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Premier League: Costa and Payet should be cheered for trying to force their exits

GettyImages-630717250
GettyImages-630717250

Football players are in trouble once again. They are being greedy mercenaries again, and it’s time we all complain about it. It turns out that players treat contracts with contempt. The only thing that they care about is money, and the only thing that they care about is that they get their desires, and the fans and clubs can go hang. West Ham are being played for fools by Dimitri Payet, and Chelsea are going through a similar experience with Diego Costa.

These players symbolise everything that is wrong with the modern game. Either that, or they’re only trying to secure their happiness and financial security against the backdrop of the richest game in the world.

First, Costa. Costa seems to have been dropped from the Chelsea squad, so that he can better think about what he has done. Antonio Conte, we are informed, told the player to ‘go to China’ after he had a row with a fitness coach. The reference to China is because Costa has had an offer from a Chinese Super League team to earn a rumoured £30 million a year, after tax, compared to around £8 million before tax that he currently receives. For having his head turned by such an offer, he has received criticism.

He has signed a contract, and he should honour it. He earns enough money already. He should remain professional. That is one thread of criticism, and there is some merit to it. He earns far more money than most people as it is, and he did indeed sign a contract to turn up and play football every week. He should also remain professional in return for the huge amounts of money that are deposited in his bank account.

From the same people arguing this, though, there was noticeably less criticism for other misdeeds. He was awful last season. He came back from his extended summer break out of shape, by his own admission. He wanted to return to Atletico Madrid, just as he did this summer. There was no commensurate outrage for any of these transgressions, some of them far more comparatively egregious.

Costa acted unprofessionally simply because he couldn’t be bothered to match the effort that his wages demanded. Everyone has been quick to forget this just because he turned in a stellar half-season before the latest strop. As he goads opponents with pointless aggro, that’s fine too, as long as he does it for the Chels.

Now, though, he’s apparently more objectionable. His crime is that he has been offered the chance to secure the financial future of not just his immediate family, but many more should he choose – he already funds a school in his home town.

It’s an obvious point to make, but if you had the chance to more than double your wages, you would almost certainly take it. Football is a job for many, just like most other jobs are for other people. If our health and safety depends on how much money we have – and it does in almost every society – then it’s entirely fair that Costa would try to embrace that notion. He causes no real damage with his occupation. He has compounded his crime for daring to join a foreign league that isn’t even in Europe.

Let’s also consider how his current club has treated players. It gave John Terry another contract despite the FA banning him for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand. It sued Adrian Mutu for using drugs, rather than exercising a duty of care for an employee and attempting to help him. It also dropped Winston Bogarde and made him train with children season after season, because he had no interest in ending his contract.

They had to pay a transfer fee for the murky business of taking John Obi Mikel from Lyn, which is clearly all above board. Find out how many contracts Roman Abramovich stood by as he made his fortune, and see how many journalists and fans care about that. So, fine for Chelsea to attempt to cut short an agreement, but not for Costa.

Payet has received even more criticism. West Ham fans have a new, bawdy chant for him. The West Ham board have said that they won’t sell him. He has been ridiculed for saying he would feign injury if he didn’t get his way, and for not being present when a club doctor turned up to inspect his claims of illness.

Now, there’s some value in being angry over the fact that he won’t at least do what he is paid for. That’s what he’s paid to do, and that’s what he should do. Although, let’s remember what he is attempting to do with forcing his way out. He wants to return to his last club, where his wages would either be similar or less, and go back to his home country. As well as that, he wants to leave London – the worst city in the world – and join Marseille – the best city in the world.

If Costa is a mercenary, then it’s hard to see how Payet isn’t the opposite. To return where he and his family would be happier in return for no more money. To leave an embittered island bent on becoming more intolerant to live in a diverse and happy city.

West Ham are a club who have gouged the public with an egregiously cheap stadium, they have Karren Brady, a Conservative, and the club donated money to the Conservative Party, so they clearly have no interest in the well being of the public. Payet wants to leave that, which is clearly to his credit.

And, after all this, let’s be honest. Chelsea have the money, and West Ham will have the money, to do the same when they fancy prising their replacements away. The players they buy will be branded mercenaries or hacks by their current fans. And so the cycle will go. Instead of the anger and blood pressure, it would serve us all better to see players take money to secure their future, or move to where they will be happier, and demand the same opportunities for ourselves.