Crystal Palace 5 : Newcastle United 1
This Sunday Times Match Report (by John Aizlewood) makes for painful reading:
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/football/Premiership/article1638901.ece
The Report of the game starts:
“ANOTHER game, another spineless Newcastle United capitulation”
and ends with:
“For Newcastle United, another guts-free horror show and an unscheduled training session this morning.”
THAT’S what’s most frustrating, not a lack of talent/skill but the players being ‘spineless’ and ‘guts-free’.
There is no excuse for that, none whatsoever. Even if a player is complete and utter rubbish, even if his skill level is such that he shouldn’t be playing in the Premier League, there is no excuse for producing a ‘spineless’ and ‘guts-free’ performance.
Pressure?? My ar*e!! Compared to people who have to juggle the family finances whilst earning the minimum wages working 70 hours per week, all these guys have to do is train for a few hours a day and play a game or two of football every week. Pressure of a sort, I do concede, but most people would kill to swap their pressure for a bit of that pressure. It is unforgivable, in front of fans who can ill afford to be in the stadium watching the games, to do less than sweat blood for the club and the supporters. Minimum, a million quid a year, many earning more, and they just can’t be bothered – it is beyond disgraceful, it is utterly shameful. I would not be able to sit at the breakfast table this morning with my wife and kids and look them in the face if I was told that I was spineless and gutless.
If these players were honourable, they, the ones to whom John Aizlewood is referring, would not accept their salaries and would ask that the club either, somehow, gives the money to the fans who go to the games or gives it to charity. The greedy, lazy, good-for-nothings, how can they take minimum 50-odd grand in exchange for producing those disgraceful, unacceptable performances against Leicester and Palace? Does there not come a point at which the players are in breach of contract, when instead of Ashley having to pay them, he can sue them for not doing what they have contracted to do which, I assume, in some worded form, is to give their all when they play?
Shame on them!!
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