Callum Hudson-Odoi recently put pen to paper on a five-year contract extension with Chelsea. The youngster had attracted the interest of Bayern Munich but the Premier League team held onto their man. Yet, their efforts are symptomatic of the organic nature of modern-day football.
Callum Hudson-Odoi Contract Shameful to The Beautiful Game
Young Callum Hudson-Odoi broke into the Chelsea first team last season. He was by no means a regular but the winger did make an impression when he played in the UEFA Europa League. Eventually, Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea manager at the time, began starting him in Premier League matches. Clearly, Hudson-Odoi had lots of confidence and ability but he was rarely the person to rescue a game for Chelsea. That duty was taken up by their then former talisman Eden Hazard. This season should have been a time in which Hudson-Odoi looked to cement his place in the Chelsea team. He still has so much to prove.
Hudson-Odoi £180,000 extravaganza
This new contract of £180,000-per-week is absolutely barbaric. Footballers aren’t proving themselves as top-level footballers anymore. If they are young, and English it seems, then a few good displays could earn them a crazy pay rise. Callum Hudson-Odoi could earn more money in a week than an honest supporter may earn with ten years of hard labour. That’s certainly not his fault but it emphasises the dichotomy between the average football fan and the Premier League player.
Nobody could blame the 18-year-old for bargaining himself the best deal possible. Now he’s in a position where he could feasibly down tools at any point. Nobody is saying that he will but he could retire with the money that Chelsea owe him in his current contract. From a living perspective, he’s already made it and he’s only 18. He can live life to the full. He can do whatever he wants because financial restrictions have left the building.
Hierarchy
We are now watching a game where players are like gods. They hold all the cards and that isn’t a good thing. Manchester City, Liverpool and, to an extent, Tottenham Hotspur, have more sensible structures in play that revolve around their respective managers. They keep players hungrier and more focused on their football by giving players more modest wages. Aymeric Laporte arrived at City with a basic salary of £65,000-per-week. Obviously there were lots of bonus incentives but that is a scarily low figure for one of the division’s best defenders.
At the other end of the spectrum, Burnley have a strict wage policy with Ben Mee their highest-earning player on approximately £55,000-per-week. The club sometimes struggle to attract players with their strict wage policy but that policy allows them to target the right type of player. A player who is interested in playing top-flight football as opposed to rolling in the cash. They have a vibrant and happy group of players because of the environment that they create. If a player desires much more money then he will probably head elsewhere. He will progress during his time at Burnley and then seek a greater challenge elsewhere but he will have put in lots of work and effort to get to that new club.
Motivation
It comes down to motivation. In life, people work hard at their job to get promotions. They want promotions to get better pay which will open a person up to more of life’s luxuries. the motto is that hard work pays off; that might not always be true but it’s an ideology that society works from. If somebody already has all the money that they need then they don’t have the same desire to gain a promotion.
Too many clubs are rewarding their players before they deserve that reward and it leaves the team lacking the hunger for progression and success.
Not so United
Manchester United are the prime example of a club with a terrible wage structure. The decision to give Alexis Sanchez a contract worth almost £500,000-per-week, including add-ons, was a risk that spectacularly backfired. The Chilean has been a huge burden on the club with team-mates and potential signings able to use him as a bargaining chip to get themselves a better contract. It would be an agent’s wet dream! Marcus Rashford and David de Gea have recently bagged themselves hefty contract extensions.
The Red Devils, who lost 2-0 to West Ham United on Sunday, look well short of future success. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer boasts a very young squad but its a squad that looks deprived of hunger and quality. The whole ethos of the club is a shadow of what it used to be. People used to die for the shirt; no longer.
Grassroots
There is a real authenticity about non-league football. I used to commentate on Lancaster City matches and the difference between this level of football and the Premier League was palpable. Every pound counted. The ticket receipts, the number of burgers sold, the number of beers sold and so on. There is a real humility to what is going on.
The 22 players on the field were not blinded by pound signs. They were well aware of their situation and just wanted to do their best for their club. It would be nice to see more of that honesty and modesty further up the pyramid.
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