By Richard Lee - 22/08/2009

Player Power?

In simple terms, when you sign a contract with a club you are at that moment committing yourself for the length of that deal to work within the parameters which you've agreed upon.

In reality these days, contracts have becoming little more than bargaining tools for clubs to extract an improved transfer fee when a situation like that of Joleon Lescott comes along.

I've never been deliberately provocative on this website, I've always expressed my views honestly and openly - so when I say that I can see both sides of the story, I mean it.

You'll have heard all the stuff about a player's career being a short one already and, yes, we do have to maximise our chances. However it's impossible not to feel a degree of sympathy towards Everton and David Moyes, since they simply do not want to lose one of their best players - and for that matter, which club would?

There'll be plenty of people who see this matter as simply about pound notes; and the cynic in me is struggling to disagree. Let's be honest with ourselves though, if another company came from elsewhere in the industry you're working in offering you far more than you're on, you would probably find a way out of your current situation to avail of this new opportunity.

There are, of course, ways of doing this and, as I'm not close enough to Everton to know all the detail. Lescott telling his manager he wasn't right to play could well have been more about just him being selfish, and in these days of agents and advisors it may be something he was told he ought to do rather than something he necessarily felt comfortable with doing off his own back.

I do admire the way Moyes was fighting to protect his club but there will come a point when the actions may be counter-productive for the club.

This is probably a raw example of player power, although Moyes did show that the manager can still wield plenty of influence by playing Lescott. I don't think the result was a direct result of the situation - but it cannot possibly have helped. It'd be hard enough to take on Arsenal with everyone fully tuned in and focused on the job - although the 6-1 only served to highlight the issue to the whole football community.

It's gone to new levels, hasn't it, the money stakes in football now. Chelsea aren't even competing for some of the signings Man City want to make - having been the club everyone feared in the transfer market only a couple of years ago.

This Lescott matter has just served to remind us that if someone really does want a move, then despite the wealth of clubs and their owners, player power is key to it all. Right or wrong? I'd be interested to read your views.