Tom Cleverley - Loan Confirmed

[villan1975]

Play for the club i love and support for £30k, or play for a club i hate but earning £130k as a bit part player but winning medals?

£130k a week all day. I'd do a joe cole and come here around 32/33. Have 2 years, then fuck off out the country for good. I've got this all planned out. There's still time.

Innit.

I think the other thing is that, if you had actually got to play a season or two for the club you supported, the thrill would have worn off by that point.

Look at Grealish, for example. If you follow him on twitter, it is clear that he is Villa through and through and his dream is to play for his club. So, pretty soon he'll start a top flight game for us, and he'll have fulfilled his dream.

After two, maybe three years of fucking about at the arse end of the table with his boyhood club, though, when he starts to think about what he wants to achieve with his career, and if he gets offered chances at clubs where he can really win things, or if he's earning 30k a week and someone offers him four times as much, does anyone really think that he's going to turn that down to stick with his boyhood club?

Really? In fact, how many players can we think of who have had serious opportunities and turned them down? Le Tissier at Southampton, maybe, but how many others?

Would you? If you were a 30k a week player at Villa and Man City offered you 130k and the chance to play in the Champions League, to win cups and titles, would you really say "no thanks, I'll be a legend at Villa instead"? Really?

And would le Tiss turn it down now, when Southampton couldn't offer anything like the money Chelsea could?   

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

[tomd2103]

Play for the club i love and support for £30k, or play for a club i hate but earning £130k as a bit part player but winning medals?

£130k a week all day. I'd do a joe cole and come here around 32/33. Have 2 years, then fuck off out the country for good. I've got this all planned out. There's still time.

Really? In fact, how many players can we think of who have had serious opportunities and turned them down? Le Tissier at Southampton, maybe, but how many others?

Steve Bull springs to mind.  Noone would have understood him if he'd have moved anywhere else in the country though!!

One of things about James Milner is that Man City and England are probably two of only a few teams in the country that don't often play with a three in midfield.  I think the right side of a midfield three is a position that is absolutely made for him.   

[dave.woodhall]

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

Verbal warning.

On a slightly different note though, Chris Eubank said that the only reason professional boxers fight is for the money; if they did it for the love of the sport they'd stay amateur. I don't see that the vast majority of footballers think any different.

[ozzjim]

Le Tissier played in an era when Southampton could pay him the type of money he would have got elsewhere for reasons that he was the big star and other players there would simply accept that he was paid more than the rest etc, and the scale was nothing like it is today. Now he would be a squad player in the top 4 earning 100 plus grand a week.

[tomd2103]

Pretty sure there were rumblings of discontent this summer from him or probably his agent and as a player he hasn't improved and although supposition on my part I believe it is because of how little football he has played. If anything he has gone backwards, football moves on very quickly.

Maybe he's at the level best suited to him. I can't imagine any player who would swap his situation for playing 38 league games at Hull.

Wouldn't have to be Hull or that level though, he would get into every team in the prem apart from Man City and Chelsea week in and week out.

I'm not so sure, and even if he could get into Arsenal or Liverpool's team would that be worth the medals and knowing he was with the best club he could be at? 

He is better than Henderson and Allen. Pretty sure Luckypool were rumoured to be in for him. Pretty sure it will all be decided this season as his contract is coming to an end. As previously stated he has gone backwards and could have been so much more playing every week though we will never know if the medals etc personally have made him happy. He always looked to me like he lived for football and playing the game every week.

I don't suppose we'll ever know what motivates him, but I would guess £130k a week is reason enough.

As someone else pointed out Dave, we make the mistake of looking at it as fans.  If he left Man City there are probably a couple of teams that could afford to pay him that much, but they'd probably not be interested in him.  Like Gareth Barry, he'd probably be looking at joining a team like Everton or Spurs who would  probably be able to afford say £80k a week.  That's over £2.5m a year he'd be leaving on the table and that's before any bonuses and Champions League money.  That's the reality of it, sad as it is.

A number of players at Manchester United found themselves in that position over the years and they tended to wait until their early 30's before moving on. 

[tomd2103]

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

Verbal warning.

On a slightly different note though, Chris Eubank said that the only reason professional boxers fight is for the money; if they did it for the love of the sport they'd stay amateur. I don't see that the vast majority of footballers think any different.

Staying on that different note, I remember watching an episode of the boxing show Ringside with the two Hearns and Carl Froch.  It was very apparent from the way they talked that boxing came very much second to business in that sport. 

[villan1975]

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

Verbal warning.

On a slightly different note though, Chris Eubank said that the only reason professional boxers fight is for the money; if they did it for the love of the sport they'd stay amateur. I don't see that the vast majority of footballers think any different.

You're likely to know more than me but somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember Eubank saying he never liked boxing and it was always a means to an end. Totally understandable opinion as he truly had some brutal wars. Football on the other hand to me at least is the dream job and I am sure it must be for the vast majority of footballers.

[Toronto Villa]

The truth about Milner is we have far more attachment to him than he ever had to us. We provided him the perfect platform for his career. He was excellent and took advantage of the opportunity. To us he's the bird we should have married. Instead we got dumped. To him we're the university fling he was never going to stay with on his way bigger and better things. It's every bit a statement on our place in the game at this moment.

[dave.woodhall]

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

Verbal warning.

On a slightly different note though, Chris Eubank said that the only reason professional boxers fight is for the money; if they did it for the love of the sport they'd stay amateur. I don't see that the vast majority of footballers think any different.

You're likely to know more than me but somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember Eubank saying he never liked boxing and it was always a means to an end. Totally understandable opinion as he truly had some brutal wars. Football on the other hand to me at least is the dream job and I am sure it must be for the vast majority of footballers.

I think you've just used the key word - job. It's their job, it's what they've spent their whole lives striving towards. And now Milner is at what he probably considers to be the pinnacle of his profession. He earns as much as he possibly could, he wins as many trophies as he could and if he doesn't play in as many games as he might, that's not much of a drawback considering what else he's got going for his career.

[Toronto Villa]

If Milner joined us tomorrow he'll likely play in less games than if he stayed as a bit-part player at Man City this season.

[PaulWinch again]

If Milner joined us tomorrow he'll likely play in less games than if he stayed as a bit-part player at Man City this season.

That's possibly true, but he'd start more and he'd be central rather than a fringe player.

[ozzjim]

The truth about Milner is we have far more attachment to him than he ever had to us. We provided him the perfect platform for his career. He was excellent and took advantage of the opportunity. To us he's the bird we should have married. Instead we got dumped. To him we're the university fling he was never going to stay with on his way bigger and better things. It's every bit a statement on our place in the game at this moment.

I think our status now would be much more the shitty poly that he got stuck with for a couple of years. Uni 4 years ago yes.

[tomd2103]

Not everyone is driven by the pursuit of the almighty dollar like you are Dave. No way you would be a journalist for the Guardian you are Torygraph through and through.

Verbal warning.

On a slightly different note though, Chris Eubank said that the only reason professional boxers fight is for the money; if they did it for the love of the sport they'd stay amateur. I don't see that the vast majority of footballers think any different.

You're likely to know more than me but somewhere in the recesses of my mind I remember Eubank saying he never liked boxing and it was always a means to an end. Totally understandable opinion as he truly had some brutal wars. Football on the other hand to me at least is the dream job and I am sure it must be for the vast majority of footballers.

I think you've just used the key word - job. It's their job, it's what they've spent their whole lives striving towards. And now Milner is at what he probably considers to be the pinnacle of his profession. He earns as much as he possibly could, he wins as many trophies as he could and if he doesn't play in as many games as he might, that's not much of a drawback considering what else he's got going for his career.

There is also the thought that by not playing as many games as he might at this point, he may be able to extend his career.

[kippaxvilla2]

Couldnt't we like tempt him and Citeh by sharing the wages?

Like, we pay £10k a week, they pay the £120k.  For the season.

Bargain.

[kippaxvilla2]

I like Jimmy a lot.  But he isn't daft.