8 Sept 2011

Stop the presses! More proof that Liverpool FC is a mercenary-free zone

Kenny Dalglish has revealed that new signing Craig Bellamy made 'financial sacrifices' to rejoin Liverpool, which basically translates to taking a pay cut. In a sport that is now defined by greed and shameless selfishness, it's refreshing to see a top level, highly paid player actually move to a club for love rather than money.

Speaking about Bellamy's recent return, Dalglish said:

"He's really enthusiastic to be back and made a lot of sacrifices to come back here, financial and otherwise, because of what the club means to him, so we're delighted to have people with that attitude here...he loves this club which is very important and he'll be a fantastic asset for us."


Given the avarice and naked self-interest that has soiled football over the last 20 years, it's actually a novelty to find players taking pay-cuts to join clubs they love. Apart from Bellamy and Mikel Arteta (who took a pay cut to join Arsenal), I can't think of many more examples.

Can you imagine hardcore mercenaries like Wayne Rooney and Samir Nasri (or indeed any of Man City's recent signings) taking pay cuts to join a club? The very idea is laughable.

In fact, the opposite is true - just look at Rooney's disgraceful antics last season at Man United. Despite MU having a history of winning countless trophies (including 3 league titles in a row recently), he had the effrontery to suggest that their ambitions did not match his own. Absolutely pathetic, and a prime example of the narcissistic arrogance of some high-level footballers.

Liverpool FC is refreshingly devoid of mercenaries, and except for one or two incidents over the years, arguably always has been. The kind of selfishness displayed by Rooney is anathema at Anfield, and would not be tolerated by the club or the fans.

There's something magical about Liverpool in that regard - it's a club founded on inalienable principles of humility, respect, family values and Shankly socialism, with 'everyone working for each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards'. This kind of attitude is ingrained in the psyche of the club, which is why mercenaries have never prospered at Anfield.

The likes of Man City and Chelsea can throw around as much money as they like but there's one invaluable commodity that their cash can never buy: genuine loyalty and love for the club.

As Craig Bellamy has shown, these precious qualities come for free at Liverpool.

Jaimie Kanwar


13 comments:

  1. Goodness Jamie....

    You're in danger of falling in love with our club all over again aren't you?? Maybe it's time to stop looking back at past mistakes and concentrate on this new (positive) outlook on the future!!

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  2. Rooney and Nasri are players who can basically name their own salary . Craig Bellamy is a journeyman pro who should be happy to play at Anfield for nothing

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  3. Not necessarily a wage cut - it could have been some sort of pay off which he would have been entitled to from City. And I think that if you look at the wages paid by Liverpool and compare them with those offered by other clubs, you might consider that money does play a major role in recruitment. I think Arteta did move for the right reasons. in fact there cannot be a wrong reason for leaving the Bitters

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  4. Up until January this year I still believed that players wanted to come to Liverpool for the passion of the fans and the traditions of the club. Then Torres shattered that belief when he put in his transfer request. 

    The way in which he came to Liverpool with his 'You'll Never Walk Alone' armband and the fact he could've had the pick of any club at the time, made me think he had real passion for Liverpool and understood what it meant to pull on the red jersey. That was cemented in the manner in which he started his Liverpool career when he put John Terry in his back pocket for 90 minutes.

    When he gave in to the lure of Chelski the wool was taken away from my eyes and I saw football for what it had become right under my nose - nothing more than a bunch of millionaire mercenaries kicking a bag of wind about. What made it worse was Torres had even commented at the start of January that he was happy in Liverpool and was proud his daughter would grow up a scouser. 3 weeks later and he was in a Chelsea shirt saying how he had moved on to a bigger club to win things - with no apologies to the fans who had paid him so much.It is therefore refreshing to hear we have players at the club like Bellamy who want to part of Liverpool FC not for greed or money but to part of the ongoing project.Long may it continue and I dare I say it start to believe a little again!

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  5. @ dan williams
    The same thing happened to me in 2005 when stevie g held our club to ransome over the chelsea transfer! I still havent forgiven him for that!

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  6. Sorry pal I'm a Liverpool fan all my life and you have left out 2 major players who have done what shrek did , first is captain Stevie G who not once but twice nearly signed for chelski 2 heart to hearts and 2 big pay rises later he is still here and thank god for that because god knows where we would be without him and second is Fernando judas Torres who twice played brinksmanship with the club. Up my wages or I'm of and that's what happened in the end and good we got rid of a player who didn't want to be here and got 2 great replacements so get of your high horse because as much as I'd like to agree with I can't

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  7. Ian - In my post I stated the following:

    Liverpool FC is refreshingly devoid of mercenaries, and except for one or two incidents over the years

    The one or two incidents I refer to are Gerrard and Torres.  I could've expanded the point but I've done so many times in the past. 

    I agree with you - the Gerrard and Torres situations were out of order, especially Gerrard (and I was on his case for years afterwards).

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  8. If anyone out their disagrees with my following comment, i commend you for being loyal to your work! your working in your job for your current company, then another company comes in and offers you 4 times what your earning for doing exactly the same thing. Right who out there would turn it down? if you do , your a more loyal man than me. Money is a driving force that is more powerful than most emotions, as they say there is a price on everyones head. Jamie you talk as though they are doing something wrong, however every person in the world is like this, you can spout all the shit you want but if a company came to you and said right we like your website here is 30 million quid for it, i would suspect you would pull the ejection seat cord and land on bondi beach!

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  9. Brilliantly put...

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  10. philip dean i am with u my man!!!

    And i am with Ian on this one too!!!

    What are we paying our players at liverpool compared to the average EPL player wage?

    I am certain players that come and play for us 99.99% of the time get more money than the clubs they played for before joining liverpool?

    Wages has everything to do with it!!!!

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  11. I actually read somewhere that rooney was actually told by fergie to not sign a new contract to get the pay increase. I dont think there was any chance of rooney leaving, just a ploy by fergie to get his fav son a pay rise.

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  12. From what i can remember Gerard wanted trophies more then wage increases, or at least a chance of winning trophies! This was a huge motivating factor for our Istanbul triumph, the players at that time wanted Gerard to remain and knew going as far as possible in the Champions league would aid his final decision to remain at LFC. We were behind in the league that season and failure to hit the top 4 almost gave Gerard the nudge needed to betray his heart and move to Chavski. I agree it would have shaken me to the core if he had left us but he didn't and had earned enough credit from his past efforts in a red shirt to be respected regardless of what his final decision could have been.
    I agree that supporting LFC has a more romantic ideal surrounding it, espeically as my own support began, realistically, in 1992-3. We are a club that stands for more than just individual glories and mercenary players (Diouf excluded). I loved Torres, and Meireles but what did they win for us? Team spirit costs nothing if players feel apart of something special, look at what we won when we played like a team with Traore, Smicer, Kewell, Mellor, Baros and yes the Legend Igor Biscan. Why did those (often derided by their own fans) players achieve where mercenaries like Mascherano, Torres and Meireles failed to win anything for us? It was not a lack of QUALITY as Benitez would say. I think it all comes down to spirit and at this moment in time I'm so happy that we finally have players with a mixture of pride, respect, togetherness, quality & potential.. but more importantly learning the experience of what playing for LFC should really be about..The King has returned and if we can keep playing for eachother as a team, then so will our glory. Respect to Maxi and Bellamy for biding there time and respecting KK decision not to start with them until yesterdays game... that's team spirit!!!!

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  13. Steven Gerrard stated in his book the reason for him asking for a move to chavski was because rick parry and benitez kept saying that they where going to give him a contract renewal but kept delaying giving him one. So 2 get the ball rolling because he didnt know whether he was coming or going he said he handed in a transfer request. and in his words "When i got round to signing the contract on Friday, 8 July, i said to rick take out the escape clause. i never, ever want to leave liverpool. my previous contract had an escape clause so that if liverpool were not doing so well, i could move on. when i put pen 2 paper that friday, it was like signing a love letter. i was so glad my brief flirtation with chelsea was over".

    Also in response 2 Philip Dean i agree with what your saying about work offering more money but when u have torres who went on he loved liverpool but left us for chelsea to win titles/more money why cant it go back 2 when there was players like Matt Le Tissier who was offered the chance to win titles /more money with man ure but declined to stay with the team he loved

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