The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
PT Sports Award winners revealed:
You’d hope that when this hellish lockdown is over professional football will indulge in some much-needed navalgazing. The fragile finances of some clubs that look wellrun from the outside are as frightening as the self-serving decisions to ask the UK Government to pay non-playing staff even though they can easily afford to do it themselves.
I won’t be joining in the applause for Liverpool FC reversing their decision to furlough their lower paid. So much scorn was deposited on their doorstep they quickly became humiliated and had no choice but to back down.
Liverpool were outclassed by rivals Manchester United and Manchester City when some joined-up, compassionate thinking was required and that will rightly hurt those at Anfield, particularly skipper Jordan Henderson who has been one of the individual stars of the stoppage.
But too many of Henderson’s contemporaries believe strict rules don’t apply to them. Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker (right) are just the two to have been caught partying against all good medical advice. I have no doubt there are others dreading having entertained kiss-and-tell escorts as dozy Walker did.
Mind you when they witness the sheer stupidity of a top Premier League boss in Daniel Levy allowing his £10 million wage to be published on the day he furloughed the majority of his Spurs staff, the players probably believe they are not the real villains here.
It has irritated me greatly to see about 95% of storries since football was halted have revolved around money.
From the grasping gambler Gordon Taylor (salary £2.2 million per annum) at the PFA through Levy and his ilk to highly-paid players not wishing to take a pay deferral (a delay, not an actual cut) it has all been rather depressing.
If any good is to come from this mess it will hopefully force clubs and players to accept that wages have to come down and that agents’ fees have to plummet. After all that money just goes out of the game altogether. Players need to start thinking for themselves.
I spoke to Posh great Steve Welsh this week. He is now Head of Academy at Doncaster and he believes clubs at his level will now have to start trusting more in their youth.
That is already a public Posh aim for the future and wouldn’t it be great if Premier League clubs did the same rather than chase overrated, overpriced, overseas players like Tanguy Ndombele, a £50 million record signing flop at Spurs.
Chelsea look set for a Champions League spot next season after being forced to play young footballers like Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham earlier than they would have wanted due to a transfer ban.
I’m not holding my breath though. No matter how many small clubs bite the dust before football resumes, greed will soon be seen as good again and ugly self-interest will once more rule the game.