Football fans probably prize loyalty more than anything else. While Matt Le Tissier, Mick Channon, Ron Davies and Terry Paine all had talent in abundance to go with their loyalty, people like Nick Holmes are right up there with them in the hearts of the fans. Nick, while no slouch in the playing department either, stuck with Saints through the division two days and into the golden age of the top flight for Saints in the 1980s.
In a few years Franny Benali and Jason Dodd will be more fondly remembered for their loyalty as well, rahter than dodgy defensive decisions against Leicester. What were you thinking Doddsy ?!!!
After all, footy fans don't get to choose their club. They're called to it. They don't have the option and it's nice every now and again to see a player who shares that.
However, let's face facts. If someone approached you and offered you triple your current wages to perform at a higher level of performance and with the stars of your industry, what would you say ?
If you're ambitious, you'd have already left before finishing the above paragraph. (Don't feel too bad if all you could picture was throwing abuse at your old boss as you left. It's cathartic and very good for you.)
What is a problem is once everyone decides that they could be better off playing elsewhere and start to desert en masse.
Another problem is when said players are thick enough to start chatting away to any old hack, so it appears in the press a week before the close of the transfer window.
James Beattie, not renowned for his intellectual prowess when dealing with the hacks, has made the first hints that he would leave to further his international chances.
Beattie, who had a cracking fifteen minutes against Croatia, was summarily ignored by the hacks, precisely because he does play for Southampton. Hopefully, Beattie will have a smart friend to point out that just because the hacks say it, it doesn't mean that the England manager is thinking the same thing.
While the hacks ignore Beattie because it's easier to type about London based players, Svenn Goran Eriksson ignores Beattie because Emile Heskey is his love child. Or because Heskey has incriminating pictures. Or worst of all because he's just not a particularly good manager. Not being at Southampton will not change that.
But James gets worried about these things, and combined with his inability to stop talking to any passing men's magazine, means that the first hints concerning his departure have been published.
“I’ve signed a contract to 2006," opened Beattie, letting any potential suitors know just how much extra they'll have to add on to the bid.
Beattie then played the "big fish at little club" by saying: “But I’m ambitious and, if I thought going to another club would help my England chances, I’d have to consider it."
James should of course be thinking, "well if I'm the top English scorer in the league and I'm not being picked it's because the manager's an idiot and it's nothing to do with my club."
As James pulls out his next comment, I begin to wonder if he's just been on the phone to his leech, sorry agent. Because this one comes from someone who clearly has no clue about the way Saints are run.
“Because a club can sell you at any time, loyalty is more from a fans’ point of view," said James achieving the double whammy of pissing off both the management of the club and all of it's fans at the same time. What a guy !
Not spotting the fact that every recent departure form the club has been down to the player wanting to go, James added: “They’re not impressed when a player moves from club to club. But, at the end of the day, there is nothing you can do about it.”
What we're not impressed with is players engineering their own moves by perpetuating any number of footy fallacies in the press. Its disloyal to the club you're with and disrespectful to it's staff and fans.
Saints aren't a selling club, in that they don't have to sell to survive. Our recent departures have all been because the players want to go. Richards and Bridge weren't being forced out the door. They wanted to go. In fact, they wanted to go so badly that they waived a number of bonuses to do so.
If a player leaves because a club wants to sell him, then it's hardly the players fault. Tim Flowers always got a great reception when he returned to the Dell. He got sold and there really was nothing he could have done.
Dean Richards on the other hand...
Now, we're happy to get good money from players who don't want to remain at the club, but let's not confuse this with the club wanting to see it's best players leave.
While Beattie says "there is nothing you can do about it,” there is always the outlandish option of sticking with the club you're contracted with, keeping your head down without moaning to the hacks and let your talent, rather that your club show your international pedigree.