Club Loyalty vs Player Ambition
One of the remaining romanticisms of football is the notion of a player’s loyalty to a particular club.
Like other such ideals (sportsmanship, for example), this too, shall pass.
Football players are not necessarily greedy or heartless. However, their first responsibility is to themselves, their own career and ambitions, and as such they do ‘whatever it takes’ to meet those goals - sometimes at the cost of abandoning their club.
There are many examples of players ditching their clubs to go play with arch rivals, mainly to further their career. Sol Campbell may be a traitor but it’s doubtful that he would have any Premierships with Tottenham. Alan Smith can claim a Premiership medal and the honor of being loved by millions of fans - even though he is Judas to Leeds fans and there’s a good chance that he wrecked his career by going to Manchester United.
Then there are players who are forced to move for a lack of first-team opportunities. Phil Neville and Nicky Butt are two such players - brought through the United youth system and played for United for almost all their careers before being forced to leave in search for first-team football. Pragmatism over loyalty, but isn’t this leaving your own club as well?
I think I know why fans get so pissed at players who jump ship. Leaving aside the thoughts that the player may have pledged allegiance to the club (Henry, Smith) or that they went to arch rivals, I think the real reason most fans get angry at players leaving clubs is because that player is leaving for his ambition - to win more titles.
Ashley Cole and Thierry Henry left Arsenal to win titles. Ruud wanted to leave Man Utd (reportedly) two seasons ago for the same reasons. Gerrard almost left Liverpool for this.
At the end of the day, the player wants to win trophies, and if he’s good enough, he’ll be picked up by better clubs.
That sucks, but that’s the way it is.
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- Southgate v Woodgate, Middlesbrough v Tottenham - Who Has More Ambition?
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- Can John Terry be a good manager?
Discussion - 9 Responses
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I think loyalty is with the fans and as for the players I think its only some of them with most of them its just a job. When another team offers better package, environment, they go for it. Unfortunately its true but the good thing is that when they play for the team, most of them are professional to give their very best. Thats good.
henry is still in arsenal AHMED!!
Cool Guy - Humm, no, Henry is now a Barca player. You do realise that, right?
re: the topic itself
Much as the fans adore the idea of a one-club player, the likes of Gary Neville and Paolo Maldini are a dying breed. In today’s environment, where talents are exchanged/bought/sold each season, players are far more likely to have played for at least 2 clubs. It’s just a matter of which club will receive the best of the players’ years.
For these footballers, football is a job - it pays their (exorbitant) salaries and it brings money home to their families. Granted, the figures are astronomical but it’s ultimately a job. As with any other job, you move for pretty much the same reason as the average Joe does - better pay, better environment etc. The difference of course that in football, glory and titles are at stake.
United’s Michael Carrick is an easy but good example - West Ham to Spurs to United. He has admitted that every move was done with the aim of having a better chance at a higher level of success. His PL Champions’ medal will certainly justify his actions in his eyes.
[The Artful Lounger]
leave cool guy alone, as his name suggests he’s probably still living like its nineteen eighty something :P…
[cool guy]
get out of your bubble, use google, search for Henry, you’ll see him in a Barca shirt… (SHOCK, DESPAIR!!!)
:p :p
;) 
just kidding, i cant help myself sometimes, sorry
henry is disloyal
2006 ‘barca are cheaters’ & ‘im going to end my career at arsenal’
2007 ‘im moving to barcelona’
unloyal
Well, dont’t we all love the Figo’s and Beckhams of this world? They betrayed the fans which saw them as idols (I know bacause for most of my childhood Beckham was more popular than my parents with me) but in the end gained nothing. Each of them moved from one champion to another and the only thing that was different was the size of their salary and the enviroment they lived in. I think that when you start to play football for a living it becomes less enjoyable than playing it with your friends and all of a sudden it is not playing that matters it is what you gain from it. Players can gain two things from football: money and medals once they got bored of playing. And if they dont have either by the end of careers with thousands of hours of training and sometimes numeros terrifing injuries, they wonder why they wasted their life on football in the first place. I think that justifies the reason that Gareth Bale, for example, left Southampton and joined Spurs.
That being said, football fans have to pay an enormous amount of respect to G Neville and Maldini for sticking with their teams for their entire careers (but keep in mind that Man Utd and AC Milan are as big as they get).
The few great players i remember who had this ingredient of loyalty were Fernando Redondo and Alan Shearer. After the dickhead Florentino Pérez at Real Madrid forced him to move to AC Milan, at Milan he was constantly injured for 2 years. So he simply refused to take the wages for that period. Now that’s loyalty.
Alan Shearer symbolized this virtue. For him it was always Newcastle even when the biggest clubs were after him.
Even Sebastian Diesler who has been injured for ages and thinks he can’t play to the level of his absolutely brilliant self, chooses to retire instead.
They are a rare breed fast approaching extinction. Now we have crooks like Ronaldo who recuperate at Inter without playing more than 8 games for seasons and then jump the ship to Real Madrid when they feel fit.
Also Michael Owen who even at the time of being rescued from Real Madrid insert buy out clauses in their contract. Recuperate without playing for ages and as soon as they cab run they want to move to a different club.
Henry has turned his back on ‘the club that gave him life’, when he was at juve he was unknown now hes the arsenal record goalscore undoing da ledgendary Ian Wright.
True club heros are loyal 1s like Totti, Maldini, Costacurta, Giggs, Scholes… those are the type of players that are emortalised by the fans