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FABIO BORINI: LIVERPOOL, SUNDERLAND, QPR … THE AUTHORISED VERSION
The world and his dog have a view on the Fabio Borini affair. My own is well known: he is not paid to be a Sunderland supporter but for being a professional footballer, and must be allowed to make his own chocies, but I do bitterly regret all the wasted effort to bring him back when it was clear all along he’d sooner take a break from active football. Even those Sunderland supporters who profess not to care too much that this, indeed, is the outcome express a view merely by saying just that. What of Borini himself? And Liverpool fans? It is likely we still know only part of the story of how he now comes to be kicking his heels at Anfield with, apparently, little real prospect of breaking into the team on Brendan Rodgers’s present thinking.
Well, Borini read the article we reproduce today from the excellently written Liverpool fan site The Anfied Wrap and gave it the seal of approval you see above. So step forward the author, Neil Atkinson, from whom we have heard before, with an introduction followed, with his consent, by the piece itself …
Jake: from happier days
Neil: I originally wrote this for a primarily Liverpool supporting audience but Salut Sunderland asked to reproduce it here and I thought, yeah, that’s fine. But I need to briefly make clear to Sunderland supporters what I think about Borini in their context. There have been, since Borini tweeted the piece, a fair few Sunderland supporters having a go at him on Twitter with me in copy. I completely understand their frustration towards him.
The Sunderland response to Borini last season was magnificent. They repaid his clear commitment to their cause in spades and took him to their heart. In essence, they treated him like the terrific football supporters they are. This summer their frustration comes from his rejection of the move and that it seemed dragged out. I understand the rejection, but that it seemed dragged out is as much the business of the people running Sunderland’s football club as it is Borini. Presuming Borini asked for the sort of wage and (much more significantly in my view) the sort of clause discussed below from QPR then Sunderland should have moved on immediately. They were hanging on presumably because they thought Borini would change his mind on wage or clause.
Perhaps they were badly advised by Liverpool. Perhaps they were concerned they wouldn’t get someone else as good. But regardless, football on the pitch and off it is about choices and that Sunderland didn’t move on quickly was their choice much more than it was Borini’s.
When Borini earned a place in Sunderland hearts
THE CURIOUS CASE OF FABIO BORINI by Neil Atkinson // 3 September 2014 //
THE REPORTS are as follows: QPR agreed a fee with Liverpool for Fabio Borini that is approximately ten million pounds. They offered him a salary in the vicinity of double his current money. This was rejected. Borini has said to QPR that it would take triple his money and, crucially, a clause which allows him to move for less than ten million pounds next summer for him to be interested in the move. Both those things.
Earlier in the window, after what I would argue was a moderately successful loan move, Sunderland made it clear they thought it successful enough to offer fourteen million pounds for Borini’s signature, yet Borini didn’t seem to entertain this offer.
Let’s accept the reports because it is these reports which have led to Borini getting down the banks.
In short, this seems clear – Fabio Borini doesn’t want to play for Queens Park Rangers. He’d do so if:
1 He got crazy money.
2 He could see how he could leave at the end of the season to then go and play for someone else.
Further, Fabio Borini doesn’t want to return to Sunderland. He went there last season. Did well. But perhaps he believes it to be a dead end. He’d have a case to think that. He did well, we can all agree he did well, their supporters were massive fans of his, he showed huge commitment and scored goals in big games but now, after that season, his only offers are Sunderland and QPR.
In terms of usual conversations about footballers, there’s a complexity here, perhaps an uncomfortable one. Fabio Borini clearly isn’t motivated solely by money but from reports we can accept we can see he would allow himself to be consoled by it for twelve months. He clearly sees QPR as nothing more than a stepping stone in his career and as a stepping stone he’d like to feel he can more easily step off as quickly as possible. If he was solely motivated by money then he accepts the highest bidder and goes.
There are other reports, other rumours. Borini is supposed to like Liverpool. He has a life here that he enjoys. He may well also think he can break into Liverpool’s set up. There are precedents for that. A long season beckons and Liverpool suddenly look a lot better playing two forwards and the third on the list, Lambert, looks short of the pace required to play in this Liverpool side. Other reports suggest he’d like to go back to Italy. Getting back to Italy when clubs in England will pay over ten million pounds for you is hard. Only five transfer fees over eight figures were paid in Italy this summer.
Borini has also never been settled – he’s 23 and he has played senior games for five different clubs. It wouldn’t be unlikely if he’d like his next move to be one he can properly get behind. A club to settle at. Sunderland was sold to him as a springboard and he doesn’t want QPR to become a prison. His next move could define his career. The next four year deal he signs takes him through to 27.
All this is very human. We are, as humans, motivated by a variety of factors in our career. We can, if given the opportunity, be motivated by material gain, by career progression, by location. Some of us don’t get that opportunity, we aren’t fortunate enough to be put in that position. But those of us who are trade off one motivation for another constantly. We may place money at the centre of our career, we may trade off short term gain for long term gain, we may choose location over salary or we may embark on a difficult path we believe to be eventually rewarding. There’s no definitive right answer. Everyone’s circumstances are different and different choices suit different people.
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