Cash in...but spare us the leaving love letter
KALVIN PHILLIPS signed off at Leeds United with an open letter to supporters.
It was public relations drivel – and they should never be written.
Not Kalvin Phillips. Good luck to him – but these footballing ‘Dear Johns’ should be banned.
They are patronising, condescending twaddle, penned by middlemen who think the average punter is dim.
The trouble is we know the game, even if they don’t – because football followers have become conditioned over the years.
Prayer
We know coveted players move clubs for more money, trophies or a combination of them both.
But never for a lower salary.
For example, if every Premier League star earned the same, would Phillips trade Elland Road for the Etihad?
Not a prayer.
But seeing as he’s picking up an additional £25-30million for doing the same job under Pep Guardiola as he was under Jesse Marsch, then no one can blame him.
I’m not.
It doesn’t matter even if you’ve got the club close to your heart – or tattooed on your arm, as Duncan Ferguson does with Everton – no one’s going to turn down that kind of cash.
We all know it. We are all grown-ups.
And Phillips isn’t the first to go down this road.
Jack Grealish trod the same path last season when he quit his boyhood club Aston Villa.
And what tone did his leaving love-letter adapt?
Surprise, surprise, exactly the same one as Phillips’.
In fact, they could have used Grealish’s as a template. They probably did.
Player A will talk about how much he still loves the club, how much it has meant to him, how highly he rates the manager (past and present) and how
he will be back one day. It is clearly some ruse, thought up by a member of the agency responsible for the player. You can almost hear the discussion.
“OK, so Kalvin’s off to Manchester City – he’s said repeatedly how much he loves Leeds, how are we going to work our way around that one?”
And the idea of an open letter is given the go-ahead.
Could you say it’s polite? Heartfelt, even? That’s all very well, but what’s going to happen if Phillips rattles one in from 25 yards and sends Leeds down? Or denies them an FA Cup Final win?
Should the Leeds fans just shrug their shoulders and say, ‘It’s just Kalvin, no harm done’? What are the supporters
meant to do in situations such as the one Phillips now finds himself in? Applaud him politely before kick-off, then he’s fair game? I think so.
It’s been the same with Grealish. And at least he did ensure that a £100m buy-out clause was triggered in his contract. Villa received a monumental transfer fee.
Hurt
Villa fans are now split. Some say good luck, others good riddance.
Ultimately, Phillips turned his back on Leeds. He decided he was better off elsewhere. So, too, did Grealish.
The heart of every football fan is set in stone. But the financial heart of a footballer most certainly isn’t.
We’ve all come to terms with it – most fans are hurt when one of their own leaves. They don’t need it rammed home with platitudes pandering to emotional weak spots.
Sorry, but players are better off judged by their actions – and not their
words.