Players Living Far from Villa Park, right or wrong

[sfx412]

Having moved about for various jobs and commuted often, I am totally in favour of any club that forces its players to live within a decent mileage of the clubs training facility.
I have been surprised that the club has allowed so many players to live so far from Villa, for me it shows a lack of commitment, although I can appreciate it would have been hard for Mon to complain as he lived miles away too.
When you see the latest suggestions that players like Ashley Young are keen to move to London, as its nearer their home, I can see why Houllier has changed the rules.
Loan players, new recruits or those on short contracts can be excused but committed players who don't put down their roots near the club suggests to me they don't expect, long term to be staying there.

[Linus]

I work for the local authority and it's written into my contract that I have to live within 20 miles of my workplace.

[PaulTheVillan]

I live local to my work place and that's what they were looking for when they were recruiting.

Obviously the clubs do their research on the player, they should ask they player during contract negotiations if they're willing to move closer, if it's that important then we simply pull out of the deal if the player isn't willing to move.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

I wouldnt have anybody who doesnt live within 20 miles of Bodymoor Heath. It should be in their contract when they sign and if they havent moved within 6 months its breach of contract.

[cdward]

I wouldn't sign a contract with an employer that dictates where i have to live, and i think it's ridiculous to expect footballers would do the same.
These pricks are mercenaries, forcing them to live in Little Aston won't help them play any better.

[WikiVilla]

It's all about performing on the pitch, where they live not so important

MON did a decent job over 4 years hacking up and down the M40 from Beaconsfield

[tim]

Surely the club has to atract players - they can't really do that if they force the player to leave where they may live happily with a family, etc.
Until players start applying for jobs at football clubs, rather than being asked to join, I don't see how any employer can have any say over what area an employee can reside.

[Risso]

As long as players turn up for training on time, who cares where they live?  90 miles down the M6 in the average supercar isn't going to stress them out unduly I wouldn't have thought.

[WikiVilla]

What time does training start ? 10am ? 1030am?

[KevinGage]

Doesn't bother me at all, it potentially opens up a bigger pool of talent to us as well.

McGrath, Alan Wright and now Brad snr all made (or still make) the commute from the North West and they were amongst our most consistent performers.

Foreigners tend to think that London is England too and if we got an absolute top name to sign for the club I'm sure most Villa fans wouldn't be too distraught if he based himself in Knightsbridge rather than Sutton Coldfield. Modern footballers today don't live in the real world anyway, so they can just get a chauffeur to drive them to and from training and have a kip. It's not as if they have to drive themselves.

GH is making a big deal of this, but in line with some of his other public decelerations I expect him to row back on it. Having Robert Pires making the commute from Hertfordshire (even if only on a short term deal) sends out mixed messages.

The test for me would be if the club managed to convince Ashley Young to stay but Ash still wanted to live down south.  Would GH say "Sorry, you need to live closer to Bodymoor Heath or no deal" ? Doubtful. So you'd have one rule for one (or two if Bob Pires is here for any length of time) and one rule for everyone else. It would be unworkable.

[WikiVilla]

A footballer with a wife and kids at school need a stable base rather than moving house every 3 or 4 yrs

[adrenachrome]

Gary Barry had a stable I recall, and Matty Holland wouldn't join us from Charlton along with Kinsella because his wife wanted to be near her stables.

[darren woolley]

As long as they do the business on the pitch i don't care were they live.

[TheSandman]

It's completely irrelevant where the players live.

[Clampy]

It's completely irrelevant where the players live.

I disagree. Considering the money they're earning, asking them to live around the Birmingham area is not much to ask.