Just been sitting here in the heat watching Barca easily destroy Osasuna and I have finally come round to the realisation that Jimmy Hill ably assisted by Marc Bosman have unwittingly created an ugly monster.
Finally last night I got to listen to the talksport link posted up ( thanks very much whoever it was!) in it Craig Johnston amongst telling of his fascinating life goes on to espouse a clearly firmly held belief that clubs are paying far too much money to players and talks of agents being a "cancer" in the game who have inflated the wages to ludicrous levels.
A bit strong I thought but then, Gray correctly pointed out that If the clubs were to come to a point where they stopped paying players ridiculous wages then they would simply not play for that particular club.
So where do you go next?
The newspapers reported last week that Man City have spent 1,000,000£ a day for the last 3 years, inconceivable spending for any other teams bar maybe Chelsea or perhaps Real or Barca, but to what end? Has it improved the game? The influx of cash has only served to make a very small cabal of financially unassailable clubs who can literally cherry pick the players from any club they so desire. I dont begrudge the players who earn the money, but Jimmy hill and the PFA all those years ago probably didnt envisage players earning 250,000£ a year let alone a week. It has gone too far, is unsustainable and what is more you can see how it will crash.
The hoo-ha here in Spain recently was spectacularly Spanish but nonetheless interesting. The Villareal chairman, a fella called Roig {side note i've unfortunately met the geezer and taught his progeny and his is an utter tool of a man, responsible for a chain a superstores, I dislike him enough to wish him ill or at least that someone shits in his ear while he sleeps} After Villareal got a pasting by Real he basically spat the dummy over the disparity in La Liga and convened a meeting with numerous other chairmen of the top flight clubs, the meeting was invite only and Real and Barca were not invited. The meeting revolved around the fact that in Spain due to Real and Barca being able to negotiate unilateral TV rights agreements meant the rest of the league was not only massively inferior on the pitch but once proud clubs were fundamentally now "feeder clubs" unable to retain their best players. Players who whether avaricious young men or not are nonetheless compelled to join one of the big two in order to win anything in their careers. So far so what? Footy is great yeah! ....
Roig, cunt that he is, suggested something so outrageously brave that it would never come to pass but nonetheless would work, he said that any team that facing one of the big two should field a youth side or a B team and take the beating, because in essence all other teams were just that. How much would the TV companies be willing to pay to the big two if it was literally a procession of massive wins against financially subdued opponents? Would people still want to watch? Would the advertising slots be sold? At its base being what use is the rest of the league if i can hardly dream of competing?
Of course it wont happen, nobody is that courageous, but then the situation we are in now is so financially twisted that maybe it should, maybe it would take a collective action by so called "lesser" clubs to cut through all the hype and the greed and point out that in actuality it isnt right what is happening, player power is off the scale fed by big businnes and greed and it no longer is a game because there no longer exists any kind of fair competition.
As a fans of an English club we could argue the situation in Spain is different as here there is a top 6 but even a cursory look will show you that our own league is just as infected by the market. As a fan of a "big club", consider the sales of players weve made recently and the burgeoning Man City.... we havent won the league for twenty years and in all likelihood unless something changes we probably wont win again until it all blows up.
The greed extends all the way up to FIFA, Qatar World cup anyone? This mad idea of Roigs' could easily apply to clubs chosing not to release players for the WC. IMO the clubs must grow some balls and stand up to this hyper inflationary nonsense. Wages are harming the good of the game and reducing the health of the leagues and they have to be brought under control. Jimmy hill was right to wrest control away from the clubs 50 years ago and I dont begrudge a player a rich living, but when it damages a culturally important activity it has to stop. Craig was bang on the wages are killing the game and it will not end nicely.
Finally last night I got to listen to the talksport link posted up ( thanks very much whoever it was!) in it Craig Johnston amongst telling of his fascinating life goes on to espouse a clearly firmly held belief that clubs are paying far too much money to players and talks of agents being a "cancer" in the game who have inflated the wages to ludicrous levels.
A bit strong I thought but then, Gray correctly pointed out that If the clubs were to come to a point where they stopped paying players ridiculous wages then they would simply not play for that particular club.
So where do you go next?
The newspapers reported last week that Man City have spent 1,000,000£ a day for the last 3 years, inconceivable spending for any other teams bar maybe Chelsea or perhaps Real or Barca, but to what end? Has it improved the game? The influx of cash has only served to make a very small cabal of financially unassailable clubs who can literally cherry pick the players from any club they so desire. I dont begrudge the players who earn the money, but Jimmy hill and the PFA all those years ago probably didnt envisage players earning 250,000£ a year let alone a week. It has gone too far, is unsustainable and what is more you can see how it will crash.
The hoo-ha here in Spain recently was spectacularly Spanish but nonetheless interesting. The Villareal chairman, a fella called Roig {side note i've unfortunately met the geezer and taught his progeny and his is an utter tool of a man, responsible for a chain a superstores, I dislike him enough to wish him ill or at least that someone shits in his ear while he sleeps} After Villareal got a pasting by Real he basically spat the dummy over the disparity in La Liga and convened a meeting with numerous other chairmen of the top flight clubs, the meeting was invite only and Real and Barca were not invited. The meeting revolved around the fact that in Spain due to Real and Barca being able to negotiate unilateral TV rights agreements meant the rest of the league was not only massively inferior on the pitch but once proud clubs were fundamentally now "feeder clubs" unable to retain their best players. Players who whether avaricious young men or not are nonetheless compelled to join one of the big two in order to win anything in their careers. So far so what? Footy is great yeah! ....
Roig, cunt that he is, suggested something so outrageously brave that it would never come to pass but nonetheless would work, he said that any team that facing one of the big two should field a youth side or a B team and take the beating, because in essence all other teams were just that. How much would the TV companies be willing to pay to the big two if it was literally a procession of massive wins against financially subdued opponents? Would people still want to watch? Would the advertising slots be sold? At its base being what use is the rest of the league if i can hardly dream of competing?
Of course it wont happen, nobody is that courageous, but then the situation we are in now is so financially twisted that maybe it should, maybe it would take a collective action by so called "lesser" clubs to cut through all the hype and the greed and point out that in actuality it isnt right what is happening, player power is off the scale fed by big businnes and greed and it no longer is a game because there no longer exists any kind of fair competition.
As a fans of an English club we could argue the situation in Spain is different as here there is a top 6 but even a cursory look will show you that our own league is just as infected by the market. As a fan of a "big club", consider the sales of players weve made recently and the burgeoning Man City.... we havent won the league for twenty years and in all likelihood unless something changes we probably wont win again until it all blows up.
The greed extends all the way up to FIFA, Qatar World cup anyone? This mad idea of Roigs' could easily apply to clubs chosing not to release players for the WC. IMO the clubs must grow some balls and stand up to this hyper inflationary nonsense. Wages are harming the good of the game and reducing the health of the leagues and they have to be brought under control. Jimmy hill was right to wrest control away from the clubs 50 years ago and I dont begrudge a player a rich living, but when it damages a culturally important activity it has to stop. Craig was bang on the wages are killing the game and it will not end nicely.
