Are Scottish footballers too greedy

[Alex MacLeod]

http://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/Sport/Football/Malpas-wants-decision-from-duo.htm

Meanwhile, Malpas has confirmed that the majority of Caley Thistle’s new recruits for next season have been sourced from England simply because Scottish players are proving too expensive.

"The players that will be coming here are predominantly from the English leagues," he said.

"The Scottish players we looked at were too expensive. Essentially, some are pricing themselves out of the market.

"We’ve got a wage structure here, which is the same for every club, but you’ve got to shop where you can afford and for us that is in England."

Last season Butcher said it. This season Malpas is saying the same. That Scottish Footballers are too expensive. The average wage in Scotland is around £20k yet our footballers are looking for wages way above that. Yes its a short career but does that give them carte blanche to demand the highest earnings. Earnings are one of the things killing the game in this country. The smaller clubs like ours cant afford to pay the prima donna salaries being demanded so the two or three clubs with the larger fanbase will always top the scales.

Is it greed or are those players deserving of what they ask for? Bear in mind that bonuses are paid on top of salaries.

[gordieict]

No I dont think they are being greedy, in any profession workers will try to get the maximium rewards for their efforts and if clubs are prepared to pay it who can blame the players

[Libero]

I wouldnt necessarily say all Scottish footballers are greedy.

Some will move to clubs purely for financial gain where as some will move to play with better players/coaches or at a better standard of football. Not all footballers are purely motivated by money (all be it a lot of them are)

I think what the problem that Butcher and Malpas have described is that Scottish footballers know full well there are numerous clubs down south who can offer them double, treble or even more than clubs in the SPL can and they can pick and choose which financial package to accept. This is no different to everyday employment where people will move for the best deal.

We are suffering from the success of english football in that we cannot even begin to compete on a finacial level. Dont think this will ever change

[Alex MacLeod]

What you say there Libero appears to me to be a contradiction. You say that Scottish players demand more because thay know they can get more down south yet we have to go down south to get cheaper players. If there's more money on offer down there then why are so many willing to come north? They could just stay south and the Scottish players wouldn't have places to go.

[PaderbornCaley]

Off topic but from the same article Alex Posted in this thread:

The defender (Gillet) , who is thought to be attracting interest from England, is currently in France and despite several attempts Inverness have not been able to contact him.

Considering the May 31st deadline has passed, I think that when they do get in touch with him they should tell him to GTF. Stuart Duff all over again.

[Libero]

Perhaps i didnt put my point across clearly Alex

Scottish players can demand more because English clubs are willing to pay them that. Once a Scottish player has proven himself to be an asset for his team he will no doubt be spotted by scouts, when its comes to a straight choice between staying in Scotland on a relatively low wage or moving to England on a superior wage then its an easy choice.

There is a much, much larger pool of players in England (huge competition for deals) desperate for football who are at a decent standard and would play for a wage we can offer, In Scotland the much smaller pool of players that would be good enough to play for us and be willing to play for a wage we can offer are highly sought after and often we are competing with clubs who can offer more.

They type of player Butcher primarily likes to sign is a player at a small club looking for a stepping stone or a young player released by a big club looking to make his mark on the game. In Scotland there just arent enough players like this to meet his demand

Basically what i'm saying is there is a much larger pool of footballers willing to play on a wage that falls between our budget than there is in Scotland

[Yngwie]

they should tell him to GTF

Go To France?! Perhaps like Tade he wants to be closer to home and so will sign for St Johnstone. He certainly won't be back at ICT, his actions have made that pretty clear.

Libero has hit the nail on the head regarding the Scottish players Malpas talks about. It's all about supply and demand, and these players earn what they currently earn because a club was willing to pay that, and they were more than happy to accept.

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

Shurely it must depend on what level of player that you are looking fer - if it is a SPL player they will probably be looking fer a similar contract to what they had or summat better - the SPL is not a particular attraction to them. How many SFL players are up to SPL standard and will also be looking for improved contrcats. Players "languishing" in the Blue Square, Divs 1 & 2 may well be more attracted to the apparent appeal of the SPL, the Old Filth and Terry Butcher. Many may opt fer short term contracts with an aim to improving their CV's and moving even further upwards.

Whilst packing for ma sojourn to Sneck I came acoss an owd programme with a quote from Terry Butcher:

"we identify a player for a certain position then find out how much he costs, speak to his agent then see if he wants to come to us or if his club will allow them to move. We look for the ability,age,pace and history in a player. For everyone that we sign there is a long list of discarded subjects."

[AJS]

Yeah agreed with Libero. Scottish players see England for the bigger leagues and better prospects and players down south see Scotland as a chance to get noticed in order to get a better move down south. The SPL has become nothing more than a stepping stone for players to go down South and that is not going to change.

[Scotty]

I am in two minds about this ...... One the one hand, it is a short career and players must seek to maximise their earnings while they can. That is human nature, and we all do it although those of us who are not professional athletes may have a bit longer to amass those earnings !!! Not every ex-player will find a job coaching, managing, commentating or doing something else within the game when they are done so I have no problem with them seeking what might be regarded as a higher wage compared to 'joe public' before they themselves become 'joe public'.

However, like a lot of other leagues, I think many players do actually look to England and see the ridiculous wages being paid there in the Premiership, the Championship or even the leagues below that and think they should be getting more ... and therefore ask for it. Sometimes it may be deserved, but equally sometimes they may be asking for silly money. It also doesnt help that there is such a wide gulf between Celtic, Rangers (oldco), and the rest of the teams in terms of (previous) wage levels as players can look to them too and see that as a yardstick. (PS - lets not get into the whole EBT or Rangers stuff - there are multiple threads for that).

I may be going insane, but I think this is one area where Vladimir Romanov actually made sense in his statement yesterday. I dont hold with the whole "Murdoch as the devil" picture he painted, but he is telling the truth when he highlights the pots of money poured into English football by SKY compared to the loose change thrown at the SPL as if it were a beggar on the street corner ....

I cant help wondering if part of the new financial regulations within Scottish football should include a salary cap like MLS ? I was no big fan of the cap when I started watching TFC in 2007 but with each passing year it seems to make more sense .... The league has a minimum salary and a maximum 'normal' salary and your total wage bill must come in under the cap amount. You can 'overpay' a maximum of three players (designated players) and in that case each one is only charged to your cap at the maximum salary as per the agreement, not their actual salary which might break the cap.

The coaches then decide whether they want a few high earners and top up the squad with younger players on lower salaries or whether they keep salaries somewhere in the middle and get a team of 'decent' players .. but they cannot go over. In MLS it also helps to foster youth development as younger players earn less, and there are salary cap incentives for signing younger 'star' players who are signed as DPs compared to signing say a Beckham, Frings or Henry where the older players are charged to your salary cap at the maximum amount but a younger 'star' costs maybe half that...... Transfers are classed as 'extra' money for a team (called 'allocation dollars' over here) and although a bit complicated, the rules dictate that some of it can be used to pay money over the cap amount to players but a significant proportion (50% or more I think) has to be used for infrastructure improvements or youth development. Winning the league, the cup, or qualifying for the (concacaf) Champions League also brings in extra allocation allowances so a succesful club can get a bit of leeway to spend more. Allocation money does however 'expire' after a year or two so its not something a team can look at as a permanent increase in their cap level ..... As complicated as it sounds, it seems to work well for MLS and does level the playing field a bit more for smaller teams in the league who can end up being quite succesfull .......

[Oddquine]

Scotty.....that sounds reasonably sensible (at least the bits I understood), so not a snowball's chance in hell in Scottish fitba!

[StockholmSyndrome]

If only the people running football over here were as sensible as those running MLS. The amount of money bring thrown around by big clubs in England and the rest of Europe is really harming the game, especially at grassroots level. In the last year or so I've become quite disillusioned with it and I do wish we could move to a more MLS style system, it definitely seems fairer and sounds like it's actually a competitive and exciting league.

[BornCaley]

personally your humble narrator thinks all football players are greedy

[Ten4]

So where are the scottish players going, are they becoming extinct ?

I havent gone into detail researching the answer so how many scots are left in the spl ?

Are we the poorest paid in the spl?

[Oddquine]

personally your humble narrator thinks all football players are greedy

Don't disagree at all.....by why should they be expected to be any different to the average punter? Isn't greed, to a greater or lesser extent,what has driven everybody in the last thirty odd years.....hence the state of the country as a whole now?

If you had the chance to increase your wages, even if that meant that you'd not be improving your job prospects at all, and into the bargain, had to leave the company you had worked happily for for years....would you?

If you had the chance to continue to have a job in these uncertain times......even if that meant a cut in wages and didn't improve your job prospects , but would mean you stayed with the company which had employed you for years......would you?

Or if you had offers from other companies, better than the one on the table from your current employer, re remuneration..and/or improving job prospects, would you go with the devil you know rather than the devil you don't.....even if that meant your income would be less?

In the UK in 2011, greed is the accepted norm for the majority of the population...it is a situation with which we have to live and have to accommodate..and if we can't afford to accommodate the aspirations of the greedy, we have to face the consequences, whether as an individual, or a business such as a football club

We can't blame footballers because the UK is what it is.

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So was Ross Tokely greedy ?

[Oddquine]

So was Ross Tokely greedy ?

Form your own conclusions. I have.

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I agree with you - he clearly wasnt

[Oddquine]

I agree with you - he clearly wasnt

Mind reading from your own personal perspective again, IHE?

Can't understand why you do what you do whatever it is you do as a profession, when you could so easily make big bucks as God!

[Scotty]

I dont know the numbers for what he was offered or what he wanted - and in some ways I dont really want to as that is private - but I do not believe RT was 'greedy'. If he was a greedy player he would not have spent 16 years at one club.

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And he decided not to employ an agent so didn't have to worry about earning extra money for that "cut". I feel that there are a handful of players who actually do possess and display the old fashioned "loyalty" characteristic, although I am sure that they remain so because they are settled in the team, settled in the area and probably their loved ones are as well. I have had many chances to go to jobs with higher salaries and higher kudos but I have stayed put for all the aforementioned reasons. I suspect that living in the wilderness with little to do but pontificate could make an individual grumpy, tunnel visioned and far from being worldly wise.

[Alex MacLeod]

Didnt realise Chorley was a wilderness.

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It is a sprawling cosmopolitan metropolis.

[The Mantis]

I agree with you - he clearly wasnt

Mind reading from your own personal perspective again, IHE?

Can't understand why you do what you do whatever it is you do as a profession, when you could so easily make big bucks as God!

Is God greedy?

[IMMORTAL HOWDEN ENDER]

1 Corinthians 6:10 suggests that I am fecked :

"Nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."