Shock! Horror! An honest footballer says it's all about the money!

[clippedgull]

I guess we all knew it anyway.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto is being paid £40,000 a week by Tottenham despite not playing for the first team for more than 18 months.

The defender does not even train with the first-team squad these days as he prepares for a move in the January transfer window.

Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino excluded Assou-Ekotto from his first-team squad when he arrived at the club and doesn’t want him anywhere near his group.

Instead the left-back, who spent last season on loan at Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, has a separate training schedule and has been allocated a fitness coach.

Assou-Ekotto has had a chequered career in English football and has fallen out with a number of Spurs managers since his arrival from Lens in 2006 for a reported £3.5million.

He has a particularly difficult relationship with Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy and the pair have rarely agreed on various matter since his move to White Hart Lane.

The Cameroon international, 30, who caused further frustration at the end of the summer transfer window when he turned down a number of loan moves to Championship clubs, has also made it clear on a number of occasions that he plays football simply for money and regards it as simply a job.

In an interview in The Guardian in 2010 he said: ‘It’s only a job. Yes, it’s a good, good job and I don’t say that I hate football but it’s not my passion.

‘I don’t understand why everybody lies. The president of my former club Lens, Gervais Martel, said I left because I got more money in England, that I didn’t care about the shirt.

I said: “Is there one player in the world who signs for a club and says, Oh, I love your shirt?” Your shirt is red. I love it. He doesn’t care. The first thing that you speak about is the money.

‘Martel said I go to England for the money but why do players come to his club? Because they look nice? All people, everyone, when they go to a job, it’s for the money.

 

[severnside gull]

Nice to hear a degree of honesty tbf

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

Does anyone really believe it isn't anymore?

I don't blame the players either, whilst it is a job that almost anyone would want the fact remains that it's just that; a job.

Barring any personal affiliation to the club, there is no surprise in learning that a player would chase the greater income, same as many others would in other professions.

I think this is probably even more so the case when you're bouncing between larger, mostly unsuccessful, clubs like Villa and Stoke (as examples). If they were to try and sign you, how would you choose between them? The obvious answer is the paypacket surely? Or would you genuinely look into their history and fanbase before deciding? Honestly, I doubt that I would.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

One would like to think they can develop some loyalty if there is a long-term relationship, but on the initial move, unless it is genuinely "the club I passionately supported as a boy", you can't expect a genuine and immediate loyalty.

One would also imagine there might be other factors, less money but more chance of first-team football, better club set-up or whatever, but not an immediate all-consuming passion for the shirt.

 

[WhingForPresident]

He said this 5 years ago.

 

[clippedgull]

He said this 5 years ago.

Indeed. And he's still collecting the wonga

 

[Gullflyinghigh]

He said this 5 years ago.

Indeed, can't imagine it's any less relevant now though?

 

[vegster]

You heard it here first.......

http://wordpress.hotpress.com/robsm...n-bogarde-and-that-infamous-chelsea-contract/

 

[saafend_seagull]

Haha this is VERY old news, was in the press ages ago.

A guy I work with went to school with him, he sitll turns up to their nights out in France with his Bentley. He also said when i first met him in 2009 that he doesn't care at all.

Pretty sure Zamora has said something similar, no interest in football.

 

[lawros left foot]

At least Robbie Keane has supported every team he played for since he was a boy.

 

[pasty]

Haha this is VERY old news, was in the press ages ago.

A guy I work with went to school with him, he sitll turns up to their nights out in France with his Bentley. He also said when i first met him in 2009 that he doesn't care at all.

Pretty sure Zamora has said something similar, no interest in football.

METRO November 2012

QPR striker Bobby Zamora has said he’s not ‘a massive football fan’ – an admission that might anger some Hoops supporters.

Queens Park Rangers striker Bobby Zamora has admitted he is not a big fan of football

Football fans assume their club’s players are big followers of the game but that is not always the case, according to Zamora.

‘I’m not a massive football fan, really,’ he said.

‘Quite a lot more players than let on are the same.

‘I don’t watch games on an evening or anything like that.

‘A lot of people find it strange.’

This confession might not be the most timely for QPR fans to accept as the west London club are currently stuck in the relegation zone.

The former Fulham striker is apparently so anti-football that he wants nothing to do with the game after he retires

‘I’m not sure what I want to do after I finish playing but if it means watching football then I don’t want to get involved,’ he added in the Mail on Sunday.

Some less patient QPR fans might be hoping he leaves the game sooner rather than later if things don’t pick up for their team soon.

 

[Rugrat]

+ Agustien = Winston Bogarde

 

[BigGully]

Originally as a child they enjoy it, perhaps it then becomes a passion and the excel at it, they play with friends. neighbours, schoolmates.

But then as many accelerate through the system they experience the pressure, sometimes abuse and a dressing room full of other unrelated colleagues, most vying for each other shirt.

Too often fans think being a professional footballer is amateur football, but with more money, it quite clearly isn't.

 

[Hampster Gull]

Been there 9 years?! Long stint

 

[fat old seagull]

Just whilst my memory regarding money has been jolted, does anyone have any news of Upson or Bridges both who followed the Dosh Trail? Are they still injured, have either turned out for Leicester or Reading? Perhaps despite being disappointed we should be grateful they left. God knows how much they've collected since they went .... for nowt in return.
It would be nice to think that either might have wished they'd stayed at the Amex and remained injury free, enjoying the footy. But as this thread suggests probably not....it's all about the money.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

Just whilst my memory regarding money has been jolted, does anyone have any news of Upson or Bridges both who followed the Dosh Trail? Are they still injured, have either turned out for Leicester or Reading? Perhaps despite being disappointed we should be grateful they left. God knows how much they've collected since they went .... for nowt in return.
It would be nice to think that either might have wished they'd stayed at the Amex and remained injury free, enjoying the footy. But as this thread suggests probably not....it's all about the money.

Wayne Bridge retired due to injury at the end of last season.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

And yet some fans still think that a player will turn down a bigger pay day and the chance of playing at a higher level because they see their club as a more attractive option, has a nice new ground or high numbers of fans attending games, etc. and can't understand why players still turn their club down and move elsewhere or stay put (with an improved contract or already on more money than the buying club offered)

 

[Mowgli37]

Just whilst my memory regarding money has been jolted, does anyone have any news of Upson or Bridges both who followed the Dosh Trail? Are they still injured, have either turned out for Leicester or Reading? Perhaps despite being disappointed we should be grateful they left. God knows how much they've collected since they went .... for nowt in return.
It would be nice to think that either might have wished they'd stayed at the Amex and remained injury free, enjoying the footy. But as this thread suggests probably not....it's all about the money.

I don't begrudge Upson his move. Yes, money probably played a part in his decision but I think it was just as much the lure of seizing, at 35, what would be his last shot at Premier League football.

 

[bn1&bn3 Albion]

When you live and breath football every day for so long it's not hard to lose some of the passion you once had as a teenager.. Also once you get involved with professional, even semi professional football you realize it's not quite what it seemed..

 

[Dan Aitch]

Be honest, how many of you out there would be interested in watching a programme on TV that featured live coverage and analysis of your own job?

The bus drivers? The plumbers? The accountants?

It's not unlikely that football players don't want to watch football. Why take your job home with you?