Players Living Far from Villa Park, right or wrong

[Villan For Life]

A previous manager, I think Graham Taylor during his first spell, had a policy that players had to live within a certain radius of Bodymoor Heath.

I'd prefer it if they did because it makes them a tiny bit more accessible.

The trouble is that most of them are now so highly paid that property in the West Midlands/Warwickshire just would not cut it. Sure Little Aston is out of most of our league but there can only be a certain number of desirable residences for young millionaires to live in.

If they do it on the pitch I don't care if they live in Mayfair or Mere Green.

[WikiVilla]

Home location is no longer a factor based on how much a Prem footballer earns

[Lee]

Alan Wright never moved close to Villa Park,  and he was always committed to the cause.

[villa1]

I live 10 minutes from where I work. I wouldn't want to live the distance from work that some of our players do, but that's my personal preference.

[TopDeck113]

In this day and age I don't think it really matters where they live, especially as they can all afford a chauffeur should they not fancy driving the circa 200 mile round trip from Alderley Edge/Hampstead to Bodymoor Heath.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

What is this Ashley Young and London talk? He lives in Hagley - Stourbridge

[villa1]

What is this Ashley Young and London talk? He lives in Hagley - Stourbridge

Not any more, by all accounts.

[Lizz]

Comaparing footballers' contracts of employment with those of lesser mortals is pointless, but it won't stop me. A bright management spark where I work came up with an idea of only accepting job applications from people with certain post codes. His idea died a very quick death.

[hawkeye]

of couse players should live within a reasonable distance of the club, they need to come to understand and be a part of the culture and comunity of the club. We dont want players who just comute in, do the required amount of hours at the training ground and then just piss off back to manchester or london, it does not work unless there is a real comitment. Its the same in business i know a lot of people that have thier home and family away from the place they work, they stay in the area 3 to 5 days per week so that they can mix with thier coleagues and be a part of what is going on.

[eamonn]

Luke Young lives a fair bit away too.

[KevinGage]

If we measure commitment on how close to VP or Bodymoor Heath a player resides then the likes of Alpay and Tony Cantscorino would poll well as they both lived in Sutton Coldfield during their time at the club.

Whereas, as I mentioned earlier Alan Wright and Paul McGrath both travelled in from Manchester.

Anyone want to seriously make the argument that the former two were more committed to the club than the latter two?  No, thought not.

It would be preferable if most of the players were closer to work, purely from a logistics point of view and particularly at this time of the year when the weather can cause delays et.c  But that's all it should be, preferable rather than compulsory.

[Pete3206]

It's not as if they'd be worried about petrol costs. Couldn't care less where they live.

[hawkeye]

i know mcgrath used to stay in birmingham during the week, i doubt that driving home was on the agenda

[brontebilly]

the players arent fit enough, the players live too far from the training ground etc etc - I dont know about the rest of you but Houllier seems to be looking for tired cliche reasons why he cant get the best out of the players at his disposal.