Recently, there's a a lot of buzz surrounding Robin van Persie's future and almost all fans are talking only of one thing. Loyalty. I don't know where it comes in club football. The fans always say their player should be loyal (as long as he is amongst the best in the business but if he's not or he's fading, you know what they say). I haven't heard from a single manager about player's loyalty till date.

I think loyalty in club scene is overrated. I mean it shouldn't be talked about. Loyalty and club football should not be discussed together. Its not a big deal. Lets talk specifically. The best leagues in the world by far are English Premier League(BPL), Spanish La Liga(LigaBBVA) and Italian Serie A. So if an ambitious player wants to play in these leagues who is not from aforementioned country and its league, he has to leave his club. So, in order to move there, loyalty just goes out of context.

Let me elaborate by taking few instances of players commiting their entire careers to their respective clubs.
Steven Gerrard, John Terry, Barca clan, United clan, Francesco Totti, Alesandro Del Piero, Paolo Maldini, Tony Adams and many more.
And we all talk of them as being loyal servants to their clubs and appreciate it.
Before I analyse their loyalty more deeply, could you point out what all is common in them and why we only know them as one club man and not others?

Players Club Titles
Steven Gerrard                                                            9
John Terry                                                                  13
Barca clan                                                                  10(or more)
United clan                                                                 14(or more)
Francesco Totti                                                           3
Alesandro Del Piero                                                    8
Paolo Maldini                                                             13
Tony Adams                                                               9
Note: Trophies with more than 2 games are considered.

Now the picture is clearer. They all play(ed) for the best clubs in the world. They earn(ed) multi millions. And you can see they have won numerous trophies.

Coming back to the point. So, if a player like Robin van Persie, who has stayed at Arsenal for 8 years with only an FA cup trophy to show for and who doesn't even belong to the country let alone city, wants to leave (for trophies and money), its perfectly logical. And there is no need to talk about the so called loyalty. And if you really want to talk about loyalty, name me one world class player, who played for a single club despite not winning a single trophy. I'll call that fucking loyalty.

Since most of us (non-EU) are supporters of big clubs, we take loyalty pretty seriously and completely ignore the ethos of fans and players of the not so big clubs. It's impossible for us to understand that.
The problem for such brouhaha amongst fans is money. For whatever reason the player wants to depart, we consider or are made to believe money is the only factor. And I blame this entirely on media which is run and influenced by billionaires. Their only aim is to misguide people and make money. And since, media is the only medium for us to collect the "facts", we are left with nothing else and are easily influenced.

I wrote this article becuase the other day, one of my friends told me that only loyal players are true legends to which I obviously disagreed. Probably, he missed Thierry Henry's statue outside The Emirates. Tony Adams once said "I would sign any contract Arsenal would put in front of me without even seeing it". I think any local player who has been a regular player for his local club and winning almost every competiton they play(multiple times) would echo his words (at least players from the top three leagues). Furthermore, he had a huge trophy cabinet. So, why would he complain?

I know my article is pretty unfair on players who joined big clubs right from the start. But, the real test comes when you are going downhill, having won nothing at your peak or nothing at all ever. Everyone leaves to win trophies and that's above money. Very few do not like Gigi Buffon and Del Piero. So, in my honest opinion, I think that we should appreciate a player's hunger for trophy more than earning money even though it might be heartbreaking for us to see our talisman leave our club. 

Joga Bonito? Nah...Money Game

Its no more "Joga Bonito" well known as "The Beautiful Game".

Its sad to see that the true lovers of the game are being disappointed by what the world has to offer at the pinnacle of the game. The World Cup was a waste of time and money for the fans as the flair on the field was only shown by Germany. And the finals was an absolute mockery of the beautiful game and both the teams were culprits.

Moving on to the club scene where you see the so called passion from the players which is probably down to their huge salaries. There is no more stability at clubs due to extravagant spending in pursuit of trophies which they never seem to get hold off. Can you imagine Olympiacos spending in access of $7M on Riera! Isn't that a crazy sum for a club in Greece to spend (the country is bankrupt). Just watch how beautiful Blackpool play as compared to any other team in EPL. And the highest transfer fee that they have payed for any player is a paltry sum of $800,000. Or just go to South America for a pleasant change.

The change in the behaviour of the football professionals and clubs can be put down to UEFA . Their transfer policy came under serious scrutiny after Bosman's case which he won and it came to be known as Bosman/Free Transfer. They have not been strict on the players playing nonsense football causing serious injury concerns for the talented players. Furthermore, they never took care of the very talented players and the rules implemented by them demanded a player which can now be seen in every team all over the world "Anchorman" whose sole duty is to terrorise the players and play anti-football. Just see how many teams have flourished with an anchorman in past 10 years.

UEFA has always emphasised on the home grown rule which is fine. But regarding non- European Union players, they have always been diplomatic.They say every season of imposing a cap on number of non EU players a team can play but till day it has not been implemented. This highlights their hypocrisy. Everyone knows that without the South American flair(the real home of football, no offence to England), football is nothing which can't be described better than Sir Alex's words "115 Brazilian players played for the clubs in the UEFA Champions League in 2009 more than any other players of a single country". This makes the Champions League the most watched football competition in the world at club level churning out billions of euros.

All in all, it can be said that UEFA has always maintained double standards over their policy and its solely down to money. Instead of The Beautiful Game (Joga Bonito), its now a Money Game.