“I’ve played, so pay me.”
Is it just me? Am I the only one who thinks that £78,000 per year is more than decent? If I said to you “Come and do the job you love at the biggest place around, leaders in your field and a place that you love”, what would you say? But that’s not it, to top it all off…you are 19 years old.
Look in the mirror what would your honest answer be?
Of course 99% of you would say yes and in the words of Gordon McQueen the other 1% is a liar. However there is a 1% out there and it appears to be young footballers at Manchester United. This offer doesn’t seem to be good enough these days for some of our youngsters – allegedly.
By now most of us have heard of the rumoured offer to Zeki Fryers of £1,500 per week that he has dismissed out of hand, allegedly preferring to talk to Spurs about a £10,000 per week contract. I’m not here to have a go at him and fair play it seems like he’s got a much better deal elsewhere but is it only me who was a little shocked at some of the United fans saying the offer from United was derisory?
Let’s not forget that this is a young local lad who has only played 6 times in the first-team and only 2 of them have come in the league, so why should he expect much more than £78,000 per year? Lets not forget that alleged Fergie quote along the lines of “When you play for Manchester United the money finds you” and he’s right, think of the endorsements, the freebies, the bonuses. Yes it’s ‘only’ £78,000 per year and in relative terms that is a low figure however what would he earn on top of that? Players come and go and you get your mercenaries who are only in it for the money but traditionally they were your ‘foreign’ players who were in their mid to late 20’s, not your young lads coming through the system with only a handful of games behind them. Agents obviously have to take a lot of the blame, hawking kids around like pieces of meat. I’ve seen many people suggest that young players should have the PFA looking after their affairs them until a certain age, not a bad idea but I feel the horse has already bolted on that one.
As I said I don’t want to have a go at the young lad, we don’t know the real truth, yet there seems to be a worrying trend where young players play a couple of games and then they think that’s it. They think they should be rewarded with riches beyond their wildest dreams, more money than you or I could ever dream of earning without the hard work. I know this is the modern footballer and I know that this has been done to death but I just wondered when local lads stopped caring about wearing the shirt and working hard, knowing full well that keep your head down, play the game, the money will come. If it’s at United or elsewhere we have a track record of looking after our young players and if they don’t make it, helping them find a new club.
We all know the stories of Gary Neville and Paul Scholes simply signing contracts and not caring about negotiations, they always said they are local lads living the dream. To them it was the trophies that mattered, not the money.
Where did it all go so wrong?
One reply on “Simply Red, or is money too tight to mention?”
I do agree with what u have to say,look at Pogba went to Juventus only he will know his reasons.I can’t say we don’t look after our young lads.If you look at all the stars that came from the academy Giggs,Beckham,Scholes and Neville the names can go on and on,so I would say yes we do look after our young lads.Money is the only reasons they went to a other club.The Glazers is also to blame coz they must pull up there socks with this debt they have okay maybe you wount agree with me on that one but that is how most of us feel.