How long is a player's career? By that I mean long enough to earn meaningful money. Ten years? No employer owns the body and soul of any footballer. The club offers them a contract which they either sign or don't sign.
I wonder if those who call a Defoe, Parker or James Beadle for moving clubs a Judas feel the same way when they move jobs themselves. Surely their existing employer, even more so if they served an apprenticeship with them, deserves unconditional loyalty? Equally, if a Premier League Club came knocking for their son and offering double, treble, quadruple or even ten times the money, are they seriously saying that they would advise their child not to move? "Don't worry about a career ending injury, you stay at Charlton son. They'll put food on the table for the next 50 years. You can always live off the fact that you are one of our own".
If anyone can honestly say that they could look straight in the eye of their son, given those circumstances and say you are far better staying with us than make a life changing move then they are a far better person than I am.
Fans support their clubs with a passion. And rightly so. But footballers are doing a job. And they owe no more allegiance to us than we, as a Club, owe to the 18 year old who has been with us since he was eight who is told "there's the door son, hope you find another club. Oh and hope to see you watching from the stands at the next home game".
No club can love you enough to compensate you for missing out on that move. For some, coming to us, especially when we were in the Premier League, was that life changing move. And no club can love you enough to say that, when they think it's your time to go, they will still offer you another contract. Because they won't.
When one strips back all the emotion it really is that simple. It's just a job for a professional sportsman who has a very limited working lifespan at that profession.
I read this argument a lot on here and it does make sense when you look at football like a business and playing for a club like any employer-employee relationship. And on all evidence, it seems a lot of footballers do look at it that way, much to the detriment of the modern game.
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing the names.
I still remember when we first got relegated from the Prem, I was just a kid and lived on Harvey Gardens at the time and I was devastated and kicking a ball against the Valley gates long after everybody had left. I heard a car driving down the road, which was strange at that time, so I turned around to look and noticed it was Mark Kinsella. I didn't really know what to do so I just held out the badge on my Charlton shirt. He slowed down, and shook his fist at me, as if to say 'Come on!' Next year he captained us back to the Premier League again. Legend.
Point is, the link between club, fans and players is so much more than just business-like. And as a fan, I refuse to support these players who treat playing for us like a stop-gap job.
He will most likely possibly use Charlton as a stepping stone for a potential long term career in coaching and management, but so what. He will be enthusiastic while understanding his fresh new role. He will want to prove himself.
It will attract young strikers to the club and they'd want to impress him while learning from him.
How long is a player's career? By that I mean long enough to earn meaningful money. Ten years? No employer owns the body and soul of any footballer. The club offers them a contract which they either sign or don't sign.
I wonder if those who call a Defoe, Parker or James Beadle for moving clubs a Judas feel the same way when they move jobs themselves. Surely their existing employer, even more so if they served an apprenticeship with them, deserves unconditional loyalty? Equally, if a Premier League Club came knocking for their son and offering double, treble, quadruple or even ten times the money, are they seriously saying that they would advise their child not to move? "Don't worry about a career ending injury, you stay at Charlton son. They'll put food on the table for the next 50 years. You can always live off the fact that you are one of our own".
If anyone can honestly say that they could look straight in the eye of their son, given those circumstances and say you are far better staying with us than make a life changing move then they are a far better person than I am.
Fans support their clubs with a passion. And rightly so. But footballers are doing a job. And they owe no more allegiance to us than we, as a Club, owe to the 18 year old who has been with us since he was eight who is told "there's the door son, hope you find another club. Oh and hope to see you watching from the stands at the next home game".
No club can love you enough to compensate you for missing out on that move. For some, coming to us, especially when we were in the Premier League, was that life changing move. And no club can love you enough to say that, when they think it's your time to go, they will still offer you another contract. Because they won't.
When one strips back all the emotion it really is that simple. It's just a job for a professional sportsman who has a very limited working lifespan at that profession.
I read this argument a lot on here and it does make sense when you look at football like a business and playing for a club like any employer-employee relationship. And on all evidence, it seems a lot of footballers do look at it that way, much to the detriment of the modern game.
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing their names
Yes we are customers at the end of the day and we romanticize the “fan” part of it. Its a bit like religion or beleiving in father christmas i suppose.
He will most likely possibly use Charlton as a stepping stone for a potential long term career in coaching and management, but so what. He will be enthusiastic while understanding his fresh new role. He will want to prove himself.
It will attract young strikers to the club and they'd want to impress him while learning from him.
Whichever piss weak 3rd division club offers JD a job, Harry Redknapp will appear from the shadows with a big bag of used 20's, lend JD's Mum another house and spirit him away to deliver pizza for Papa John's or run for whichever scummy betting brand Redknapp is whoring himself to atm Leopards.Spots.etc
How long is a player's career? By that I mean long enough to earn meaningful money. Ten years? No employer owns the body and soul of any footballer. The club offers them a contract which they either sign or don't sign.
I wonder if those who call a Defoe, Parker or James Beadle for moving clubs a Judas feel the same way when they move jobs themselves. Surely their existing employer, even more so if they served an apprenticeship with them, deserves unconditional loyalty? Equally, if a Premier League Club came knocking for their son and offering double, treble, quadruple or even ten times the money, are they seriously saying that they would advise their child not to move? "Don't worry about a career ending injury, you stay at Charlton son. They'll put food on the table for the next 50 years. You can always live off the fact that you are one of our own".
If anyone can honestly say that they could look straight in the eye of their son, given those circumstances and say you are far better staying with us than make a life changing move then they are a far better person than I am.
Fans support their clubs with a passion. And rightly so. But footballers are doing a job. And they owe no more allegiance to us than we, as a Club, owe to the 18 year old who has been with us since he was eight who is told "there's the door son, hope you find another club. Oh and hope to see you watching from the stands at the next home game".
No club can love you enough to compensate you for missing out on that move. For some, coming to us, especially when we were in the Premier League, was that life changing move. And no club can love you enough to say that, when they think it's your time to go, they will still offer you another contract. Because they won't.
When one strips back all the emotion it really is that simple. It's just a job for a professional sportsman who has a very limited working lifespan at that profession.
I read this argument a lot on here and it does make sense when you look at football like a business and playing for a club like any employer-employee relationship. And on all evidence, it seems a lot of footballers do look at it that way, much to the detriment of the modern game.
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing the names.
I still remember when we first got relegated from the Prem, I was just a kid and lived on Harvey Gardens at the time and I was devastated and kicking a ball against the Valley gates long after everybody had left. I heard a car driving down the road, which was strange at that time, so I turned around to look and noticed it was Mark Kinsella. I didn't really know what to do so I just held out the badge on my Charlton shirt. He slowed down, and shook his fist at me, as if to say 'Come on!' Next year he captained us back to the Premier League again. Legend.
Point is, the link between club, fans and players is so much more than just business-like. And as a fan, I refuse to support these players who treat playing for us like a stop-gap job.
But that is how football has changed over the years. When I and others were young in the 70s we used to really look forward to seeing, season in season out, those same players. There was an affinity between us and them. The likes of Hales, Powell, Flanagan, Peacock, Berry, Curtis, Warman, Robinson etc etc played 300 plus games for us and alongside each other too. They were "our" heroes.
How many players have been fixtures in the first team for the last two or three seasons? I reckon, off the top of my head, just one - Pearce. And calling him a "fixture" is rather pushing it. That is how much football has changed. You mentioned Kinsella. Who, from that era, are our Kinsella, Leaburn, Balmer, Lisbie, Mortimer, Newton, Powell, Robinson, Konchesky or Rufus? All of them must have played over 200 games for us. We do not have a single one who has achieved that.
We're not unique in having a hefty turnover of players either. It is a fact that, whereas clubs as we were in the old 3rd Division would offer longer term contracts, this does not happen so much now. Boards do not want to commit to longer term deals any more than players want to sign them.
Equally, can you honestly say, hand on heart, that if your son left us for a PL side for £1m a year as opposed to the £100,000 we were prepared to offer him, in the knowledge that they do have a very short career which might be even shorter with a career ending injury, you would refuse to talk to him again? Or that you would say to your other son, who has been shown the door, that everything is rosy in the garden and that you wouldn't view the Club as nothing but an insensitive business? Whether we like it or not the Club is a business. And the ones that aren't run as a business get in financial trouble as we have seen.
The system for rewarding clubs that produce youngsters absolutely stinks and that is why the likes of Brentford have opted to do what they do. They buy cheap and sell for a profit rather than nurture players for a decade that might not bring any rewards to the Club even if they are exceptional.
How long is a player's career? By that I mean long enough to earn meaningful money. Ten years? No employer owns the body and soul of any footballer. The club offers them a contract which they either sign or don't sign.
I wonder if those who call a Defoe, Parker or James Beadle for moving clubs a Judas feel the same way when they move jobs themselves. Surely their existing employer, even more so if they served an apprenticeship with them, deserves unconditional loyalty? Equally, if a Premier League Club came knocking for their son and offering double, treble, quadruple or even ten times the money, are they seriously saying that they would advise their child not to move? "Don't worry about a career ending injury, you stay at Charlton son. They'll put food on the table for the next 50 years. You can always live off the fact that you are one of our own".
If anyone can honestly say that they could look straight in the eye of their son, given those circumstances and say you are far better staying with us than make a life changing move then they are a far better person than I am.
Fans support their clubs with a passion. And rightly so. But footballers are doing a job. And they owe no more allegiance to us than we, as a Club, owe to the 18 year old who has been with us since he was eight who is told "there's the door son, hope you find another club. Oh and hope to see you watching from the stands at the next home game".
No club can love you enough to compensate you for missing out on that move. For some, coming to us, especially when we were in the Premier League, was that life changing move. And no club can love you enough to say that, when they think it's your time to go, they will still offer you another contract. Because they won't.
When one strips back all the emotion it really is that simple. It's just a job for a professional sportsman who has a very limited working lifespan at that profession.
I read this argument a lot on here and it does make sense when you look at football like a business and playing for a club like any employer-employee relationship. And on all evidence, it seems a lot of footballers do look at it that way, much to the detriment of the modern game.
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing the names.
I still remember when we first got relegated from the Prem, I was just a kid and lived on Harvey Gardens at the time and I was devastated and kicking a ball against the Valley gates long after everybody had left. I heard a car driving down the road, which was strange at that time, so I turned around to look and noticed it was Mark Kinsella. I didn't really know what to do so I just held out the badge on my Charlton shirt. He slowed down, and shook his fist at me, as if to say 'Come on!' Next year he captained us back to the Premier League again. Legend.
Point is, the link between club, fans and players is so much more than just business-like. And as a fan, I refuse to support these players who treat playing for us like a stop-gap job.
But that is how football has changed over the years. When I and others were young in the 70s we used to really look forward to seeing, season in season out, those same players. There was an affinity between us and them. The likes of Hales, Powell, Flanagan, Peacock, Berry, Curtis, Warman, Robinson etc etc played 300 plus games for us and alongside each other too. They were "our" heroes.
How many players have been fixtures in the first team for the last two or three seasons? I reckon, off the top of my head, just one - Pearce. And calling him a "fixture" is rather pushing it. That is how much football has changed. You mentioned Kinsella. Who, from that era, are our Kinsella, Leaburn, Balmer, Lisbie, Mortimer, Newton, Powell, Robinson, Konchesky or Rufus? All of them must have played over 200 games for us. We do not have a single one who has achieved that.
We're not unique in having a hefty turnover of players either. It is a fact that, whereas clubs as we were in the old 3rd Division would offer longer term contracts, this does not happen so much now. Boards do not want to commit to longer term deals any more than players want to sign them.
Equally, can you honestly say, hand on heart, that if your son left us for a PL side for £1m a year as opposed to the £100,000 we were prepared to offer him, in the knowledge that they do have a very short career which might be even shorter with a career ending injury, you would refuse to talk to him again? Or that you would say to your other son, who has been shown the door, that everything is rosy in the garden and that you wouldn't view the Club as nothing but an insensitive business? Whether we like it or not the Club is a business. And the ones that aren't run as a business get in financial trouble as we have seen.
The system for rewarding clubs that produce youngsters absolutely stinks and that is why the likes of Brentford have opted to do what they do. They buy cheap and sell for a profit rather than nurture players for a decade that might not bring any rewards to the Club even if they are exceptional.
Yes, the game has very much changed and it is now primarily more of a business then a sport.
The emotional connection has declined. Football probably peaked roughly about 20-30 years ago.
It is TV deals, agents, owners etc... have capitalised on its global popularity.
I don't have an affiliation with the players. I don't really care much about them. I only care for early 00s club legends, like kinsella, and kiely.
I care about the manager, the club itself and our fanbase.
I think the online digital age has also inadvertently caused football to withdraw a bit.
What he could offer to young players like Burstow, Gavin, and Kanu is not something you could measure.
What he could offer to senior players like Washington regarding finishing or making his movement even better would be hard to measure.
What he could offer on the pitch, we just won’t know but his quality is undeniable, even at 39.
100% I would bring him in with the view of coaching role on top.
I know what you mean, but do good players usually make for good coaches? He was a great striker but I’m not sure what insight he could give Washington on how to shoot that a half competent coach couldn’t spot themselves.
I know Karl Robinson liked to get the likes of Ian Wright in to help the strikers at MK Dons, but like you say the benefit isn’t quantifiable.
Football’s about entertainment so for that reason I’d be happy to see him play for us.
What he could offer to young players like Burstow, Gavin, and Kanu is not something you could measure.
What he could offer to senior players like Washington regarding finishing or making his movement even better would be hard to measure.
What he could offer on the pitch, we just won’t know but his quality is undeniable, even at 39.
100% I would bring him in with the view of coaching role on top.
Has he taken any coaching badges? Has he shown any aptitude or desire to get involved in coaching? He will have already had plenty of time to get involved in coaching - has he taken that opportunity? You can take a horse to water but making them drink is something else.
What he could offer to young players like Burstow, Gavin, and Kanu is not something you could measure.
What he could offer to senior players like Washington regarding finishing or making his movement even better would be hard to measure.
What he could offer on the pitch, we just won’t know but his quality is undeniable, even at 39.
100% I would bring him in with the view of coaching role on top.
Has he taken any coaching badges? Has he shown any aptitude or desire to get involved in coaching? He will have already had plenty of time to get involved in coaching - has he taken that opportunity? You can take a horse to water but making them drink is something else.
This.
Just because he's been a great striker doesn't mean he is any good at teaching his craft......or more importantly that he wants to do so.
I really cant see anything in this rumour & also cant see it being beneficial for CAFC. Let him sign for Sunderland - they love him up there.
What he could offer to young players like Burstow, Gavin, and Kanu is not something you could measure.
What he could offer to senior players like Washington regarding finishing or making his movement even better would be hard to measure.
What he could offer on the pitch, we just won’t know but his quality is undeniable, even at 39.
100% I would bring him in with the view of coaching role on top.
Has he taken any coaching badges? Has he shown any aptitude or desire to get involved in coaching? He will have already had plenty of time to get involved in coaching - has he taken that opportunity? You can take a horse to water but making them drink is something else.
Player-coach at Ibrox. Suspect wants a similar role.
He only scored 4 league goals for Rangers last season - if you want something to measure that performance by Josh Magennis scored 10 goals in his last season in the same league for a weaker team. I suspect Magennis was cheaper.
As SheffieldRed says, he was a player-coach at Rangers and I would have been incredibly surprised if he hasn’t taken coaching badges.
He might not be a fantastic coach but even sharing his knowledge and experiences and explanations to the young players, watching him train alongside them, the way he has looked after himself, how he got to the top level and stayed there for years, all of that is part of it, not just what he does in a coaching session capacity.
If budget and squad limits allow, I see no harm and only benefits of bringing him in.
I don’t hate him because he left at 16, but I can’t stand him for the smug and disrespectful way he celebrated in front of our fans every time he came back and scored against us. You don’t do that if you have any decency or respect for the club who nurtured and developed you.
Our fans probably giving him lots of abuse no doubt. Another example of fans giving it but can't take it.
How long is a player's career? By that I mean long enough to earn meaningful money. Ten years? No employer owns the body and soul of any footballer. The club offers them a contract which they either sign or don't sign.
I wonder if those who call a Defoe, Parker or James Beadle for moving clubs a Judas feel the same way when they move jobs themselves. Surely their existing employer, even more so if they served an apprenticeship with them, deserves unconditional loyalty? Equally, if a Premier League Club came knocking for their son and offering double, treble, quadruple or even ten times the money, are they seriously saying that they would advise their child not to move? "Don't worry about a career ending injury, you stay at Charlton son. They'll put food on the table for the next 50 years. You can always live off the fact that you are one of our own".
If anyone can honestly say that they could look straight in the eye of their son, given those circumstances and say you are far better staying with us than make a life changing move then they are a far better person than I am.
Fans support their clubs with a passion. And rightly so. But footballers are doing a job. And they owe no more allegiance to us than we, as a Club, owe to the 18 year old who has been with us since he was eight who is told "there's the door son, hope you find another club. Oh and hope to see you watching from the stands at the next home game".
No club can love you enough to compensate you for missing out on that move. For some, coming to us, especially when we were in the Premier League, was that life changing move. And no club can love you enough to say that, when they think it's your time to go, they will still offer you another contract. Because they won't.
When one strips back all the emotion it really is that simple. It's just a job for a professional sportsman who has a very limited working lifespan at that profession.
I read this argument a lot on here and it does make sense when you look at football like a business and playing for a club like any employer-employee relationship. And on all evidence, it seems a lot of footballers do look at it that way, much to the detriment of the modern game.
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing the names.
I still remember when we first got relegated from the Prem, I was just a kid and lived on Harvey Gardens at the time and I was devastated and kicking a ball against the Valley gates long after everybody had left. I heard a car driving down the road, which was strange at that time, so I turned around to look and noticed it was Mark Kinsella. I didn't really know what to do so I just held out the badge on my Charlton shirt. He slowed down, and shook his fist at me, as if to say 'Come on!' Next year he captained us back to the Premier League again. Legend.
Point is, the link between club, fans and players is so much more than just business-like. And as a fan, I refuse to support these players who treat playing for us like a stop-gap job.
I don't know how good a coach he is but there are two elements. Another the respect a player like him will create which may make it easier to get the message accross. Of course it is important he understands the non instinctive things that improved him as a striker but as he is already coaching, I suspect he probably does.
Comments
No of course not.
Would I not sign a 39 year old striker for other reasons?
Possibly but it's not an area we are really blessed in with "oven ready" options is it?
It does irk me that as fans, we are happy not just to accept, but to condone that.
If football is just a business then aren't we just customers... And if players are just employees then we may as well tear down the statues and stop singing the names.
I still remember when we first got relegated from the Prem, I was just a kid and lived on Harvey Gardens at the time and I was devastated and kicking a ball against the Valley gates long after everybody had left. I heard a car driving down the road, which was strange at that time, so I turned around to look and noticed it was Mark Kinsella. I didn't really know what to do so I just held out the badge on my Charlton shirt. He slowed down, and shook his fist at me, as if to say 'Come on!' Next year he captained us back to the Premier League again. Legend.
Point is, the link between club, fans and players is so much more than just business-like. And as a fan, I refuse to support these players who treat playing for us like a stop-gap job.
What he could offer to senior players like Washington regarding finishing or making his movement even better would be hard to measure.
What he could offer on the pitch, we just won’t know but his quality is undeniable, even at 39.
100% I would bring him in with the view of coaching role on top.
Cmon Charlton get him in as a player coach.
He will most likely possibly use Charlton as a stepping stone for a potential long term career in coaching and management, but so what. He will be enthusiastic while understanding his fresh new role.
He will want to prove himself.
It will attract young strikers to the club and they'd want to impress him while learning from him.
But then I did read the other day that part of the reason that Washington had a patch of good form was that Jackson was left footed 😳
Leopards.Spots.etc
That suggests to me he managed to adapt his style as his natural pace etc dwindled, so hopefully there is a "learned" element he could teach.
How many players have been fixtures in the first team for the last two or three seasons? I reckon, off the top of my head, just one - Pearce. And calling him a "fixture" is rather pushing it. That is how much football has changed. You mentioned Kinsella. Who, from that era, are our Kinsella, Leaburn, Balmer, Lisbie, Mortimer, Newton, Powell, Robinson, Konchesky or Rufus? All of them must have played over 200 games for us. We do not have a single one who has achieved that.
We're not unique in having a hefty turnover of players either. It is a fact that, whereas clubs as we were in the old 3rd Division would offer longer term contracts, this does not happen so much now. Boards do not want to commit to longer term deals any more than players want to sign them.
Equally, can you honestly say, hand on heart, that if your son left us for a PL side for £1m a year as opposed to the £100,000 we were prepared to offer him, in the knowledge that they do have a very short career which might be even shorter with a career ending injury, you would refuse to talk to him again? Or that you would say to your other son, who has been shown the door, that everything is rosy in the garden and that you wouldn't view the Club as nothing but an insensitive business? Whether we like it or not the Club is a business. And the ones that aren't run as a business get in financial trouble as we have seen.
The system for rewarding clubs that produce youngsters absolutely stinks and that is why the likes of Brentford have opted to do what they do. They buy cheap and sell for a profit rather than nurture players for a decade that might not bring any rewards to the Club even if they are exceptional.
Yes, the game has very much changed and it is now primarily more of a business then a sport.
The emotional connection has declined. Football probably peaked roughly about 20-30 years ago.
It is TV deals, agents, owners etc... have capitalised on its global popularity.
I don't have an affiliation with the players. I don't really care much about them. I only care for early 00s club legends, like kinsella, and kiely.
I care about the manager, the club itself and our fanbase.
I think the online digital age has also inadvertently caused football to withdraw a bit.
I don't think his coffin would be a very good coach.
Maybe stick it in the museum.
"Michael was apparently secretly a big Charlton fan and practiced his valley floyed road dance routine Infront of Martin Bashir"
Football’s about entertainment so for that reason I’d be happy to see him play for us.
Just because he's been a great striker doesn't mean he is any good at teaching his craft......or more importantly that he wants to do so.
I really cant see anything in this rumour & also cant see it being beneficial for CAFC. Let him sign for Sunderland - they love him up there.
Suspect wants a similar role.
He might not be a fantastic coach but even sharing his knowledge and experiences and explanations to the young players, watching him train alongside them, the way he has looked after himself, how he got to the top level and stayed there for years, all of that is part of it, not just what he does in a coaching session capacity.
If budget and squad limits allow, I see no harm and only benefits of bringing him in.