rA "I'd like to see some protection for clubs giving ?injury prone? players a second chance so that some sort of ?pay as you play? contract kicks in at some point ensuring players are able to live comfortably but protecting clubs from having to fork out astronomical salaries for, in Washington and Anya?s cases, doing virtually nothing."
There is, it's called insurance
With respect to 2. Whilst you or I may have not had a promotion due to circumstances beyond our control or had to deal with idiots as managers, neither us nor most people face incurring an injury every day whilst working, which could have ended our career. There are specific professions where that might be the case but not most employment.
With regards to 3. A player has to train and play virtually every day and even on a day off has to avoid certain activities and watch their diet etc. Even if I have overstated it, the restrictions on their "free time" are more than other employees.
4. We are back to how can a football player justify being paid salaries that are out of proportion to the rest of society and whilst I don't disagree with you, salaries even at L1 level are IMO too high. But that's a function of the way society works, a football player earns what clubs will pay him whether its right or fair is a good question, but given there is no sign that society is moving towards a system whereby salaries reflect the value of the job to society, I don't see it changing.
Yep, of course…fair point. I’m just not certain how far it goes and how much it costs the club.
For instance if we were to sign Ozoh again - which I’d love us to do in terms of ability (excluding avail-ability) I’d imagine the insurance costs, based on the risks displayed last season, would be huge and probably unaffordable without some (probably unlikely) flexibility on the parts of both the player and the parent club.
Last edited by ramAnag; 17-05-2025 at 12:45 PM.
Not sure insurance covers loans in that way, as I understand it, there is insurance which covers the wages of a player owned by the club for long term injuries and for loss of value if his career ends as per Giles Barnes. Whether one can get insurance to cover an injury to a loan player who gets injured I'm not sure though I guess anything is possible and as you say, signing a player with a history of injuries would put the premiums up.
At one point, Barnes was offered ?5M insurance money if he were to retire through injury. If he'd accepted, the club would have received a similar amount. He decided to carry on and try to resurrect his career. He went on to play 240 club games and 19 appearances for Jamaica before retiring in 2020.
He may have gone on to have a very good career had he not been taken out, off the field, by a two footed lunge by Carl Dickinson of Stoke in a pre season "friendly". This happened at a time when I was spending two separate weeks and several weekends at the club each year and had full access at Moor Farm. I'm no longer as ITK as I was back then.