Something should be done to cap kids’ cash
Teenagers aren’t known for their common sense and restraint.
They make daft decisions and get things wrong all the time.
It’s part of growing up.
But most teenagers don’t earn six-figure salaries. Whenyouchuckhugemoneyandaweebit of fame into the mix, being a teenager becomes even more dangerous.
That’s what young footballers at the top clubs are faced with these days.
For some of them, it all becomes too much. The story of George Green – who, as a kid at Everton, was called the new Wayne Rooney by some – made me sad when I heard it at the end of the week.
This is a young man who got a £45,000 signing-on fee from the Toffees, aged just 15.
He found himself playing alongside England internationalists John Stones and Ross Barkley in the Goodison youth ranks.
Quickly, he was getting all sorts of attention. By the age of 19 he was earning £110,000-a-year, despite never making a first-team appearance.
Top clubs will do whatever they can to tempt a promising young player to join them the look of, they will do whatever they can to convince the player to join them.
At the top level, that means splashing the cash.
When you have equally-rich competitors all around you, that is going to drive young players’ expectations up.
More importantly, it’s going to drive their agents’ expectations up.
Unless they have really good people around them – people who can give them sensible advice – some young players will struggle to keep their heads in check.
That was certainly the case with George Green, who deserves respect for opening up and sharing his tale.
But funnily enough, I hear fewer stories like his with a young, foreign player at the centre. These days, most English Premier League academies are filled with youngsters from Europe and beyond.
They seem better able to get their heads down and concentrate on their football, without having their heads turned by the money, the expensive cars, the drink and the drugs.
I’m not saying all young British players are flash types – they aren’t.
But if they could all take a leaf out of their foreign team-mates’ books, I think they’d get on better.
When I went down to Ipswich Town as a teenager, I was on £14-a-week.
My first professional contract was for £55 – but I had to pay my digs out of that, so I was no better off!
Those days are long gone – and rightly so. But the well-paid young players of today have different pressures to deal with.
For me, it’s something clubs and governing bodies should be doing more about.