According to numerous reports England’s top-flight footballers have finally managed to find their wallets and an initial £4million has been pledged to aid the UK’s NHS charities.
According to The Athletic, Watford players have chipped in approximately £5000 each and that club plans to make further donations along the way.
The wording of the #PlayersTogether deal makes for curious reading. The initiative was developed “separate to any other club and league conversations” which could lend itself to hinting at a rather cool relationship between players and clubs.
At Tottenham players, in particular, might be amongst the least sympathetic when it comes to taking a pay cut, after having the seen at first hand the colossal investment in the club’s infrastructure. Those players that have experienced the lavish experience of Joe Lewis’ boat are probably even less interested in helping their employers struggle through the suspension of games.
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Did you swear in it? Cos there’s nobody sat here moderating every comment.
The problem I have is less about asking what each man gave, but what they’ve sucked out of the club – whilst using the Joe Lewis as a shield.
Joe will pass away and it’s improbable to believe he’ll bequeath a nickel to a future transfer fund.
As for the NHS, I’m fundamentally opposed to pumping money into it from private sector donations. Lots of people associate giving (like the old soldier doing his garden laps) with nurses living better lives. That will not happen.
As per that recent blog I did that covered the NHS salary bands, most non-specialist ICU staff are on less than £20k pa.
Most of the stumbling blocks for the NHS at present are strategic and logistic.
Neither of which will be aided by hurling money at them.
The money the players are giving is, in my view a device. What I’d like is for them to take a meaningful pay cut, so we’ve still got a football club left when this wretched business is over.
I loathe Levy (breaking news) but I’d rather he kept the cash back than players gave oddments of it to “charity” – in fact – that is Marxism!
As I said, each to his own; I just find it amazing how some can judge others on the feeblest information about just how much they do and the weight in lbs on their conscience.
There are a lot of players who use their money for the good of others and don’t want the spotlight or the hoo-ha; its their own choice. To stand up and say they are not doing enough is just plain arrogant. I mean who are these people to say what is enough, what qualifies them, and what facts do they use to determine the value of enough.
Anyway maybe ‘enough’ said!
Some excellent points Finn again ,i like the last paragraph most .
I have been watching donations for absolutely so many organisations and wondering how much and who to. As horrid as it may sound it wont be to the N.H.S not because i dont respect and adore the service but am worried who is in charge of spending all this money,this goes also for all the big organisations like British Heart Foundation etc. To much bad press and to many people on very high wages at the top ,plus recent scandals.
I am currently working and even doing overtime so in a better position to most { i work in a homeless unit} anyway if anyone is interested have decided on a local food charity and Street Soccer Edinburgh as i know the good work they do first hand. I do believe footballers are getting bad press ,so many other sportsman, film stars and anyone who earns obscene amounts of money is not get ridiculed . know one knows what anyone is doing in private and that goes to the whole population ,99% can afford to give something however little not sure how many are though.
As for Richard Branson…..
Each to their own, but I have a bit of a problem telling people they are not generous enough!
I’m sure there are people who are suggesting this, whose income might be high compared to a homeless guy on the street, but they’ll happily look away rather than give the poor bugger the price of a hot cup of tea let alone fifty quid. Nonetheless I don’t hear any criticisms relating to that despite them pissing that fifty quid up the wall on the horses of at the pub.
Buying into the burning of this particular witch just fuels a fire lit for the easily led; I mean do you actually believe in witchcraft?
The media (in particular) have led this scapegoating of football, ably helped by the likes of our chairman drawing criticisms like a lightning rod, but I don’t hear the TV punters or the talking heads, or the politicians volunteering their wages.
A number (and who knows who has done what) of players have raised 4 million quid. Which ones do you want to single out as being stingy? Down the road they’ve dropped their wages 12.5%, which will go to the club to help the downturn in the footballing “business”. I can easily see why players who are not necessarily enamoured with their clubs fiscal stance, may be more interested in going another route (ours especially).
But the players have raised 4 million quid “as an INITIAL contribution” – how much have any of the others I mentioned above raised? Footballers make a lot of money, but for many its a day in the sun and when the sun sets on their careers it rarely rises again.
Here’s an open question for those who want to criticise how generous or not the players are: how much have you given, what is that as a proportion of your total working life income, do you think that that’s enough and how would you feel if someone wanted to critique your generosity using your spending habits as some sort of arbitrary values-based benchmark?
I worked for him in a former life. He’s glib robot.
If branson goes bust as the man who sued the nhs it would serve him right!! He is the generation that made it big kicked the ladder away and said lifes a bitch
As usual the ordinary people are much more generous than their supposed betters. Most of the money raised by the old veteran walking in his garden probably came from not very well off people, old dears on the pension and kids pocket money. Generous individuals aside, it’s a really disgusting spectacle. I saw a picture from a Bristol newspaper titled “The three MPs who voted against a pay rise for nurses.
It is a pittance. I know of an Everton player who pays £60k a year to a non club coach who texts him advice from matches he played! These lads have money to burn.
It doesn’t seem much particularly considering how much time has passed.You can understand it with the government.
If you say the average weekly salary for the first 11 players of each PL side is 50K that’s 11M.Where’s the rest?
Whilst I accept that certain players may have done more individually and privately that’s still a poor response in my opinion.
The players won’t have done themselves much good with the public.JimmyGrievance had it right below.
However there are so many more wealthy people in the country who are keeping their heads below the parapet.
Branson is quoted today as saying that Virgin Airways will go bust without a bailout.Tough $hit.
Don’t agree with the singling out of the players, being generous to them perhaps there is much more to come, if not, then as someone in Ireland once said describing an usual occurrence, “this is grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre, unprecedented. It gave rise to a new word,” gubu”.
Is that it??!! Bloody tightwads, the lot of ’em!! They fart that in 5 minutes!!
I could not agree more, give something back you tight arses.
I said previously but you didn’t allow the post 🤷🏻♂️
£4 million when it should be about £25 million based on each PL player earning an average of £50,000 pw. That’s donating just one weeks salary. Give up a months worth which they can ALL well afford that’s £100million. More than enough to pay non playing staff at every PL club and still make a sizeable donation to the NHS.