These Bloody Kids!

Saw a documentary on ITV 4 last night after the Barca 7-1 match about Lionel Messi. The guy is so humble and down-to-Earth its amazing. City could offer him a treble-your-money deal and he wouldn't consider moving for a second. He loves Barca. If that sort of attitude is good enough for the greatest player in the world, then it should be good enough for the unproven likes of Pogba and Morrison. We are United; a worldwide institution that rose like a phoenix from the flames on a Munich runway. Respect, ambition and even love for the club should come before money. We will not and should not bow to the demands of some little urchin with an overinflated ego.

I think people who are talking about 'loyalty' of players are naive at best - delusional at worst. If we limit ourselves to only prospects and players who 'love' the club and will play for the shirt over all else, we will have a very dismal future.

What passes for loyalty these days is actually developed through a number of factors - and whether you like it or not, financial remuneration will continue to play an increasingly critical role.

spot on...

It's not necessarily about players loving the club, it's about having players that put the club before money. It's not delusional or naive to ask for that and it's served us pretty well so far.

Being a 'football player' is a profession no matter how much we as fans look at it with football in the condition it is today. People get sick of work or the place they've been working at in every walk of life, no matter what it looks like from the outside.

They're still f*ckin stupid for thinking it though, these guys don't realise how lucky they are anymore. People would truly give anything to be in their position but they can act like it's a divine right.

Unfortunately, there is very little evidence to suggest that this type of player will exist in the near future. To think that we would be able to build a highly competitive squad, with this as a key restriction, is delusional.

So are you saying that in the future there won't be any players that want to play for a team for anything else than money?

That's nonsense.

We've done it in the past and we continue to do so. How can you truly be competitive if the players have no desire beyond their paycheck.

Exactly, look people in whatever they do, be it football or office. If they don't really like where they're at they'll just put enough effort in to keep their job. If the person really likes the place they are then they'll go above and beyond putting that extra effort in that you can't buy.

No, that's not what I said. I said that finding players who will put club before money will be difficult if not impossible. As I said in my original post, there are a number of factors involved in a player wanting to play for, or stay with, a particular club. Money is fast becoming the key factor - I see no reason to think that trend will reverse.

Is it possible that there will be players willing to take 'marginally' less to play for a particular club? Definitely. Is it possible they would be willing to take significantly less (as we asked Pogba to do)? I highly doubt it.

As for your comment about it 'working so far', that is a pretty easy argument to make considering we have been at or near the highest paying club for most of the last twenty years.

And even still we had contract squabbles with, and/or threats from, Rio, CR, Rooney, Anderson, Nani, Vidic - now even Danny Wellbeck ffs.

Just to name a few.

We are still signing players who would rather play for United than for better money elsewhere look at Jones, Young, Smalling and Berbatov as the most recent examples. At the end of a player's current contract there will always be negotiations for better deals, it doesn't mean those players don't want to play for the team anymore.

Wanting to play for the team should be the most important thing, if I had a choice between 2 players, I'd take the one who was ready to bleed for the club over the one who was more interested in his bonuses, even if he wasn't as good technically.

A small determined militia that's fighting for a cause can overwhelm the biggest of armies who don't want to be there. This is just the nature of people, you'll get more from someone who cares.

Flash, in a perfect world, I absolutely agree with you. The problem is that the world seems to be getting increasingly more imperfect - money being the determining factor.

That's why we have to tow a hard line, we can't be dragged down with the rest.

Players expect to get blooded earlier these days, especially in England, because the likes of Rooney and Walcott were playing week in week out at 17. Scholes and Beckham on the other hand had only a handful of games under their belt aged 20.

There is also the very real possibility that we cannot actually afford the wages demanded.

With the financial fair play rules coming into effect, if anyone can we can.

You could argue that the FFP rules may make maximiising wages an even higher priority for individual players. Theoretically there will be less to go around.

Todays kids are so spoilt and undisciplined, when i was playing for a youth team i would of died to play for Man Utd, money though nice is not the be and end all of being a professional footballer, you need passion, determination and love for the club you want to play for.

Offer any amount to Messi he will turn it down, he feels he owes his career to Barca and Barca only after they took him and the family in and started his treatment. That lad is a proper role model, very loyal!

It is sad to be honest. They have a chance to come up through ranks in the best club in the world and continue to get better and better, yet they forget what United has done for them and move away just so they can play in the first team sooner? It's a slap in the face to United. The staff of United know what they are doing, they will put you in when you are ready, just look at Cleverly. I was super pumped to watch the next Giggs and Scholes to come through the ranks, but if these kids keep leaving, there might never be a next killer pair..

Maybe rio offered pogba first dibs on his charity shop clothes bags ?

I mean what kid could resist being able to rock it like a blind huggy bear for free ?

Just to add to this, Lionel Messi has said he never sees himself playing for anyone other than Barca.