing time during those seasons. It was only really the 17-18 season where he didn't play much. Sure, he should have tried to find a club over the summer maybe, if he has a view he wouldnt play much due to contractual stipulations, but also don't agree he should have just ripped up his contract. Its not his fault that the club offered him that without a relegation clause.

Dont feel bad for him necessarily, but does feel the club and doc were trying to paint him as the bad guy here.
Yeah thats a big point - stupid of the club really, especially with how often they were in relegation scraps.

I think the documentary does miss a trick by not having an interview with him to give his side of things(though maybe he didn't want to do it?) ... so there's only one way it was going to be portrayed.
 

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As long as Rodwell was trying his best both on and off the field (I haven't looked into it so no idea if that is an accusation that can be thrown at him), he's well within his rights to expect his contract to be honoured. Contracts are there for both parties, not just the club. If the club chose to give him that contract, they absolutely should be honouring it. Many players would choose to move on in that situation even if they do lose some money, but I'm not going to really blame a player who chooses not to.

On the other hand, if he (or somebody in a similar position) are being half-arsed about his training or playing and it's his own fault he's not contributing to the club, then I'd be fine with them looking into cancelling the contract.
 

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Speaking of wasting time/talent... Danny Drinkwater has gone from an integral part of a Premier League winning midfield, to a barely integral part of Chelsea's bench.

He's still only 28.
 

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Neil Warnock made a similar point about it regarding Poch at Tottenham. Saying the club would show no loyalty to him and sack him if he was doing badly so why should it work the other way? Same goes for players I guess. Rodwell knew he wouldn't get offered 70k a week at any other club so may as well make the most of it whilst you can. He's at Blackburn now and I'd be surprised if he's making half of that. It's a shame as at 1 point he looked a promising player and it kind of is a waste of career. It's all a bit risk vs. reward, he could of gone somewhere else and rebuilt his career but maybe he thought with his injury record it's just not worth the risk. I sympathise with the staff at the club who may of suffered as a result of Rodwell being paid big money but not the club itself.

I think it depends on the player really, if they got playing time and similar money elsewhere then I'm sure plenty would leave but look at the examples in this thread, Rodwell, Balde, Bogarde etc. They were never getting that money elsewhere and the club were stupid to offer it them.

Always thought with the likes of Rodwell the big move to City happened to soon, same happened with Sinclair although he managed to get a good career at Celtic. It would be pretty hard to turn down huge contracts at their age though.

Speaking of wasting time/talent... Danny Drinkwater has gone from an integral part of a Premier League winning midfield, to a barely integral part of Chelsea's bench.

He's still only 28.
In fairness didn't Drinkwater get offered the same money to stay at Leicester? He just wanted to challenge himself. He played his best football alongside Kante to and I'm sure that played a factor in moving, it didn't see money motivated it seemed he genuinely thought he'd play a bit. He's meant to be leaving them as well.
 

kentafuji

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I suppose you can throw second and third choice goalkeepers into the discussion.

Again, not much option to play for them. Occasional cup run maybe for the 2nd choice, but third choice often very rarely play.
 

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I suppose you can throw second and third choice goalkeepers into the discussion.

Again, not much option to play for them. Occasional cup run maybe for the 2nd choice, but third choice often very rarely play.
Goalkeepers aren't really footballers in fairness!
 

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I suppose you can throw second and third choice goalkeepers into the discussion.

Again, not much option to play for them. Occasional cup run maybe for the 2nd choice, but third choice often very rarely play.
In fairness is there many third choice keepers who aren't youngsters or older pros for a last pay day/some kind of coaching capacity?

People like Rob Green, Lee Grant etc are prob happy enough being third choice at Chelsea or United, I think both do some coaching in some capacity so it helps with that and they're steady enough.

Second choice is a weird one. People like Romero could prob be a regular for plenty of teams for example but seems happy enough sat on the bench.
 

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Still not sure why they just didn't get him transferred to another club and offered to pay the wage difference or send him out on loan.
 

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Colleague of mine has seen it and he told me the scouts only provided the execs with their transfer list 6 days before the window closed? They were supposed to be having financial restrictions yet the top two names on their list were Will Hughes and Maitland-Niles? And they assessed players on whether they wore gloves during winter time...

Looks like a very poorly run club if true.
 

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Maybe Rodwell just realised he wasn’t ever going to be good enough when he started training with Manchester City.

Honestly, if that was me and I knew my days as a Premier League player were over I’d be holding out on that big contract for as long as I could. Playing for lower Championship clubs in your late 20s seems pretty unfulfilling if you were expecting to be a top PL player and England regular. I’d be asking my agent to see if he could get me a cushy transfer to China or the Middle East.
 

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In fairness didn't Drinkwater get offered the same money to stay at Leicester? He just wanted to challenge himself. He played his best football alongside Kante to and I'm sure that played a factor in moving, it didn't see money motivated it seemed he genuinely thought he'd play a bit. He's meant to be leaving them as well.
Hasn't benefited from the managerial change either
 

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Maybe Rodwell just realised he wasn’t ever going to be good enough when he started training with Manchester City.

Honestly, if that was me and I knew my days as a Premier League player were over I’d be holding out on that big contract for as long as I could. Playing for lower Championship clubs in your late 20s seems pretty unfulfilling if you were expecting to be a top PL player and England regular. I’d be asking my agent to see if he could get me a cushy transfer to China or the Middle East.
bit confused about your post as you've said maybe realised he wasn't going to be that good but if it were you that you'd be holding on that big contract as long as you could....which is what he did and I think you said you'd be doing. But then the next line you said playing in the championship would be pretty unfullingling so go to China or Middle East where the league is much better (which it's not). I don't think Jack really cares about being fulfilled with ambition anymore but that's my guess.

I think I know what you're trying to say, just seem to be conflicting quite a bit space of text.

If it were me and I was Jack, and I had the injuries he had plus perhaps I realised I was just not that good and motivation my had gone but a club was stupid enough to sign you up on a stupid contract, then I'd have done the same thing. I don't think there's anything wrong in what he's done. You also don't know if the guy is suffering mentally once he gets home which might be impacting his performances and enthusiasm...moving to Sunderland would do that to many people...
 

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Didn't Wayne Bridge spend most of his peak years on Chelsea's bench, refusing moves?

I understand the temptation to make a shed load of cash but past a certain point, is that all there is? Once you're rich enough to retire (aged 24), surely you'd want to look back on the football you played?
 

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Sunderland deserves to be where they are, never liked the club. It was their own fault for signinh clearly past it players on big wages.
 

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bit confused about your post as you've said maybe realised he wasn't going to be that good but if it were you that you'd be holding on that big contract as long as you could....which is what he did and I think you said you'd be doing. But then the next line you said playing in the championship would be pretty unfullingling so go to China or Middle East where the league is much better (which it's not). I don't think Jack really cares about being fulfilled with ambition anymore but that's my guess.

I think I know what you're trying to say, just seem to be conflicting quite a bit space of text.

If it were me and I was Jack, and I had the injuries he had plus perhaps I realised I was just not that good and motivation my had gone but a club was stupid enough to sign you up on a stupid contract, then I'd have done the same thing. I don't think there's anything wrong in what he's done. You also don't know if the guy is suffering mentally once he gets home which might be impacting his performances and enthusiasm...moving to Sunderland would do that to many people...
I'm quite sure he wasn't tryin to say China and the Middle East is better, but was more hinting at the fact he'd get paid more over there. Thought he was going to be a top player, crushed by the reality that was never going to happen so would only ever play for as much as money as possible after that as playing the Championship wouldn't fulfil his dreams anyway, so he'd make it all about the cash instead.

I like to think I'd be opposite but wouldn't know until I was in the situation.I like the idea of playing whatever level I could compete at as I'd still have more money than most anyway and would enjoy pushing myself.
 

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Didn't Wayne Bridge spend most of his peak years on Chelsea's bench, refusing moves?

I understand the temptation to make a shed load of cash but past a certain point, is that all there is? Once you're rich enough to retire (aged 24), surely you'd want to look back on the football you played?
I think a lot of us underestimate just how much these guys spent per week of their £40k or so, plus tax taken off (don't forget back then it wasn't crazy £150k for a Fellaini type player).

If most of us were given for sake of argument a lump sum of £10m at the age of 35 after earning an average wage we'd make it last a lifetime...if you're 18 and earn £10k and then earn £30k at 23 and £40k at 27 you've probably bought yourself a few lambo's, wasted money of £5k bottle of wine, clothes etc. There's a reason so many footballers end up quite broke considering just how much they earned.
 

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I think people forget these guys have most likely played several thousand hours more of this sport than amateurs meaning that as much as it's enjoyable, it's also work. Combined when something that is also a hobby AND your livelihood, you're probably quite pragmatic; go to training, go through the motions, cash the check, enjoy life and have a renaissance in the states at 31.

Not much different to normal jobs to be fair except you earn considerably more and people hate you for the fact you're employed by someone they don't like
 

Rafaeldagold

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I think he was treated pretty poorly in that Netflix documentary. They made him out to be this evil incarnate when for him & his families future why would he not stay on the contract that Sunderland offered him in the first place?
How’s it his fault that they can’t afford it anymore? If it was the other way around & he played well & wanted to leave during his contract they’d be cries of ‘loyalty’ then .
Sunderland tried to take the moral ground but looked a bit childish to me on that show.