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Professional Footballers’ Association chief Gordon Taylor claims player don’t get “how lucky they are”

By on July 29, 2013

20130729-210158.jpgProfessional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor has pleaded players to realize “how lucky they are”, and insisted the English game is “in danger of losing its soul” because of selfish players. With the Premier League players’ salaries skyrocketing, multiple world class stars including Wayne Rooney, Luis Suarez, and Gareth Bale have been flexing their muscles against their various clubs, creating unsavory (yet entertaining) transfer rows.

Taylor believes some players become more thankful, but said football hasn’t completely lost its soul.

“The players don’t know how lucky they are nowadays,” Taylor said. “I went the other day to see one of our former players, Gary Parkinson, who played for Bolton, Preston, Burnley, Blackpool, Middlesbrough. He was working with youngsters at Blackpool all hours and had a stroke [in 2010]. Terrible.

“He has locked-in syndrome. A speech therapist, who’s really good, has been working with him, using ice lollies to work his mouth open.

“Gary can now move his tongue. The difference in him is brilliant. I went to see him the other day and drove away, thinking of some of the cases I’ve got [with awkward players].

“It would just be good if I could say, ‘Just come with me this morning and you’d really appreciate what you’ve got. You owe the game a bit. You don’t need all this, prospective moves, refusal to wear a shirt, different problems with lads twittering because they are not in the team. Try to be a bit more professional’.

“Football hasn’t completely lost its soul when you see football helping Gary Parkinson. The support from all his clubs has been fantastic.

“The way the sport rallied around Fabrice Muamba showed the soul is still there. But we need a few more fairytales like Kevin Phillips, a lad still going strong at 40, scoring in the [Championship] play-off final.

“It’s a time of trying to remember that football is a sport, an entertainment. Football has a real social responsibility for bringing people together in a world where there are a lot of tensions, whether economic, racist, religious, political.

“We have to show the best possible example as the Olympics did and a lot of other sports do. Football has to work really hard to put a smile on people’s faces and not just be so focused on money.”

The 68-year-old, who played in the EPL as a winger in the 1960’s and 70’s, also urged wealthy clubs to regain some economic wisdom and make today’s million dollar game easier to recognize as the same sport that was played fifty years ago.

“It’s hard enough for the likes of Tom Finney and Jimmy Armfield to recognize the modern footballer,’’ Taylor sighed.

“It’s my job to protect players but when you think what some players earn, I do feel we need to get them to embrace a lot more responsibility for leaving the game in a better place than when they joined it, being more like Kenny Davenport.

“Tom Finney, an icon, earned less in his career than some of the modern players do in a week and that it is really with the contribution they make.

“Next year we will be remembering 100 years since the First World War when a lot of footballers died. Our Donald Bell, the first player to sign up, won the Victoria Cross [for subduing a German machine-gun nest at the Somme].

“It’s a time of trying to remember that football is a sport, an entertainment. Football has a real social responsibility for bringing people together in a world where there are a lot of tensions, whether economic, racist, religious, political.

“We have to show the best possible example as the Olympics did and a lot of other sports do. Football has to work really hard to put a smile on people’s faces and not just be so focused on money.’’

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.