My article from www.Footballspeak.com
I don't know about you but I'm getting really fed up with over paid footballers rubbing their greed and selfishness in our faces. Last week we saw a petulant Wayne Rooney kick out at Miodrag Dzudovic in a match that should have been a successful qualifying campaign for Fabio Capello's side. However, subsequent to the arrest of Rooney's father for alleged betting scam, poor Wayne felt he had to show the world how frustrated he was. The Montenegro player who probably will earn as much money in ten years as Wayne Rooney will earn in six months didn't make a meal of it either, anyone who has taken a kick with such force will know this to be true.
Two weeks before that we saw little Tevez refusing to get off the bench when his boss asked him to go to work to earn his £200k a week. Why did the man not turn up for work? Did he miss his early morning train after rushing to get his kids fed and off to school? No! Was he stuck in rush hour traffic? No, his team were 0-2 down and he simply didn't fancy it, that and if he leaves in January which always looked like the plan he didn't want to be cup tied.
Simple as that! How dare he treat his fans like that when they pay their hard earned money week after week to support the side he supposedly proudly represents. These Manchester City fans deserve better, in fact football fans in general deserve better. I would love to hear 'off the record' what past legends of the game would say about such behaviour. Would Johnny Giles have refused to get off the bench in similar circumstances when asked to play by Don Revie? Hardly, for a start, Giles would have started! Would George Best have refused to come off the bench if the great Matt Busby would've asked him to save the day? The mere question is an insult to a legend.
Who do these over paid con men think they are? In a world when the honest foot soldiers pile into the stands to escape their reality of the persistent onslaught of unemployment, mortgage arrears and other socio-economic pain turmoil, the likes of Rooney and Tevez do not understand how lucky they have it. Paul Dickov hit the nail on the head when he said just that, that "thousands of people would love to be in the job their in".
There was a time when football was the workingman's game and rugby belonged to the upper class. Apart from the England squad's antics off the field of play, most players in the Rugby World Cup epitomised what sporting heroes should be. Placing their bodies on the line at every tackle without fear of play acting in an effort to get their fellow professional booked, players chomping at the bit to come on even for a few minutes as blood subs and being as gracious in defeat as they would be in victory. The funny thing is that these rugby stars don't earn half as much as their soccer counterparts, even though the chances of more serious injury are far greater. The question is often asked in Ireland why Brian Ó Driscoll is so much more lauded as a hero and so much more a real leader of men than Robbie Keane. They are both fantastic players and dedicated professionals and are record holders in their own field of endeavour and Keane is a honest and as hard working as Ó Driscoll most would agree. So why the difference in opinion when their leadership is discussed?
The answer is simple. Professional football is becoming a ruse that the ordinary man will not be able to identify with if the current trend of over paid cheating jesters continue to laugh in our faces with their actions week in, week out. If clubs and federations don't get real and start taking serious action, the beautiful game will become the ugly duckling of sport!
I don't know about you but I'm getting really fed up with over paid footballers rubbing their greed and selfishness in our faces. Last week we saw a petulant Wayne Rooney kick out at Miodrag Dzudovic in a match that should have been a successful qualifying campaign for Fabio Capello's side. However, subsequent to the arrest of Rooney's father for alleged betting scam, poor Wayne felt he had to show the world how frustrated he was. The Montenegro player who probably will earn as much money in ten years as Wayne Rooney will earn in six months didn't make a meal of it either, anyone who has taken a kick with such force will know this to be true.
Two weeks before that we saw little Tevez refusing to get off the bench when his boss asked him to go to work to earn his £200k a week. Why did the man not turn up for work? Did he miss his early morning train after rushing to get his kids fed and off to school? No! Was he stuck in rush hour traffic? No, his team were 0-2 down and he simply didn't fancy it, that and if he leaves in January which always looked like the plan he didn't want to be cup tied.
Simple as that! How dare he treat his fans like that when they pay their hard earned money week after week to support the side he supposedly proudly represents. These Manchester City fans deserve better, in fact football fans in general deserve better. I would love to hear 'off the record' what past legends of the game would say about such behaviour. Would Johnny Giles have refused to get off the bench in similar circumstances when asked to play by Don Revie? Hardly, for a start, Giles would have started! Would George Best have refused to come off the bench if the great Matt Busby would've asked him to save the day? The mere question is an insult to a legend.
Who do these over paid con men think they are? In a world when the honest foot soldiers pile into the stands to escape their reality of the persistent onslaught of unemployment, mortgage arrears and other socio-economic pain turmoil, the likes of Rooney and Tevez do not understand how lucky they have it. Paul Dickov hit the nail on the head when he said just that, that "thousands of people would love to be in the job their in".
There was a time when football was the workingman's game and rugby belonged to the upper class. Apart from the England squad's antics off the field of play, most players in the Rugby World Cup epitomised what sporting heroes should be. Placing their bodies on the line at every tackle without fear of play acting in an effort to get their fellow professional booked, players chomping at the bit to come on even for a few minutes as blood subs and being as gracious in defeat as they would be in victory. The funny thing is that these rugby stars don't earn half as much as their soccer counterparts, even though the chances of more serious injury are far greater. The question is often asked in Ireland why Brian Ó Driscoll is so much more lauded as a hero and so much more a real leader of men than Robbie Keane. They are both fantastic players and dedicated professionals and are record holders in their own field of endeavour and Keane is a honest and as hard working as Ó Driscoll most would agree. So why the difference in opinion when their leadership is discussed?
The answer is simple. Professional football is becoming a ruse that the ordinary man will not be able to identify with if the current trend of over paid cheating jesters continue to laugh in our faces with their actions week in, week out. If clubs and federations don't get real and start taking serious action, the beautiful game will become the ugly duckling of sport!
