THE divide between modern-day footballers at the top and the fans has never seemed wider.
Astronomical wages, Fort Knox-style training grounds and minders ready to step in if you impinge on a player’s personal space – it is all a far cry from the days when footballers used to go drinking in and around town pubs after their game on a Saturday.
With a new TV deal for the Premier League just around the corner, those players are likely to become even richer and the clubs likewise.
And when you hear top agents like Jorge Mendes tell the BBC he believes current World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo is now worth £300million it is mind-boggling for Joe Public.
There is a lot of resentment about the hundreds of thousands of pounds the top players now earn on a weekly basis and it is easy to understand when you consider the working man’s roots of our national sport.
But to play devil’s advocate for one moment, can you blame the stars asking for top money when the clubs that employ them are raking in even more at the highest level with TV cash, sponsorship deals and rising ticket prices?
If those clubs like, say Manchester United and Liverpool, are earning off the back of their big names like Wayne Rooney or Steven Gerrard then why shouldn’t the players get a big cut?
I had a discussion in my local recently about the discrepancies between footballers’ wages and the man in the street.
My argument was that no-one wants to pay to come and watch me hammer out columns like this one but they will pay to watch footballers ply their trade, and that’s where supply and demand comes into it.
Sports stars are often held up as examples of being overpaid but nobody ever seems too concerned if Tom Cruise or Tom Hanks get multi-millions for one movie.
To me, that is just as ludicrous but again their wages are a cut of the overall income from big-screen blockbusters.
Unfortunately, the way of the world now is that the divide, which is not helped by disillusionment among fans who cannot relate to such mammoth pay packets, will never really be bridged.
Kids have little access to see their heroes at training grounds like my generation did during school holidays and the chance of Sergio Ageuro popping into the local for a pint is about as miniscule as a UFO landing on Winter Hill.
Nowadays, it is more a case of us and them – though the increasing popularity of social media does give players the chance to interact with supporters, if they wish, through the likes of Twitter and Instagram.
But then that has its own pitfalls and can attract as much abuse as praise. Jusk ask the likes of Joey Barton.
I wonder what Nat Lofthouse would have made of it all.
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