Would you ever leave the club you support?

Making the monsterous assumption that I'd ever be good enough to play professional football then I probably would leave the club I support if a bigger/better team offered. Obviously it would depend on the deal but it would probably mean leaving for an entirely different league anyway so the issue of playing against them isn't likely to come into it. The way I'm looking at it is that you should make the most of what opportunities come your way and be the best you can be - as horribly American and positive-speak as that sounds.

I don't think you can really blame players for trying to play at the highest level they can, however there are ways of doing it without appearing to be a complete tool. If after I'd made my mark at another club I could return to the club I supported and still be good enough then that would be nice to do.
 
One More Solo said:
Have you ever worked for a company you liked so much that you'd stay despite being offered more money and job satisfaction elsewhere? I doubt it.
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Not really a fair comparison imo, I wouldn't really view football as a job.
I'd only consider another team if I was looking to move abroad but doubt that would happen.

Post above about Cahill and Rooney comparison is good, but i wouldn't care if I was viewed as a club legend or not, if I was helping the team rather than being the weak link that would be good enough for me
 
Purdy said:
Not really a fair comparison imo, I wouldn't really view football as a job.
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It might be easier to say that when you're not actually doing it for a living, sure it's great fun when you're playing down the park with your mates but playing on a rainy Wednesday night in November against Brentford and getting booed by a few thousand fans is probably somewhat less appealing.

Pick any team you want there, it's nothing against Brentford as such. It's just easier to romanticise something you do as a hobby than as a job - I think many footballers are incredibly lucky to get to do what most of us would pay money for but it's a job to many of them and rightly so.
 
I wouldnt leave United for anyone else out of choice no.

Of course If I were a player, it would simply get to much for the board to keep turning down those £50 to £60 million pound offers all the time so I would suspect I would end up being flogged on to fund a raft of inferior players.
 
Football fans are too fickle to be able to demand any player devotes their career to them.

No matter who you are, a few mistakes and most will turn on you. Look at some of the abuse Rooney got. What chance do players have when you look at some of the utter garbage that gets spouted on here about current legends Fergie and Wenger. Every week they're called clueless idiots, etc...

Though I suppose a lot would depend on circumstances. I can use another current example, this time at WHL with Gareth Bale. He had a lot of support when things were bad for him. So bad he almost left and had some kind of ridiculous record hanging around his neck of the team not winning when he started his first 30+ games or something. I think in the rare cases like this you could feel some kind of loyalty to the fans and staff due to their support when you really needed it.
Support like that is very different to having fans chant your name when you're scoring the winner every week.
 
Good point there Chong, I guess the most recent example in liverpool would be Lucas who Is turning into a great player and didn't deserve the abuse he was getting.

Still think I wouldn't view it as a job though.
 
Greenlizard0 said:
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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still see Shearer as a good example of a player who chose his club over money/glory.

At the time he had united after him and let's be honest they could easily have out paid Toon. Also he could have had a lot more sucess at united despite Newcastle coming close.

He made sure he was well rewarded for playing for newcastle which he deserves but he could easily have had more money and sucess elsewhere.

Personally I would stay at my club and drag them up by myself if needs be. Only way they would get me to leave is if the club forced me out for them to stay financially solvent.
 
atpbx said:
I wouldnt leave United for anyone else out of choice no.

Of course If I were a player, it would simply get to much for the board to keep turning down those £50 to £60 million pound offers all the time so I would suspect I would end up being flogged on to fund a raft of inferior players.
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:D
 
Purdy said:
Not really a fair comparison imo, I wouldn't really view football as a job.
I'd only consider another team if I was looking to move abroad but doubt that would happen.
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Maybe it's not a job to you but when literally everything you do is football it would soon become a job:
-Training every day
-Playing 2, sometimes 3, games in a week
-Travelling up and down the UK and throughout Europe, spending half your life in a hotel
-Having thousands of people and the press on your back if you make a mistake
-Having no private life

Actually sounds crap to me, maybe that's why the money is so good.
 
The press and no private life kind of applies to the players who are out acting a ****, Rooney, caroll, Terry.
Someone like carra or Giggs the press don't put much interest in because they know how to handle themselves.

Agree with the travelling and spending a lot of time in hotels.
I used to row and train 5-6 times a week, obviously not as intense as football but still enjoyed it.
And if my body could handle it I'd play as much as I could tbh.
 
IMHO you would be stupid not to go - Ive much doubt a club would think otherwise if either they could get a massive cash injection for the move or if you are crap get rid of you when they have the chance...

Sorry but football is a business - very little reward in staying loyal, perhaps it was decades ago. Perhaps they might be my last club before retirement or something...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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The thing is, most professional footballers have been plying their trade around various teams even when they were kids, and given that they were busy doing that instead of going to actual league games as fans, it's probably unlikely that many of them even have that deep an affection for their "boyhood club".

As said, it's like a job for them, because that's all it's been since they were young really. Playing and winning feels better than playing and losing, so "loyalty" will always take a back seat.
 
One More Solo said:
Maybe it's not a job to you but when literally everything you do is football it would soon become a job:
-Training every day
-Playing 2, sometimes 3, games in a week
-Travelling up and down the UK and throughout Europe, spending half your life in a hotel
-Having thousands of people and the press on your back if you make a mistake
-Having no private life
Actually sounds crap to me, maybe that's why the money is so good.
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World class fottballers can have as much of a private life as they want it just depends on how they choose to play the media, I've never read a story in the front of the papers about Giggs or Scholes etc. those that invite the media in and use them ala Rooney get what they deserve long term.

Le Tis is a great example of the loyal player but it does have to be said then when he was at his absolute peak and sttracting interest from some of the bigger teams the money in football hadn't gone truly crazy like it has today. Saints also spent the whole of his time in the top flight I can't imagine he would have stayed with us if in his prime we were in the position we are now. His lack of England caps is still ridiculous lazy or not he was still the best player I've ever seen.
 
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I think if the manager didn't convince me that the club was going to be ambitious (within reason, to the ability the club can be..) then I would leave without any guilt at all.

If they had treated me well, paid me reasonably well to match performances and then I had a choice to leave for a better club- wouldn't be so easy. Probably would leave but with regret.

So yeah, I think the manager would be a huge factor.
 
My club being Leeds did in fact do a "Leeds". Alan Smith is a perfect example, boy hood fan, Leeds through and through, as we all well know he went to Man United, but he did it for the club. Nobody else was going to pay £7 Million for him so he went there.

In the same situation I'd probably have done the same, without that money Leeds might not exist today.
 
No1newts said:
still see Shearer as a good example of a player who chose his club over money/glory.

At the time he had united after him and let's be honest they could easily have out paid Toon. Also he could have had a lot more sucess at united despite Newcastle coming close.
.
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Jack Walker would not sell him to United.

End of story.

He had the offer, he had the talks, Walker would not accept the bid.
 
Yes.
I gave up supporting the team i have followed for over 40 years afer the England fiasco/humiliation.
I don't even watch/listen to the results any more.
 
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