“There’s no loyalty in football anymore”

[Chrysalis]

I started following us in little's first year, and it felt like the moment we got promoted he couldnt care less and moved to villa, so its not a new thing.  Maybe its worse now maybe its not.  Other clubs similarly sized to use have managed to hold on to their squads for much longer periods, one problem of our selling policy was it sent out a message we were always willing to sell first team players, so it kept happening.

 

Older managers and players do seem more loyal though, I think by the time a player is 29, they may have felt they have gone as far as possible, so if they move to a club at that age its often until retirement or moving to an easier league, likewise with managers, older managers seem prepared to stick with clubs longer.

 

(please dont post examples, I not said every single one will be 100% loyal).

[Fox92]

41 minutes ago, Royston. said:

or liverpool bettered what his agent said Chelsea were going to give him..............

 

when there wasnt as much money being passed around it was easier to be loyal. 

 

Grealish is a good example, star man at his boyhood club even stayed with them in the championship but threw that away (and his playing career) for the money at Man city. cant say i blame him either.

Not everything is about money though. 
 

Grealish left Villa for the best team in England, to play for the best manager in England and to win trophies. 

[Jattdogg]

35 minutes ago, LinekersLugs said:

Hold my beer …. I give you Mr Loyal 

Only fox to be a real, live statue.

[SkidsFox]

1 hour ago, Arkie Bennett said:

I recall Mark McGhee saying something like loyalty was only for fans.

Don't have fond memories of the bloke, but that is an amazing statement. And he's right. If Nottm Forest offered me 10k to start supporting their team, I'd just laugh. 

[HighPeakFox]

2 minutes ago, SkidsFox said:

Don't have fond memories of the bloke, but that is an amazing statement. And he's right. If Nottm Forest offered me 10k to start supporting their team, I'd just laugh. 

10k a match? 

[SkidsFox]

1 minute ago, HighPeakFox said:

10k a match? 

They do say every man has their price....

[Foxy_jim]

1 minute ago, SkidsFox said:

Don't have fond memories of the bloke, but that is an amazing statement. And he's right. If Nottm Forest offered me 10k to start supporting their team, I'd just laugh. 

What McGhee did cannot compare with Little, O Neill or now Enzo. I couldn't begrudge MON going to Celtic who are massive and couldn't begrudge Enzo going to a much bigger club with infinitely more aspirations and money. Littles problem was he said a few days before he was staying and then went. If he was honest it would have been different, Villa were and are a much bigger club.

 

McGhee went from us (top of the league) to Wolves, who were in the same division whom for some reason he thought were much bigger and better. It's a bit like Enzo leaving us last season for Middlesbrough mid way through. 

 

That might a Molineux when Emile scored twice was still one of the best away nights ever. Judas 2 City 3.

[Shev]

Fans bleating about manager loyalty ever happens when a club has been successful and therefore the manager is in demand. The fans have generally not had to show any loyalty themselves because again, it has been a period of success. If Enzo had looked like taking the club down into L1 instead of starting the current climb, would anyone have insisted on being loyal to him?

Ultimately, fans prioritize their club (rightly), so they have no loyalty to a manager who may damage the club. Managers know this, so they strike while the iron is hot in their careers, as there may be no tomorrow for them if things go badly.

A great recent example of this is Oxford. The following sequence happened:

1. Karl Robinson is doing well - fan loyalty.
2. Robinson stops doing well - fans say "get rid" despite his long tenure.
3. Liam Manning is doing well at MK.
4. MK lose all their loanees and start battling relegation. Fans: "Get rid". Manning is fired.
5. Oxford hire Manning and start off well - fan loyalty.
6. Manning gets great Champo offer - remembers the fickle nature of the sport - leaves.
7. Fans bleat about no loyalty.
8. Oxford hire Des Buckingham.
9. Buckingham starts badly - fans say "get rid".
10. Oxford stick with Des anyway and get promoted - fans crow about how great he is.

Football is just a fickle, fickle beast, and fans cannot chide managers for no loyalty when they will want a manager gone as soon as they hit an indifferent patch.
 

Edited 28 May 2024 by Shev

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

I don't think anyone expects Vardy levels of loyalty. Certainly nowhere close. But expecting a Manager or a player to stay longer than a solitary season is pretty reasonable. Particularly in the context of this team / club moving forwards up the league. We haven't just been relegated. We've been promoted. 

[ARM1968]

Because the club means a lot to us it doesn’t translate into something similar for hired foreign mercenaries - or even those born in Leicestershire for that matter. 
 

Some players gain an affection for a club, so do some managers, but at the end of the day it’s a career where the aim is to win things and play for or manage the best clubs.  Some people just think everyone should feel like they do and have the same level of loyalty to the club. It’s not reality. 

[An Away Move]

Maresca owes us nothing. Headlines were made about how negative the fans were towards him. I found that pretty embarrassing considering our meteoric start and where we ended up. 

[Phube]

14 minutes ago, Marshall Cockney Fox said:

I don't think anyone expects Vardy levels of loyalty. Certainly nowhere close. But expecting a Manager or a player to stay longer than a solitary season is pretty reasonable. Particularly in the context of this team / club moving forwards up the league. We haven't just been relegated. We've been promoted. 

The same Vardy who left Fleetwood Town after one season when they were promoted? 
 

And rightly no-one here would expect he made the disloyal choice, it was an obvious upgrade that 99.9% of people would make. 

[AyewJoking]

1 hour ago, Fox92 said:

Not everything is about money though. 
 

Grealish left Villa for the best team in England, to play for the best manager in England and to win trophies. 

at the expense of being a bit part player because the money was more important, he wont make this kind of money ever again

[trugerkem]

2 hours ago, Royston. said:

or liverpool bettered what his agent said Chelsea were going to give him..............

 

when there wasnt as much money being passed around it was easier to be loyal. 

 

Grealish is a good example, star man at his boyhood club even stayed with them in the championship but threw that away (and his playing career) for the money at Man city. cant say i blame him either.

How much money do these people need ? 

[Phube]

5 minutes ago, trugerkem said:

How much money do these people need ? 

I don’t know many people who would turn down a three fold pay rise for the same job (possibly in a better workplace)! 

[Paninistickers]

2 hours ago, Plastik Man said:

I wonder, wages back then, even for the top players, were not life changing. 

 

So if you were settled in an area with a young family, and were offered similar terms for a few more years, would you be so keen to move on every couple of years, with all the relocation etc that involves? 🤔

Agree. Though strangely it should work the other way. 

 

100k a year to 130k a year is helluva difference back in the 80s. Yet they didn't move as much as a 21st century PL player already set up for life yet chooses  11m a year over 10m a year. 

[Bert]

2 hours ago, LinekersLugs said:

Hold my beer …. I give you Mr Loyal 

Btec Scott Carson 

[Dan]

I don't really expect massive loyalty from an Italian who while we did give him an opportunity he was arguably fortunate to get, we messed around and large parts of the fanbase never truly bought into.

 

It works both ways.

 

I assume we'll leave Corberan well alone for his loyalty to West Brom no?

[Plastik Man]

6 minutes ago, Paninistickers said:

Agree. Though strangely it should work the other way. 

 

100k a year to 130k a year is helluva difference back in the 80s. Yet they didn't move as much as a 21st century PL player already set up for life yet chooses  11m a year over 10m a year. 

Bosman, I suppose.

[Guest RYM]

3 hours ago, Arkie Bennett said:

I recall Mark McGhee saying something like loyalty was only for fans.

He was manager when I worked at Motherwell. He said his biggest regret was leaving us.

[funkyrobot]

3 hours ago, Phube said:

I keep hearing the phrase a lot recently “There’s no loyalty in football anymore!”

 

I’d just like someone, preferably one of the no loyalty anymore brigade (and it always a brigade!), to tell me when this mythical time was when all footballers and managers were loyal to a fault? And never left to go to a better club or for more money?

To my knowledge good managers and players have always left clubs to go to better/bigger clubs. 
And vice-versa bad players and managers have been sacked or bombed out.

 

To be fair even in what is a disloyal business. this Enzo saga is an unprecedented lack of loyalty. When has a new manager left after just one season straight after winning The Championship? I can’t remember this situation ever happening before. 

[Foxmeister]

3 hours ago, Fox92 said:

I can accept managers leaving but he has left after one year. This is after we took a chance and gambled on him. First chance of going and he's off. Kick in the teeth. 

And if he'd bombed he'd have been gone before Xmas, it needs to be a 2 way street.

[boots60]

One of the greatest players to pull on a Leicester shirt played for 11 league clubs, played in the USA, South Africa, Denmark & Ireland & several non league outfits.

Loyal? Not at all. Brilliant, yes.

R.I.P. Frank.

[Elsie Efsie]

Foitball is a business, players and managers get head hunted by thick headed idiot club owners who simply think oh he did well we will have him. Chelsea continue to plunder LCFC but to there peril, Let Maresco go and I for one hope he falls flat on his face and  just like Drinkwater and Fofana, Kanta was the exception and I rufuse to ackowledge the other horrible worm. Chelsea may do well under Maresca but we all know it will be booooring. Please leave

[Phube]

9 minutes ago, funkyrobot said:

To be fair even in what is a disloyal business. this Enzo saga is an unprecedented lack of loyalty. When has a new manager left after just one season straight after winning The Championship? I can’t remember this situation ever happening before. 

I'll go both ways with just our club:

 

Kante: WON the Prem and left after one season.

Ranieri: WON the Prem sacked the next season.

 

Loyalty is a fickle mistress!