In a week when the issue of player power has dominated the transfer talk within the footballing world it seems only natural for me to explore the truth in the idea that player power has reached new hieghts.
Javier Mascherano's highly publicised wish to leave Anfield for Barcelona seems to be at the very core of discussions regarding whether players have the right to demand a transfer which have inundated sports opinion columns. His compatriot, World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi, sought to defend Javier's actions in midweek when he spoke of his personal misery in England, claiming that Roy Hodgson allowing him to leave was the humane thing to do. But the combative former Red attracted the ire of a number of ex-professionals and managers including former England boss Graham Taylor who lambasted him writing for the Daily Express.
The basis for Taylor's stance was that Mascherano is paid astronomical sums, in keeping with the trends of his profession, to pull on the jersey of the club that pays him so handsomely and give 100% as a professional. To refuse to play for his side was tantamount to treason according to Taylor since he is contractually obliged to them. To call it treason is a long leap but a breach of contract or a failure to meet the terms of his employment is certainly an accusation that can be levelled legitimately.
But when people like Taylor allude to the size of his wage, only to disregard it as not the central aspect in analysing his unprofessional behaviour, they are doing the reader a diservice. To refuse to play for Liverpool because you aren't mentally prepared for a top Premier League tussle with big-spending Manchester City aggravates neutrals as much as it does Reds' fans. In the eyes of the non-footballer who turns up for work and puts in a shift regardless of whether he is mentally prepared or not it smacks of the most unprofessional of traits - disrespect.
He disrespects the team, the sport, the manager and the fans when he acts in such a manner. Moreover it devalues the already receding strength of the contracts used in professional football. The vast amount that Mascherano is paid in spite of this serves to fuel the fire of peoples angst and is therefore a key factor.
But to expect more of him and professional footballers in general is to apply a convenient double standard where previosuly one did not exist. When players were paid wages on a par with the rest of society (as far back as the 1960's) much less was expected of them off the pitch and many of them conducting themselves in a manner that would be heavily derided in the modern era. Maverick figures like Stan Bowles and George Best were no more professional than the average blue collar worker (in fact often much less so). But such high standards of behaviour were not necessarily expected of them and because come 3 o'clock they did the business, little was made of their off the field antics.
Insofar as critics will always look to the behaviour of Mascherano this past week as vindicating claims that the inflated wages of players leads to inflated egos and a determination to act selfishly - which itself contributes to the perception of the game being at the mercy of its greatest assets - one thing is forgotten. It took the normally shy, rarely outspoken Messi to state it before anybody gave a second thought but footballers are human.
Indeed they are susceptible to all the same human traits as the rest of society, good and bad. Greed, selfishness, ambition, emotion and according to his fellow Argentine the most important one of all, love. Indeed much less for the benefit of his career, it seems that the tough-tackling Javier was pining after a move to end the domestic misery which beset his life in Liverpool. Few among us would not seek to find a new job if it promised to improve the daily lives of an unhappy family. So we should not look for more than that from the professional footballers that we cast (willing or otherwise) as role models.
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