blonde poker forum

After taking a biggish bet on Chelsea at work yesterday, I was sitting on the toilet pondering the case of Loic Remy and others.

Does it show more ambition to:

A. Move to a big club, earn more money, win trophies but rarely feature and arguably have much worth to the club.

Or

B. Move to a middling club, earn plenty money, be a first team regular, potentially worshipped by fans but not win trophies or potentially be rated as highly worldwide.

I may not have separated or detailed A and B quite right but you get the idea.

I think it definitely varies from case to case. Age and awareness of their own ability/ceiling prob plays a huge part as well. I'd assume every footballers main ambition is to play in Champions League/World cup finals and obv moving to bigger clubs gives them a better chance of this. Remy is never going to play in the CL with QPR, Newcastle, Liverpool etc and even if he knows he's only going to have a bit part player I'd assume just being part of that team, playing with exceptional players, being managed by exceptional people gives him enough incentive to make a move like he did. If Costa gets injured or has a massive drop in form then he's got a few games to show his worth to the team and like all (prob) professional footballers he's prob very confident in his own ability to make an impression.

I'd compare this to Falcao who made the bizarre move from Athletico to Monaco, being the best striker in the world, shows a huge lack of ambition.

And also to someone like Shearer. He could have moved to win more trophies but he was star man at his boyhood club, living his dream. Winning things with Newcastle was prob infinitely more meaningful than winning them with anyone else.

I don't understand players who move to a club to "win things" but don't actually play. How much did he actually contribute to his PL medal. Does he really look at it and feel like a champion?

I reckon it's more to do with money than glory

Very true. I came off in a cup final with ten to go cos I was knackered and we were a goal behind so we chucked another striker on - we proceeded to score two late goals to win and even then there was something missing for me.

Won't see many people like Giggs, Terry etc.

For most it's all about the benjamins...

For nearly all the playing it's all about the money imo. A real ' I want what he's getting culture'. Add into the mix a few trophy/medal hunters, who don't give a fuck if they play and long as the pay packet is massive.

Giggs and Terry played for the 2 most successful teams of their generation, on big wages. Of course they're going to have club loyalty.

Further reinforcing my point.

Lots of them still do the off, when they can get a bit more money.

Players take a step down in clubs for a bit more money? Examples?

How would we ever know if that was true?

Also, Shearer was very well rewarded financially for his move to his home town club.

Every Man City signing of the last 7 years? :)

This probably happens more than you think. Lukaku maybe?

You've got Cashley who basically moved sideways for a bit more dough. Although it has since transpired that Arsenal slid behind Chelsea.

Rooney was angling to get out, but got the dough when United worked out it was probably less viable to replace.  I can't see that he'd have been going to a bigger club.

Adebayor?


Obviously don't know the exact coups, and it could just be confirmation bias, but there seem to be many less 1 club career men nowadays, and more that are out for every penny.

Shearers prob not the best example, when he signed newcastle were very likely and did compete for the title/ got into champs league. By the time we were guff again his legs had gone a bit.

I dont think its all about money. Many players are deluded into thinking they are the best (a major part in getting to the level they did). Maybe they are willing to take the chance, either they are as good as they think they are and end up a star at a top club or they get paid 6 figures a week to sit on a bench.

Think its more interesting when someone is willing to go somewhere pointless for a wedge eg gyan at sunderland. I know they are jizz but he had plenty of options and just sold his career.


What would you call downings decision?

Let's put it this way, if you had been playing football since you were 5 for example, and you have strived for over 15+ years to get to the top of the game, playing every week on top money, then all of a sudden you move to a massive club, and barely play?

I'd be like, WTF am I doing and what a waste of talent and 15 years worth of effort.

I don't think I could do it, I 'd rather play football on good money (lets say £30,000 a week) and earn all the plaudits of years of hard graft than earn say 90k and fall of the radar and bench warm for 80% of the season.

What a waste.

Unless the master plan for many is to literally take the extra cash for a year or 2 then move on and play games again....I get that bit.

Surely it is more an ego thing?  They might realise they aren't as good as Messi, but most must think they can for their way into the first team. 

Say if there was a team Pleno in the poker world.  If I joined his staking operation, I'd hope with a bit of training I could get in the first 11.  Maybe I wouldn't be able to play as well as Pleno himself, but would fancy I could compete with most of the rest after the training.  Of course if after 6 months I am out on my ear, was I ambitious or deluded.  I'd say the former, though guess there are thin lines.

I'm sure I saw Downing saying he wanted his football to have meaning, to have something to compete for. Got to applaud that. Prob on same money? Or little drop perhaps.

Sure in the last few years a keeper turned down a new contract at Southampton I think it was, (Kelvin Davies?) to go play in the lower leagues as a No1 somewhere.

Right player, wrong scenario.

He turned down Prem League West Ham, instead signing a new 3 year deal at the Saints who were League 1 at the time.

I like to think that players want to stay with their local team, or the team that trained them & brought them through the youth network, however in reality at any point during that young players development if they hadn't quite met the standard the club would have ruthlessly cut them off, thousands get dropped every year.  Its not like these are lovely families that look after their children & then they choose to run away from home, the club isn't a family, fans might feel like it is but its not.  

I think that players make decisions for different reasons, some want to make money, others want to play & others want to win things even if it means playing less.  

We would all do something slightly different, i would stay at my local club, at least a think i would, but i support my local club so i feel some how connected to it as i see the ground every day & all my close friends support Leeds, if i supported a different team maybe i wouldn't feel this way.

Are bradley johnson, jonny howson, fabian delph, jermaine beckford or ross mccormack better off after leaving leeds to go on to bigger and better things?  I'm biased of course, but i'd argue that not many of them are.

Fabian Delph is on 100k per week and playing for the probable Champions.

I would think he's better off at least.

Should never have moved to Leeds in my view. 

you are in a delusional fantasyland

johnson went to play in the premier league, and is now playing for a team challenging to get there

howson is in the premier league

delph went to the premier league, then england, then a bigger move

beckford went to the premier league, then part of two more promotion winning teams

mccormack was an odd move, but still got his cut of an £11m fee


same will happen to byram and the next group of home grown players, as the dysfunctionality at leeds ensures they are going nowehere for the forseeable future and all will be right to leave too

Surely this works both ways as well. You've worked hard all your life, why don't you deserve a shot at winning something, at playing in the CL? If a big club comes calling they obv think you are good enough, even for a squad role. You only get 25 men in a team. Being one of them in a team winning things consistently in a big achievement in itself. No one is going to stay at a mid table team and achieve nothing all their career when they can go and potentially win things, testing themselves vs the best in the world.

But, they may not be testing themselves against the best in the world if they aren't playing?