Who is a bigger bastard? Diego Costa or Dmitri Payet?

That’s a tricky one. Both are total, absolute bastards of the first order, mercenary, disloyal and petulant. So here’s another question: can you be TOO rich?

The problem in football is perception. Nothing more, nothing less. We, as fans, ‘perceive’ our players kissing their badges when they score, running into the crowds to embrace their ‘brothers’ and speaking up their clubs at interviews making all the right noises, albeit with a few too many ‘ya-knows’ and ‘at da enda’da days’. They appear ‘loyal’ to their clubs. Devoted even. As we are all devoted to our jobs, homes, families, lives. Until something better appears on the horizon. And then the wife leaves the husband and kids because ‘she’s only got one life’ and ‘wants to live it!!!’ (See; you want equality? You got it.) Or the offer from the competitive business proves too tempting to resist (“I’ve given this company 9 years of my life, I’m entitled to move on, don’t owe them nuffink!!”)

So with footballers. They are like mayflies. They get their day in the sunshine, then they die. Ok, overly dramatic, they get 10 years, 15 if they’re lucky. Oh, and if they’re good enough. Therefore, while we’re banging on about ‘loyalty’ they’re just thinking of their careers. And how to maximise them for the lean years that will follow. Because at some point, you’re 33 years old, knees are shot, shoulder’s weak, ankles ruined, groin… whatever happens to them happened, and you’re unemployed, uneducated, can barely string half a sentence together and you have 9 children from 5 different women on the payroll. What’cha gonna do? So you need to reap the harvest.

Sometimes timing is all. No-one shouted ‘disloyalty!!!’ at David Beckham when he left Manchester United for Madrid. Partly because his issues with his manager were famous and in the public eye and mainly because we all loved him. And therefore we wanted him to do well for himself, and we would take some of that reflected glory as payment-in-kind. That’s fair. He banks 78 million and we get to say ‘I saw him play when he was 17’. Fair.

So as players approach 30 they inevitably start looking to bolster their pension pot. And there’s always some country somewhere starting up a ‘superleague’ and trying to attract ‘names’ to give it credibility. Be it Kazakhstan, China, or Paris. And the offers forthcoming are quite frankly ridiculous. Even Jeremy Corbyn was shocked. “You’re earning 200k a week, we’ll give you 600!!” And the guy thinks: I’ve been at this club for 19 months, I wasn’t born here, I haven’t even bothered to bring my family over from France/Spain/Wherever, so fuck ’em, I’ll take it.

And you can’t blame them. Yes, its greed. But aren’t we all greedy? Don’t we all want a bit more?? Or a helluva lot more, if its on offer?

Diego Costa wasn’t even loyal to his country. He changed from Brazilian to Spanish. Dmitri Payet is just a little shit, not necessarily a cockney one. So hate these players if you wish, but don’t use the ‘loyalty’ card. Its simply not appropriate.

Which is why we all enjoyed seeing Everton (still really a ‘poor’ club even though they now have a new, monied owner) beat Manchester City (untold riches and ridiculous wage structure and generally as hateful as can be imagined) yesterday afternoon. Don’t know if John Stones enjoyed it that much, nor Pep Guardiola, but I did.

Happy Monday

A xxxx