Would you ever leave the club you support?

Purdy

Purdy

Purdy

Caporegime
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May have been asked many a time before but.

Imagine you are a worldclass player (or just a bigger player than your club would normally have) and your club begins to struggle or you were already part of that club in the lower league or just lower down the table
I.E. Wayne Rooney at Everton

OR

Your club did a Leeds.


Would you stay with your club if it meant lower wages, no trophies, lower leagues potentially or just a midtable team.


Just asking this based on players who left their clubs they supported as a child or have nearly done (gerrard 05 flirting with chelsea =< or wayne rooney to everton), im sure there are plenty of examples but would the average person just relish in getting to pull the shirt on for their club and never leave if possible?
 
I would go, if you're capable of playing at the top then you should be playing at the top imo. Anything else would have me looking back with regret at what I could have achieved.
 
Oh absolutely not, if I was a pro footballer it'd be my job/career above it being a dream vocation if that makes any sense.

If I was at Arsenal and Barca came calling with a massive offer I'd go in an instant. Footballers do this and I don't really blame them.
 
Maybe im being too naive but i'd hate to have to score or play against the club i support.
Also if youre good enough you can possibly attract maybe new owners to drag the club up abit.

Was LeTissier a southampton fan or just wanted to be a big fish in a small pond?
 
Shamikebab said:
I would go, if you're capable of playing at the top then you should be playing at the top imo. Anything else would have me looking back with regret at what I could have achieved.
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Wouldn't you love to look back at what you achieved with your club, even if it was just a huge win against a big team, or winning say the carling cup?
 
Purdy said:
Wouldn't you love to look back at what you achieved with your club, even if it was just a huge win against a big team, or winning say the carling cup?
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No, I'd feel like I'd never reached my potential. Imagine if Rooney had stayed at Everton and never got to play alongside Ronaldo and lift the Champions League. Sorry but that would trump winning the carling cup for me, even if it was for the team I supported.
 
Shamikebab said:
No, I'd feel like I'd never reached my potential. Imagine if Rooney had stayed at Everton and never got to play alongside Ronaldo and lift the Champions League. Sorry but that would trump winning the carling cup for me, even if it was for the team I supported.
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Can sort of understand that, but I think i'd always regret leaving the club i support.
Could maybe understand if you wanted to live in a different country.
 
Purdy said:
Maybe im being too naive but i'd hate to have to score or play against the club i support.
Also if youre good enough you can possibly attract maybe new owners to drag the club up abit.

Was LeTissier a southampton fan or just wanted to be a big fish in a small pond?
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Maybe he just enjoyed idol status where he was. It's something that when tv money arrived around twenty years ago would cause football to change away from the rose tinted view its fans have.

These days you rarely get one club men, unless they're very good and nobody else would see the financial advantage in signing him e.g. Casillas, or they're paid enough to stay for a long time e.g. Ryan Giggs or they wouldn't do better anywhere else e.g. ... not sure. Arsenal are a club that like bringing players through, but I don't see one that could possibly stay all the way through. Maybe Wilshere? I don't know.

People often cite Alan Shearer for these types of questions but don't forget that his contract stipulated he had to be the highest earner at the club. So he often got wage rises mid contract as the club bought in new players if memory serves correctly. The wanting to go back to his boyhood club is nothing more than something the fans created when they idolise him.

Edit - I suppose it'd be still quite common in the lower leagues, but they're part timers a lot of them so they wouldn't play elsewhere due to having another job.
 
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Greenlizard0 said:
Maybe he just enjoyed idol status where he was. It's something that when tv money arrived around twenty years ago would cause football to change away from the rose tinted view its fans have.

These days you rarely get one club men, unless they're very good and nobody else would see the financial advantage in signing him e.g. Casillas, or they're paid enough to stay for a long time e.g. Ryan Giggs or they wouldn't do better anywhere else e.g. ... not sure. Arsenal a club that like bringing players through, but I don't see one that could possibly stay all the way through. Maybe Wilshere? I don't know.

People often cite Alan Shearer for these types of questions but don't forget that his contract stipulated he had to be the highest earner at the club. So he often got wage rises mid contract as the club bought in new players if memory serves correctly. The wanting to go back to his boyhood club is nothing more than something the fans created when they idolise him.
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I guess with Giggs and Casillas though is why would you want to leave those clubs in the first place.
Shearer thing i don't know much about.

Has there been any world class player of the past 10 years who hasnt left a club outside the european places that they support(yes i know football doesn't just exist in europe)?
 
I'd go to the best team I could to play with the best players, no point waisting (perhaps potential) talent. I imagine you'd get very frustrated playing with people obviously below you, you see it in Torres/Gerrard now when the other doesn't play, you see it in N'Zogbia all the time etc.
 
No, I'm not Matt Le Tissier. He's probably the prime example, had he joined a big club there is no doubt in my mind he would have featured more for England. In terms of raw ability Souness said he was the best he's ever seen and he's worked alongside some top players like Dalglish, Rush, Fowler, Shearer etc.
 
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I'd definitely leave for bigger/better clubs, but I'd also want to return after I had won as much as I could, and I would want to return for free. Kind of like the situation with Henry leaving Barca - If I was him then, I'd go back to my favourite club then. And I support SUFC, we badly need decent players. :p
 
Similar to Cas (excpet nothing to do with that team :p *shudders* pigs)

I'd not leave the club I supported unless I knew I could win things and improve at the club, would only really be a handful of clubs that could tempt me away.

So, Sheffield Wednesday > Manchester United > Sheffield Wednesday :p

I would however, come back to my club, play either on the cheap after making my money or for free :)
 
As a Man United fan I'd personally stick with them unless they really took the pee or anything. Except for in my last year when I was a bit past it, I'd go to Kiddy Harriers to try and put a few performances in for them.
 
I'd try and stay at the top, but I doubt i'd be willing to move abroad.

I just have no aspirations to learn a new country - so if it was between Championship and La Liga, I expect i'd stay in England unless there was a massive reason to move. This is the same with any job - if I get offered two jobs when i'm older, one at £50K but requires moving abroad and one at £30K in England, i'd take the domestic one without a moment's thought.
 
HangTime said:
No, I'm not Matt Le Tissier. He's probably the prime example, had he joined a big club there is no doubt in my mind he would have featured more for England. In terms of raw ability Souness said he was the best he's ever seen and he's worked alongside some top players like Dalglish, Rush, Fowler, Shearer etc.
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Steve Bull would probably be the best example, Le Tiss was always playing in the top flight and was lazy at the best of times, immense talent but a lazy get.

Steve Bull ripped up the lower divisions and had plenty of opportunities to leave Wolves, he played in the 1990 World Cup whilst playing for a very unfashionable, struggling Wolves team that was in the old division 2!

To answer the question, yes I probably would leave but I would also go the opposite way as well. Scholes and Oldham is my example, he wants to play for them before he retires (or so he has said)
 
Every club has a dip in form for a few years - in my opinion it would be a greater challange to get them BACK to the top rather than just transfering to the top team of the time

Winning trophies after such a dip in form would be much more satisfying rather than moving to the team that won it last

After my own time at the top was coming to an end I would try and play for what was my local teal for a season or so, even just to attract a few extra punters thru the stiles

MLT admitted he was always a lazy player live on tv years after retirement, as a guest on Countdown, wonder what he could have been like if he really tried
 
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Yes I'd leave but I would do it with the brains of a Cahill instead of a Rooney. It's easily possible to move from one club to another and not totally **** the fans off. Rooney though has the IQ of a blunt pencil, he wore a T shirt critising one player for leaving everton and then left in a more bitter way.

Where as Cahill says all the right things, the Millwall fans still love him and Everton fans have been expecting him to leave for years. When asked he says he doesn't want to leave loves the club and thanks them for what they have done for his career but if a huge club came in for him he would have to look at it.

I'm sure it's great to win things for your boyhood club but I understand why players have to move on.

Some players have the ability to say the right things and be a club legend even if they win nothing, others like Rooney can win the world for Manu but will never be a player the fans love for years to come.
 
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