just don't have to be saidI know how we both feelThe heart can rule the headbut anyway, I digress.i was talking with a friend of mine on Saturday as we were chewing the cud over football, referees, players and the like. we were talking about Michael owen and his apparent happiness to sit on Man Us bench and get a wage rather than go to a lower placed club, or lower league club and fight for a place, or to have the pressure on him to score goals.He went on tot ell me about when ex-Everton Craig Short went over to his to stay and they were having the same kind of discussion. They knew each other because they were both at Scarborough together - my mate was in the team that went up to the then Div4, not sure if Short was still there then. He said that he asked Craig Short what was the big difference for him being in the dressing-room at that level.Craig Short said that the biggest difference was that in the days at Scarborough everybody was pulling together and all lived and breathed the game, and would fight for each other. At the highest level, he said, that wasn't the case. he said that Anders Limpar absolutely hated the game. Everything to do with football he despised. Not just the modern day take on the money and it becoming too corporate, but that he just got paid very well for doing something he cared nothing for.It shows the dedication, I suppose, for someone to put the hard work in in training, and in games, for doing something that you really do not enjoy. having accepted that it changed my mind a little on Michael Owen. maybe football isn't his love at all. Horse racing is obviously, and gambling as well, but I wonder how many players are playing to the standard they are when not liking what they do.Its easy to just say leave your job if you don't like it, but if you're going to do something that pays nothing in comparison that is an almighty spur. But do these players deserve more credit for being able to stay at a level despite not having the love for what we see as an emotive game, job. Is football really just a job to all players? Is it the ian Taylors that are in the minority?
I'm always in two minds when I read about a player who clearly doesn't think much of his profession. On the one hand, I like the fact that there are some who know it's a job and treat it accordingly, particularly as being a modest kind of chap myself, I appreciate it in others. But then it's not a job like most jobs, and I do like the glamour element of someone living out a boyhood dream that I'll never attain. I hate it when rock stars, for example, bang on about a daily grind. So really it comes down to if I think the bloke's a cock, I suppose.
Quote from: curiousorange on February 21, 2011, 10:00:42 PMI'm always in two minds when I read about a player who clearly doesn't think much of his profession. On the one hand, I like the fact that there are some who know it's a job and treat it accordingly, particularly as being a modest kind of chap myself, I appreciate it in others. But then it's not a job like most jobs, and I do like the glamour element of someone living out a boyhood dream that I'll never attain. I hate it when rock stars, for example, bang on about a daily grind. So really it comes down to if I think the bloke's a cock, I suppose.When you have to do it every day, it can be a grind. There are probably billions of people for who yours and my lifestyles are as much a dream as playing football is to us and can't believe that we can moan about such trivialities as having to catch a crowded train to earn tens of thousands of pounds a year.
I'd be more than happy to sit on Utd's bench, no matter how much I hated football, and pick up a fortune.