Every fan loves to see their players kissing the badge. Every fan wants to feel as though the players feel the same way about the club that they do, that they’ll give everything they can and that they genuinely want success for the club as much as they want personal success. Obviously there will always be movement between clubs; some players want to move abroad, move to a bigger club to achieve success or move to the club they supported as a boy. But it seems that in the last fifteen years player loyalty is on the decline, almost as though it’s going out of fashion. Sol Campbell’s “Spurs is the only club for me” was swiftly followed by a move to their bitter rivals, Wayne Rooney’s “once a blue always a blue” was hastily followed by the image of him in a red shirt and Ashley Cole’s abandonement of the club that he had supported as a boy are just some of vast swathes of examples that exist within the Premier League.
I think that you can definitely find a correlation between the injection of cash from super rich owners and the decline of loyalty too, funny how that works. However I think the problem runs deeper than that. I think the culture of football has changed and everyone: ther media, the fans and the players have all been caught up in it.
Money
It would be unfair on players to suggest that the only reason why some of them wish to jump ship is for money. But then again it would be foolish to deny the obvious pulling power of a double-your-wages offer from some non-specific oligarch. People may now be joining Man City to win trophies as well as the money but originally you can be pretty sure it was just for the money. Did Robinho join the Manchester club because he thought he had a better chance of winning titles their than in Madrid? Probably not. The same applies to Carlos Tevez, Ashley Cole and every other mercenary at those clubs.
The fact is that whilst the players may begin their careers with good intentions the money that certain clubs are able to offer would turn even the noblest head. Who, realistically, could turn their nose up and the £200,000+ per week that some of the City players are on? No, money is doing its bit to destroy player loyalty within our league and others. Players should be able to earn what they can, but within reason. Football is about more than just winning, it is also about having a connection with your club and the fact that the players are feeling less and less sentimental towards their employers will certainly have an effect on the relationship between clubs, players and fans.
Patience
Money however is, as I said, not the only reason for a decrease in loyalty. The culture of wanting everything instantly has taken over football as it has the rest of society. Consumerism has lead be to abandon patience in favour of debt in society in the never ending pursuit of things that we want. The same has happened in football. Instead of being happy to wait and work for success at their current clubs players look to move as soon as things aren’t going exactly as they wish.