Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Star players staying on the sinking ship

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Star players staying on the sinking ship

    I mentioned it in the Bundesliga thread, but it's worth a specific discussion.

    Jonas Hector has signed a new contract at practically relegated FC Köln. Bayern and Dortmund were reportedly expressing keen interest (especially as he was going to cost next to nothing thanks to a relegation clause in his contract) as well as rumours of interest from Liverpool. Instead he fucks the relegation clause by signing a new contract til 2023 which will keep him at the club in the second tier (or at least get the club market value for him if they sell him).

    In the age of players going on strike if they can't get a transfer, that's remarkable. It's conceivable that Hector might play a world cup final in Moscow against Brazil in mid-July, and his next game could be away to Sandhausen in the 2. Bundesliga.

    I can't think of many examples of first-choice internationals of a leading national side deciding to play second-tier football.

    Lukas Podolski staying with Köln after one of the many relegations is one example. Steve Bull staying at Wolves is a similar example, except he never got relegated or promoted with them, and wasn't a first-choice England player.

    Did Man Utd 1974 or Spurs 1977 have anybody like that?

    #2
    Buffon stayed with Juventus when they were demoted for match fixing. There were others too but off hand I can't remember.

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by Antepli Ejderha View Post
      Buffon stayed with Juventus when they were demoted for match fixing. There were others too but off hand I can't remember.
      Del Piero, Nedved, Trezeguet and Camoranesi all stuck around as well.

      Comment


        #4
        I think it was only around the 90s that playing in the top tier became necessary to play for the England team. I remember Trevor Brooking playing for England when West Ham were in the second tier.

        Comment


          #5
          Yeah, I don't think many of our players left when we went down in 1990 (the team that won the league cup in 1991 still had all the stars like Hirst and Sheridan in it), but come 2000 when we went down again, the only ones who stayed on were the ones who wanted to have an easy life doing nothing on lucrative contracts

          Comment


            #6
            Did any of Man City's Premier League players survive to the third tier during the nineties?

            (I was going to add 'and back again?', but that seemed a ridiculous stretch...)

            Comment


              #7
              I think Paul Dickov was with City down to the third tier and back again, though it might be a stretch to call him a star.

              Comment


                #8
                Jonas Gutierrez got picked for the World Cup (by Diego Maradona) on the back of a season in the Championship. I want to say Coloccini got a cap whilst in the second tier as well, but could be talking shite.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Dickov was with Man City down to the third tier, but he joined midway through the decline rather than at the start of it. He only played for them in the top flight as part of the back again part.

                  Dickov had moved on to Leicester by '02-'03. That was the season when Leicester kept most of their Premier League squad together, the most notable sticking around being Ian Walker, Matt Elliott and Muzzy Izzet who were all current Internationals for major sides (and Scotland *kaboom tish*) at that point. Izzet had played in the World Cup Semi the previous summer.
                  Of course Leicester kept these players despite being in administration and exiting via a CVA that paid 10p on the pound or something like that. Which was the catalyst for the 10 point deduction for going into administration as this was patently unfair.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Didn't Kiko play for free for Atletico Madrid when they were relegated?

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Stumpy Pepys View Post
                      I think it was only around the 90s that playing in the top tier became necessary to play for the England team. I remember Trevor Brooking playing for England when West Ham were in the second tier.
                      Yes, it was quite common in the 70's. Not just one-cap wonders, but regular internationals like Mick Channon at Southampton.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Maldini at Milan. Their fall was not as bad as Juve's but still pretty bad, around where they are now infact (Europa League fringe)

                        Man U - Lou Macari maybe. Tommy Doc allegedly tended to divide and rule so going or staying would depend on that personal favouritism.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Fiorentina legend (and former Juventus player) Angelo Di Livio owes his cult status in Florence to the fact that I he was the only one who stayed with the Viola all the way down after the bankruptcy, including that bizarre season in Serie C2 when we had to blame as Florentia Viola because the administrators considered the name and crest to be assets of value. Di Livio retired after Fiorentina’s first season back in Serie A.

                          Paolo Maldini made his senior debut for Milan two seasons after their second campaign in Serie B (the time they were relegated in the pitch, as opposed to their earlier relegation in the Totonero scandal).

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Stepney,Buchan,McIlroy and Brian Greenhoff all went down and back up with Man Utd. The first game I ever saw in England was West Ham at home to Oldham in the second division in 1979,Pat Holland scored the only goal and I remember Brooking,fat Frank senior,Devonshire,Bonds and Parkes all playing

                            Comment


                              #15
                              David James was England's first choice keeper when West Ham went down in 2003. Stayed for half a season then moved to Man City in the January transfer window when Seaman retired.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Almost all of the 1985-86 Middlesbrough team (including Bernie Slaven, Tony Mowbray, Stuart Ripley, Gary Pallister, Brian Laws etc.) and Bruce Rioch stayed with the club after liquidation when we got relegated to the third division and didn't have a ground or a pot to piss in, training in parks and playing for free. Of course local boy Peter Beagrie famously didn't.
                                Last edited by Fussbudget; 24-04-2018, 13:02.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by G-Man View Post
                                  Steve Bull staying at Wolves is a similar example, except he never got relegated or promoted with them, and wasn't a first-choice England player.
                                  Steve Bull first played for Wolves in the Fourth Division and rose with them to the Second, where they stalled for fifteen years seeing him into retirement. I saw an interview once where he suggested that the club hadn't been very diligent about informing him of interest from elsewhere but he didn't sound too bothered about it. Fittingly, as the West Midlands equivalent of Francesco Totti, he used to own an Italian restaurant called Bravaccio's (bravaccio being the Italian for bully).

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Dunn, Jansen, Duff and Flitcroft all stayed at Ewood in 1999 until 2001 when we rose again. As compared to the rats of 2012 who had bought 20 glam life-rafts in back in 2011.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Norwich kept all their top players after relegation in 1985, notably Chris Woods and Dave Watson who were England internationals at that point, albeit not regular ones. When we got promoted again in 1986, both moved onto bigger things, although the spell in Division Two may have cost Watson a place at the Mexico World Cup (Woods was selected but didn't play).

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Originally posted by 3 Colours Red View Post
                                        Del Piero, Nedved, Trezeguet and Camoranesi all stuck around as well.
                                        Those players who stayed at juventus were paid a fucking fortune to do so, and either stayed for political reasons to do with their future, or in the case of Trezeguet, there probably weren't many better offers coming his way.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          And a deep connection with the club in Nedved's case. He is still kicking around Turin and Juve now, long after retirement. It might have been different if he had been 28 rather than 33, and I'm sure he was extremely well paid, but it's not so very different from Hector's reasons.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            well he didn't arrive at Juventus until he was nearly 29. So I'm not sure how deep the connection was other than he was offered a job for life, and a lot of money not to leave them when they were down. Footballers don't really think about deep connections. Juventus had to make staying the right move for him. (They put him on the board within a year of retirement.)

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Jonas Hector has signed a new contract at practically relegated FC Köln. Bayern and Dortmund were reportedly expressing keen interest (especially as he was going to cost next to nothing thanks to a relegation clause in his contract) as well as rumours of interest from Liverpool. Instead he fucks the relegation clause by signing a new contract til 2023 which will keep him at the club in the second tier (or at least get the club market value for him if they sell him).

                                              This makes sense from a career earnings perspective. If someone paid 5 million euro for him because of a relegation clause, he would turn up as the cheap german player and get paid very little and receive less respect. Signing this contract means that when someone buys him on the back of the world cup, Koln make out like bandits, and he moves to his new club as the 20-30 million euro player and gets treated accordingly.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                What Berbaslug said. I mentioned this to my regulars yesterday. Unfortunately, they were all in their "Just Like In The Good Old Days" mode (Uwe Seeler's name came up about 5,000 times) and told me to "make sure the beer's fucking cold next time before you start having opinions about German football".

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Bracing cynicism. When you were a kid did you use to rip heads of younger children's Teddy Bears to tough them up? [edit - aimed at Berba, though treibeis might still do this particularly if they get dropped and forgotten on the 5th hole]

                                                  Nedved's public comments are very clear. He loves Juve and the Turin area. It's become his home, and they are his club. The feeling from the club and the Agnelli family is mutual.

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X