Sacking players

Bounty Hunter

If I am sh!t at my job and took the piss while doing it I would be sacked... Why is this not the case with football teams?


Look at Gabby Agbonlahor at Villa for example:

In 2014 he signed a 4 year deal (had been on 50k a week before that) so he still has 2 years to run on it

The Villa club captain has made just 15 Premier League appearances this season and has managed to score on just one occasion. He has generally been considered not good enough by fans for a while now

A few weeks ago he was temporarily suspended pending an internal investigation into his partying and shisha pipe use in Dubai.

This partying etc is despite the fact that fans had been calling him overweight and unfit.... but wait it wasn't just fans he was actually confirmed by the club as having to miss the next 2 weeks from the 1st team squad (this was 10 days ago) as he would have to undergo a personal fitness programme before returning to the fold.

Somehow I don't think that fitness schedule included him going on what was described as "an alcohol-fuelled laughing gas binge" hours after his team's relegation was confirmed... The lad doesn't give a Feck!

There are obviously other cases like David Bentley at Spurs who was picking 50k a week at Spurs for 6 years even though 2 of those years saw him loaned out to championship clubs and another to FC Rostov & Blackburn before they finally just payed off the final year of his contract releasing him. Maybe he isn't the best example though just the first similar one to spring to mind although it isn't just players as if a manager Is **** at their job they cannot be sacked either or else the club have to pay out big time.

Maybe not the best examples or maybe I am completely missing the point but is there something in football contracts stopping performance related dismissals and if so why? why does a footballer seemingly have to pull a Mutu (actually be caught committing a crime) before you can sack em without having to pay them a **** tonne of money?

why can't for example their contracts contain clauses that state that if they are deemed unfit (excluding through injuries or other similar extenuating circumstances - not their lifestyle) to be in the first team squad then they only get a percentage of their wages. Obviously this would need to be tweaked for young players coming through and players being sent on loan might perhaps have their wages frozen and thus unaffected by not being in the first team squads but in any other walk of life continued poor performance or you not seemingly giving a F*ck would not be tolerated.

Lovely Bloke

AJ was sacked by Sunderland for noncing.

Bounty Hunter

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

AJ was sacked by Sunderland for noncing.

That falls into the Muta category however where he is found guilty (or actually plead guilty) of a crime. I doubt he woulda been sacked if he just stopped giving a sh!t about his job and turned in terrible performance after performance and was an embarassment (in a legal way) off the pitch.

Liam O

You could obviously put whatever clause in the contract you wanted but players wouldn't sign them.

With the nature of fixed term contracts it would be very difficult to outright sack someone who is showing up and doing their jobs by pretty much all metrics.

HalloweenJack

Winston Bogarde and Florent Malouda (in his last season) were just at Chelsea to pick up their paychecks. Both ended up training with u-21s and only playing for the reserves but still held out til the end of their contract and refused moves as well, iirc.

Not all players are in it for the love of the game, some of them are in it for the money and nothing else, Bogarde said something to this effect and look at some of the stuff Benoit Assou Ekotto has said too.

As mentioned no player would sign a contract that would have a clause for sacking. Agents and player unions would fight it tooth and nail and I'm sure Blatter, Gordon Taylor or the likes would trot out the 'slavery' line again.

bucketybuck

In a manner of speaking they aren't employees, they are assets. Very expensive assets.

If you had a fleet of 20 lorries and one kept breaking down you wouldn't just scrap it, you would try to sell it on and recoup some of the cost.

Same with players ostensibly worth millions, instead of sacking like they would a minimum wage clerk, clubs keep them in the hope somebody, somewhere will give them money for the player.

LuckyLloyd

Within the constraints of EU working directives, it's difficult enough to outright sack people. It takes time and a lot of due process.

So long as Agbonlahor turns up to every required team meeting; provides reasonable effort in training what can you do?

Beefy78

Bounty Hunter wrote: »

If I am sh!t at my job and took the piss while doing it I would be sacked... Why is this not the case with football teams?

Because football players sign a very different type on contract to the one that you do. Similarly you can hand your notice in at any time and go take another job somewhere else. A footballer cannot do that (unless he hasn't been paid).

Deise Vu

HalloweenJack wrote: »

Winston Bogarde and Florent Malouda (in his last season) were just at Chelsea to pick up their paychecks. Both ended up training with u-21s and only playing for the reserves but still held out til the end of their contract and refused moves as well, iirc.

Not all players are in it for the love of the game, some of them are in it for the money and nothing else, Bogarde said something to this effect and look at some of the stuff Benoit Assou Ekotto has said too.

As mentioned no player would sign a contract that would have a clause for sacking. Agents and player unions would fight it tooth and nail and I'm sure Blatter, Gordon Taylor or the likes would trot out the 'slavery' line again.

In his final two years at Chelsea, Bogarde was arriving in London on the red-eye from Amsterdam, doing 40 laps of the training pitch and back to Amsterdam for lunch. Once he fulfilled the terms of his contract there was nothing Chelsea could do. Mark Bosnich was also taking the pee but he stupidly failed a drugs test and they could sack him.

Basically, as others have pointed out, when a club is trying to sign a player they have to make the contract as enticing as possible. This means anything subjective like a 'no acting the maggot' clause won't wash or 'pay for play' unless the player accepts he is crocked and no one else is after him.

eagle eye

Yep, you got players who have the club tied into a contract and then players who still hold value and the club have them tied into a contract.

Beefy78

Deise Vu wrote: »

In his final two years at Chelsea, Bogarde was arriving in London on the red-eye from Amsterdam, doing 40 laps of the training pitch and back to Amsterdam for lunch. Once he fulfilled the terms of his contract there was nothing Chelsea could do. Mark Bosnich was also taking the pee but he stupidly failed a drugs test and they could sack him.

Basically, as others have pointed out, when a club is trying to sign a player they have to make the contract as enticing as possible. This means anything subjective like a 'no acting the maggot' clause won't wash or 'pay for play' unless the player accepts he is crocked and no one else is after him.

Bogarde never "acted the maggot" or took "the pea" at all though. He made a point of doing everything that he was ever asked to do. If a club offers a stupid contract then that isn't the player's fault and he was absolutely right to hold them to every penny.

It's incredibly hard to sack anyone for incompetence or poor performance in any job. And any footballer who is clocking in for training, turning up for matches but is overweight...it's like the office dunce where everyone wonders how they still have a job yet they can't be axed.

keeponhurling

It happened in the League of Ireland

m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/sacked-for-being-too-fat-26461322.html

keeponhurling

keeponhurling wrote: »

It happened in the League of Ireland

m.independent.ie/sport/soccer/league-of-ireland/sacked-for-being-too-fat-26461322.html

He received a "6 figure payout". Think of the payouts that could ensue in contracts worth millions.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/other-soccer/from-being-touted-as-next-roy-keane-to-overweight-allegations-and-the-league-of-ireland-scrapheap-the-michael-keane-story-30953134.html