Anti Anti-Inflammatory antics
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Poor the Lovren, The Agger and The Sturridge
Just reading about Agger...poor guy, terrible end to a career. Maybe we're being a little to harsh on their performances, given that these guys are putting their bodies on the line for us.
They're not though. They're putting their bodies on the line for money. Lots & lots of money. Enough to retire before 40 & live extremely well & comfortably for the rest of their days.
He will be retired in about 2 years if he keeps this up. I'm not a fan of Lovren but he will breakdown completely if this continues. Difficult to understand how the club would allow this given what happened with Agger
They always did put their bodies on the line for money. It just didn't used to be that much money. Now, as you say, it's more money, but I don't think that excuses the failure of duty of care. The old players are now, many of them, suffering all kinds of terrible ailments, and some are crippled or deep in dementia, and receive barely any or no help. The players today will no doubt be able to afford good medication and care homes. But it's pretty outrageous, in these days of supposedly micro-managed sports scientific monitoring, that this kind of crap is still happening.
There's no incentive for anyone to care unfortunately.
The PFA should be the ones first & foremost fighting for it, but they get rich from the player's salaries.
Then the agent should be next, they also pocket their share so they ignore it.
Next you have the club & the club doctors, but their employer is the club, who all think fairly short term & certainly never put the players well being above the clubs ambitions.
The players themselves have little say in the matter, look at sturridge for example, he rules himself out & we fans judge him poorly for it (that's an extreme example but it still stands).
The league itself gets rich by the best players playing as often as possible, no way they will be the ones to reduce that, esp when other leagues won't.
So we're left with fifa & uefa. Neither body will dare say anything cos the clubs pay the wages of the players who play in their tournaments & if the clubs can play players much less you can be sure that international football will be the first to be hit with a reduction in games.
There's no one whatsoever within the framework of the game with any power to do anything who wants to do anything about it, so nothing will be done, despite most people who have met Tommy Smith being as shocked as I was (the way they injected him & refused to tell the players what they were giving them was fucking unreal, he has some mad stories about that, as I'm sure you're aware macca) at his condition.
I'll always moan about how much they're paid, but it seems irrelevant when they're potentially being wrecked physically by being played when they shouldn't be playing. How much money makes it acceptable? This is the kind of thing the PFA should be acting to stop, but of course that monumental buffoon Gordon Taylor does feck all unless he's poked with a really big stick whilst the cameras are on. Then he just relies on his droning bore of a voice to make it all go away.
I really dislike the "they are living the dream, I would do that for the money" trope that seems to follow every professional sportsman. These people are singled out for success at a very early age , and bust their ass for a decade, before they even get a sniff of becoming professional. Parents trekking them to school games, county games academy games multiple times a week. Whilst at 16, we were necking vodka, and puking in alleys, they were laying off the carbs, and tucked up in bed by 10. Then, at 17 or 18, in their first serious relationship, she says " come out tonight, one night won't make a difference" and they say no, fuck that , I've got training tomorrow. They are spending all of their time with hairy arsed fuckers, who all want them fuck up, so it will improve their own chances. For 6 years.
We have all met guys in the five-a-side, or on a Saturday, who were "on the books" with teams. What do they say about why they're not in the big time? Lack of skill, lack of opportunity, lack of sacrifice? I don't want this to turn into "how can they earn what they do?" argument, because that one's dead. But, if after their careers are over, they are suffering with debilitating injuries, (think NFL, these poor guys are dropping like flies), caused so I can enjoy cheering on a Saturday, I'm not going to castigate them if they are playing through injury for the sake of the team. But, hey, that's just me.
I’ve seen PLENTY of premier league footballers of all ages out and about getting pissed. Maybe it’s different in 2017 but it wasn’t a few years ago.
I’ll give up my left knee and hip if it meant I had 10M in the bank.
Lovren needs a rest. About 20 years should do it.
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