I read an article one thing about the super wealthy, meaning the 1%, so another category or two above the average footie player. It talked about how human beings inherently trying to one up each other, but that the higher up in income some people go, the more sight they lose of reality. Not surprising to hear that im sure. But it went on to talk about the example of for instance the advent of the super yachts and how every one of these billionaires seems to be out there to have an even bigger or fancier ship than the other. A never ending cycle of keeping up with the joneses. Continuous hunger for more money, power and status. We obviously see it on a smaller scale in our own worlds. We probably all know people who have left the place they worked at chasing more money etc. Only to want to come back later.
What to me is messed up about a Henderson situation though is that we have people being used as commercial vehicles by a league or country, they get paid more money to in essence do less than they had to before, they willingly go along with it, and then they complain later as if we re supposed to feel sorry for them.
I happen to have met my fair share of Man United players in my time. That include players who were, at the time, in the academy (ex Lingard and Pogba). I am also related to people who were involved at the Pieta youth academy at the time when a kid with the name of Valeri Bojinov (former Fiorentina, Juve and Man City) dropped by. So I have my fair share of contact with these people.
Football is an unforgiving industry. Only 1% of footballers succeed to the very top and those who do will require a huge deal of talent, luck and total dedication to the game. We hear of young players losing their way but that mostly happen after they start playing at first team level. Those who lose their way before that are often discarded very swiftly and quite frankly brutally. Thus the player that succeed at the very top is often the guy who put every egg in the football basket. You only have to hear the likes of Rooney, Totti, Gattuso, Vieri, Beckham and Ronaldo talk to notice that they aren't the brightest bulbs out there.
In the past football was far simpler then today. The relationship between manager and player was very strong and the agent was often a distant man who will pop in at certain stages of a player career mainly for contract renewals, transfers and to iron out issues between the player and the club. These days players hire agencies which often include the agent himself, PR team and fitness people all dedicated to make sure that the player gets the most out of a player career. This creates friction between the manager and the player with the former wanting to win games and the latter wanting to squeeze as much juice out of his career as possible. That's becoming more and more evident at United for example were we keep hearing of managers 'training players too hard' and players fecking to Dubai to recover from injuries rather then stay in Manchester. That in turn create more distraction which means that its easier for rats to get close to the players and whisper the wrong sort of advice. As fans we are mostly concerned about those who create friction between the player and the club/manager however I assure you that these people will also speak about investment as well. I know of players who lost a great deal of money in a property project in the ME. This guy is a considerate and responsible person but lost like 15% of his wealth which is a bit of a problem considering that he had since retired. Luckily for him he's got other investments + he's still working in other areas. Others weren't so lucky (ex Gazza or Ronaldinho). I think Gaz was the one who said how important it is for players to surround themselves with good people both during and after the football career is over. There are many vultures out there who would pick on the vulnerable and nearly retired players (loads of money, not particularly bright, alot of anxiety at facing the inevitable etc) make easy picking. Players need professional people that can trust to help them separate the wheat from the chaff.
Having said that I expect better from Henderson. He;s been around for years and these days solid financial help can be fount quite easily. He should have done his homework rather then risking alienating a group of very rich and very powerful people with an ego the size of a small state and who don't like to be branded as fools.