Fans' relationships with their club's players can be oddly intense and personal.
Some feel - given the massive money players earn - they have personally invested in them with their season ticket and TV subscription money. Who would they be without us? We demand their respect and we viciously berate those who don't give it to us.
As the new season gets under way there seems to be a whole host of previously popular players who have, to say the least, s**t in their own nest.
Emmanuel Adebayor, on the back of one decent season, appeared to want to cash in and leave Arsenal. Gareth Barry doesn't want to play for Aston Villa as much as he wants to play for Liverpool. Didier Drogba has seemed to lack commitment to Chelsea ever since Jose Mourinho's departure. Dimitar Berbatov would much rather play at Old Trafford than at White Hart Lane it would appear. And then there's the whole awful Ronaldo saga. He appears at best ambivalent to being at Old Trafford for this season.
And yet all remain likely to start the season with their clubs. So how will fans react to their naked disloyalty?
We all know we live in times where loyalty to a football club is almost non-existent apart from a few high-profile examples such as Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. But some notion of loyalty is always highly prized by many fans and is absolutely demanded by others. We want to believe that players have the same affinity for the club as we do, even though in our heart of hearts we surely know that they don't.
We certainly don't want to have it made nakedly obvious that they see their future elsewhere and see another club as more desirable. That hurts. The instinct is to say 'we made you and this is how you want to repay us?'
For example, Bolo Zenden was bought by the Boro after flopping at Chelsea, had one half-decent season and immediately jumped ship to Liverpool where he hardly lit up the place. That was just very, very annoying because without Boro taking a chance on him, he would never have ended up at Liverpool. It felt like we were being used somehow.
While a footballer is within his rights to ply his trade wherever and for whomever he wants, it is still hard for us to accept - even though our loyalty to the player is equally flakey.
As soon as a player has a poor run of form he becomes the object of derision and contempt and we want him out. We tend not to stick with a player who isn't doing the business, so who are we to demand loyalty from a player when more money and a bigger gig comes along? It makes no sense really, especially as we're all delighted when our own club buys a good player - where's our empathy for the club that's had to let him go? We're hypocrites at core.
By and large, top-flight players view our clubs as football facilities, a place to ply their trade and earn huge amounts of money. They don't feel the culture of the club much or at all and have little interest in one set of fans over and above another.
It's the modern way. When you hear someone calling a phone-in and quoting a player's own words of loyalty and dedication as though it means anything, it is a little embarrassing and very naïve. Players will say anything. Their commitment is to wealth and privilege and everything else is secondary to that. We'd probably be the same in their position.
And yet when a player signs a contract, news reports will routinely still say 'he's committed himself to the club for four years' when surely we all know that in reality he hasn't and signing the contract doesn't mean any such thing. The transfer market is littered with 'want away' players who signed a long contract less than a year ago. It's all part of the charade that allows us to still hold loyalty up as a prized attribute; to believe it is worthy and desirable.
So given all of this, how will fans treat players who have been pushing for a move all summer be treated now that their move hasn't materialised?
In all likelihood, if they play well, they will probably be forgiven their 'indiscretion' but it will not be forgotten. Many fans will not feel able to cheer them on as heartily as before. The player needs to be cleansed somehow. They need to either admit they were wrong and they've now realised they were at the right club all along - which would be a lie but would still help smooth the waters - or they need to be totally honest and say how and why they wanted a move, front it up. We might not like their words but you get brownie points with most people for just being honest.
The endless obfuscation, twisting and turning that we have witnessed with Ronaldo is the absolute worst way to go about leaving a club. Rightly or wrongly it makes the player appear to be precious, self-regarding and totally up himself; a kind of football diva.
However, in a world where agents and others are forever whispering in the players' ears, often to the detriment of their interests it sometimes seems, the veneer of bluster and 'I was misquoted' nonsense seems to be the only route any of these players ever take.
It would be healthy if as fans we could all just grow up and realise that football in the top flight is a business and footballers are workers trying to maximise their income like in any other sector of the economy. And yet even as I write that it feels wrong; that they should be loyal employees who should love the club and be grateful they're being paid a lot of money to kick a ball around for a few hours a week.
We're trapped between our impossible dreams and an unacceptable reality. To give in to the reality feels like we're giving up on the altruism of civic and local pride in our local clubs, giving up on the history and culture of the place. But to not accept the reality is to beat ourselves up over what is little more than a briefly-tenured employee.
In the end, it is the club that should prevail; the club is always bigger and more important than any player, manager or owner. It will be an important cultural and sporting part of your whole life, a player won't. That's the perspective we need to maintain in these fickle and shallow times.
How Will You Treat The Traitors?
Now let's hear what you've got to say about this item... or anything else happening in the world of football. Send in your opinions, rants, praise or abuse to: theeditor@football365.com
Other Articles
- Johnny Loves...John Aldridge
- Brian Moore: Simply Mr TV Football
- Bill Shankly: True Working-Class Hero
- Johnny Loves That Friday Feeling...
- Charlie George: A Maverick Wasted On England
- Big Mal: Ultimate Managerial Maverick
- Football's Innovators: Alan Hardaker
- Dry Your Tears And Save The Toon
- Football's Innovators: Herbert Chapman
- Football's Innovators: Jimmy Hill
Your Comments
mancumission
"I for one, even being a huge ManYoo fan, Hate the way that boy Ronaldo has behaved during this whole 'will he wont he' transfer saga! I feel we should have ripped off that scheming loud mouthed, self opinionated Calderon for every last Euro we could have got for the boy. He has shown no loyalty to Utd or to the fans, so Sir Alex should have kicked his precious little Portuguese ass all the way over to Spain and we could have a load of cash to buy a decent replacement. I for one shall give him plenty of stick when he finally plays at the Theatre! "
class_of_61
"When I first started watching football in the late 1950's you'd often pass Spurs and Arsenal players on the streets of North London. In the early 60's my mate lived next door to Alan Gilzean's girlfriend on an Edmonton estate; Bob Wilson and Mike England taught at our school - 'how did you let that one in on Saturday sir'. But then they were the days of the maximum wage and footballers were slaves to whoever held their registration. Money has changed all that. Along with American and Russian billionaires who have never stood on the terraces in blinding rain. I can't pronounce most of the names of players in the Premiership despite evening classes in Spanish, Croat and Mandarin so I don't care now that Arsenal were once Spurs bitterest rivals, because neither team are what you might call local. F365's Liverpool squad had only three Englsh players and I think only Gerrard was a Scouser. And if someone was to offer me a few million quid to play elsewhere I'd be on my bike as well (or even my Lambourgini). Loyalty does not put bread on the table and as Beau Geste put it - there's a cloud over the sun and your heroes have feet of clay."
KleberSonOfaGun
"A thoughtful and articulate piece. Got me thinking about Steve Bull. Now there's a guy who resisted all the clamour to move to the glamour and simply gave his all, year-in year-out for Wolves, not even moving to save his place in the national side. What happened? A mountain of goals and loyalty later, the boo-boys at Molineux got stuck in to him. I seem to recall they gave him a torrid time for him losing a yard of pace or going through a dry spell or summat. As Chrissie Hynde sang it's a thin line between love and hate.."
Javier
"Why shouldn't one playing for Hull not take the chance to leave for Barca or Liverpool??? This is obviously British double standards. Which one of you have never in your miserable lives switched jobs or companies? I wouldnt be wrong to conclude that you jokers are the retards who turn down better, higher paying jobs? Are you people now on a crusade against people who change clubs? Perhaps thinking of having those traitors hanged, drawn and quartered then burned??"
TJHooker
"Johnny, Spot on with Ziege. While a great player he was also a disloyal, spotty c***. I seem to recall the Scousers getting into a spot (if you pardon the pun) of bother over his tapping up."
GUMBOAVFC
"I do agree with most players not really caring about loyalty to a club, but its nice to think they may care that little bit! Theres a few minor examples in all clubs history where there devotion has to be admired; Giggs, Steve Bull, Le Tiss, Given... I was gonna mention Ian Taylor for Villa but isnt he Barrys agent? Its a money driven game, it changes a man As for Barry, well, apart from the fickle fans he wont be getting no cheers from the Holte, Liverpools not bothering with him now and he looks a fool. Hes got a lot to prove"
hughyao
"twice you used the word "naked" in this article when there's no women in it."
TheMod
""A friend of mine put it in good terms. When Robbie Keane was just 'rumoured' to be leaving the Lane, he said that if Robbie went he'd feel like he was breaking up with a girlfriend. It wasn't the immediate pain of him leaving that hurt. It was almost just the pain of watching him with another club- the touches, the goals and those cheeky dressing room antics that he was always getting up to (Aaah, 'dat's Robbie) - he'd never get to see that again in the same way, even though he knew that Robbie was still out there, doing those things. Then when it happened and he was all like, "I'm definitely booing him now! No loyalty- prick, prick, blah, blah, blah..." He wished a terrible season on him and a lot of other unmentionable horrors, but like an ex, the pain faded and soon the attentions turned to Liverpool- they were the hate figure in all this. He didn't mind if Robbie did okay, as long as Liverpool failed. It's funny how you can have so much with someone, for it to just slip away. Now if he saw Keano in the street it would just be that awkward small talk, "How are you Robbie?", "Yeah, not bad, you?", "Okay... aaaanyway, still doin the 'don't try this at home' celebration?", "Nah, gave that up, the end bit was too gunny..." And so on... In short. I agree. The only loyalty is yours to your club. PS Did you know that Luka Modric wears Fred Perry and his favourite band are the Style Council? FACT "
johnnynic
"That fair comment TJ - the fella still annoyed me though.....maybe I should have used Christian Ziege as an example instead.....29 games and he couldn't wait to cash in on that clause in his contract which said if anyone wants to pay 5.5 million I'm offski."
TJHooker
"Johnny, As a very funny man and a fellow Boro fan, I of course love ya to bits. But I think you have got it wrong about the boy Bolo. For one we didn't buy him. He came on a free from Chelsea after spending a year on loan. (who can forget his famous double-footed Carling Cup winnng penalty). We offered him a multi-year contract and he opted to sign a one-year deal to see if he could attract the attenion of a bigger club. A risky strategy for aplayer in his late 20s, as he could have had a bad injury and been virtually finished. His strategy worked as he got Livepool to sign him at the end of the year. In short he took a risk and backed his own ability to win interest frm a bigger club. In return we got a good year's service out of a high quality and highly motivated player - for whom we paid no fee. Fairy nuff I reckon. "
All comments on this story