Post by QPR Report on Jun 5, 2009 6:49:16 GMT
The Guardian - Barry Glendenning
When it comes to football transfers, fans should stop being so green
The palaver generated by Gareth Barry's transfer showed how divorced from reality many idealistic football fans really are
Aston Villa fans show their support for Gareth Barry while he was being linked with a transfer to Liverpool last summer. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport
Quite apart from giving us all something to talk about in a slow week, the controversy generated by Gareth Barry's transfer to Manchester City helped highlight some of the extraordinary delusions suffered by fans of Premier League teams in particular (that raucous cheering you can hear is the sound of Geordies celebrating a London-based media outlet finally acknowledging that, far from being the most deluded set of fans in the country, they're no longer in the top 20).
But irrespective of the midfielder's reasons for inking his lucrative new contract with City, many of the comments that appeared on our sportblog when Stuart James claimed Barry has done nothing wrong showed that, when it comes to the very passionate business of supporting a football team, many of our readers are more happy-clappy and idealistic than Christians round a camp-fire singing Kum Ba Yah. Consider the following ...
The delusion: That an already-wealthy footballer who accepts double his current salary to play elsewhere is greedy.
The reality: Any player who turns down double their current salary, however large it may be, to do the exact same job with employers who look better equipped to challenge for trophies in the next couple of years is a fool.
The delusion: Because footballers do a highly-paid job many of us covet, it's inconceivable that they might occasionally get bored, feel stuck in a rut and fancy a change of scenery.
The reality: For you, football may be an outlet from the drudgery of the daily grind, but for Gareth Barry and other professionals, football is the daily grind. Is there a red-blooded bon vivant out there who can honestly say they wouldn't eventually tire of drinking fine wines and having sex with supermodels if they were contractually obliged to get stuck into both every single day of his working life?
The delusion: That Barry has betrayed Villa by moving to a club that didn't qualify for the Champions League despite all his understandable talk when Liverpool were after him last summer.
The reality: All his understandable talk when Liverpool were after him last summer might well have been just that: talk. Barry only had a year left on his contract when he moved to City, so if money wasn't his primary concern and he really wanted to experience life in the Champions League group stages next season, he could have dug his heels in and demanded a move to AFC Unirea Urziceni, FC Rubin Kazan or Rangers.
The delusion: That the only reason a player would consider leaving the club you support is that he's been seduced by the vision of a manager at some other one.
The reality: Yeah, right.
The delusion: That footballers owe it to fans to be honest and admit it when money is their main motivation for staying at one club or moving on to another.
The reality: The only time footballers are under obligation to be honest to fans is out on the pitch. If Barry's main motivation for leaving Villa for City was money and said as much, his refreshing honesty, would be unlikely to endear him to fans of either team.
The delusion: That if Manchester City finish beneath Aston Villa next season, Barry will look stupid.
The reality: Hardly, but the suggestion that he might probably provides succour for Villa fans who, like supporters of any club, invariably feel betrayed when it turns out that players don't love their club as much as they do. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld was on the money when he said that players will always come and go, leaving us deluded fans supporting the jersey and whoever happens to be wearing it. "Ultimately," he concluded, "we're just cheering laundry." And to think some people regard football fans as idiots, eh?
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jun/04/football-transfers-fans-barry-glendenning
When it comes to football transfers, fans should stop being so green
The palaver generated by Gareth Barry's transfer showed how divorced from reality many idealistic football fans really are
Aston Villa fans show their support for Gareth Barry while he was being linked with a transfer to Liverpool last summer. Photograph: Mike Egerton/Empics Sport
Quite apart from giving us all something to talk about in a slow week, the controversy generated by Gareth Barry's transfer to Manchester City helped highlight some of the extraordinary delusions suffered by fans of Premier League teams in particular (that raucous cheering you can hear is the sound of Geordies celebrating a London-based media outlet finally acknowledging that, far from being the most deluded set of fans in the country, they're no longer in the top 20).
But irrespective of the midfielder's reasons for inking his lucrative new contract with City, many of the comments that appeared on our sportblog when Stuart James claimed Barry has done nothing wrong showed that, when it comes to the very passionate business of supporting a football team, many of our readers are more happy-clappy and idealistic than Christians round a camp-fire singing Kum Ba Yah. Consider the following ...
The delusion: That an already-wealthy footballer who accepts double his current salary to play elsewhere is greedy.
The reality: Any player who turns down double their current salary, however large it may be, to do the exact same job with employers who look better equipped to challenge for trophies in the next couple of years is a fool.
The delusion: Because footballers do a highly-paid job many of us covet, it's inconceivable that they might occasionally get bored, feel stuck in a rut and fancy a change of scenery.
The reality: For you, football may be an outlet from the drudgery of the daily grind, but for Gareth Barry and other professionals, football is the daily grind. Is there a red-blooded bon vivant out there who can honestly say they wouldn't eventually tire of drinking fine wines and having sex with supermodels if they were contractually obliged to get stuck into both every single day of his working life?
The delusion: That Barry has betrayed Villa by moving to a club that didn't qualify for the Champions League despite all his understandable talk when Liverpool were after him last summer.
The reality: All his understandable talk when Liverpool were after him last summer might well have been just that: talk. Barry only had a year left on his contract when he moved to City, so if money wasn't his primary concern and he really wanted to experience life in the Champions League group stages next season, he could have dug his heels in and demanded a move to AFC Unirea Urziceni, FC Rubin Kazan or Rangers.
The delusion: That the only reason a player would consider leaving the club you support is that he's been seduced by the vision of a manager at some other one.
The reality: Yeah, right.
The delusion: That footballers owe it to fans to be honest and admit it when money is their main motivation for staying at one club or moving on to another.
The reality: The only time footballers are under obligation to be honest to fans is out on the pitch. If Barry's main motivation for leaving Villa for City was money and said as much, his refreshing honesty, would be unlikely to endear him to fans of either team.
The delusion: That if Manchester City finish beneath Aston Villa next season, Barry will look stupid.
The reality: Hardly, but the suggestion that he might probably provides succour for Villa fans who, like supporters of any club, invariably feel betrayed when it turns out that players don't love their club as much as they do. The comedian Jerry Seinfeld was on the money when he said that players will always come and go, leaving us deluded fans supporting the jersey and whoever happens to be wearing it. "Ultimately," he concluded, "we're just cheering laundry." And to think some people regard football fans as idiots, eh?
www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/jun/04/football-transfers-fans-barry-glendenning
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