Taking le Tiss

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A LOT OFPLAYERS MOVECLUBS CLAIMINGIT’S BECAUSETHEY AREAMBITIOUS.DON’T LET THEMFOOL YOU; THEYARE USUALLYAFTER THE EXTRACASH.

Over the decades there have been very few professional footballers (Graeme Le Saux is the obvious example) from the Channel Islands, which have a combined population of only around 150,000. To come from there and play for England is a pretty big achievement in my eyes—particularly as I managed to balance that with personal happiness, which always meant much more to me than money. And it’s worth stressing that a lot of players move clubs claiming it’s because they are ambitious. Don’t let them fool you; they are usually after the extra cash. Nothing wrong with that, so long as they’re being honest. The fans aren’t stupid, they see through it—as they did when Lucas Neill chose West Ham over Liverpool claiming he was ambitious. Nothing against the Hammers, but how could he say that West Ham had more chance of winning cups than Liverpool? And look at the likes of Steve Sidwell, who was great for Reading. He was playing every week but then moved to Chelsea, knowing full well that he wouldn’t be a regular but he’d be paid more. Is that ambition?

Is a player better off getting silly money every week but sitting on the bench, or playing regularly, earning less and keeping his self-respect? I know what I chose. And earning less does NOT mean that you are being badly paid. You can’t blame the players for taking that sort of money if it’s offered, but there comes a time when you have to wonder how much more money someone can actually spend? If you are already on £30,000 a week, what else could you buy if you get £40,000? The only difference for the likes of Steve Sidwell is they’d have more time to spend it because they’re not playing! I know times were different during my career, but the most I ever earned was just under £4,000 a week. I could never have handled sitting on the bench, week after week, and being sent on as an ‘impact player’, just for the extra cash. It was bad enough when I was dropped—and every manager left me out at some point—apart from Dave Merrington and Alan Ball. At least at Southampton I didn’t have to worry about rotation because we never had a big enough squad for that. And I’d have hated being left out even when I was playing well simply to give others a chance. I never had a problem being dropped if I was going through a bad spell, and never went knocking on the manager’s door about it. I simply waited for them to lose a couple of games, then knew I’d be back in again.