Loyalty slouchers

The only loyalty displayed by footballers these days is when it suits themselves. The astronomical wages and signing-on fees that they earn mean players no longer have to depend on a testimonial match to see them though the first few years of their retirement. They can kiss the badge on their shirt as often as they like, but as soon as they get a better offer, they’ll be out of E13 as quickly as their Porsches will carry them.

The fact that we will never again see a Billy Bonds, Trevor Brooking or Steve Potts at the Boleyn Ground was brought starkly into focus by two players during last month’s transfer window.

Craig Bellamy reportedly stormed out of the training ground, insisting that was going in strike until he was allowed to join either Spurs or Manchester City. With Scott Duxbury refusing to do business with Spurs, the Welshman was soon on his way to Manchester for £14m.

Paid handsomely for missing most of his first season with injury, you might think that he feels that he owes West Ham something, after starting only 22 games and scoring nine goals. He might have been of the opinion that Spurs or Man City offered him a greater chance of honours, but would he even get into their sides? His transfer may be big news at the City of Manchester Stadium right now, but if the richest club in the world starts splashing out on the likes of Kaka, the petulant striker will find it difficult to secure a place on the subs’ bench.

Bellamy claimed that he was never going to strike. But he has been a troublemaker throughout his career and is hated at almost every club at which he has ever played (and he has had eight by the age of 29). Apart from several bust-ups in pubs and clubs (which, to be fair, are par for the course for many footballers), Bellamy’s crime sheet is long and varied: he threw a chair at Newcastle’s first-team coach; called his manager Graeme Souness a liar; sent abusive text messages to Alan Shearer; publicly criticised his manager at Liverpool, Rafa Benitez; and attacked team-mate John Arne Riise with a golf club during a ‘team bonding’ session in Portugal. To make a profit of £6.5m in 18 months on an injury-prone player who has clearly got ‘issues’ looks like good business to me.

On the other hand, Luis Boa Morte turned down a move to Hull after the clubs had agreed terms, insisting that he hadn’t asked for a transfer and wanted to see out the remaining 18 months of his contract. Perhaps there is some loyalty still in the game?

Or could it be that a player who has never been first-choice at the Boleyn Ground and who is derided every time he takes the field, simply wasn’t prepared to accept the huge pay cut that Hull were asking him to take? In my opinion, taking into account his wages, reputation (26 caps for Portugal) and £5m transfer fee, is the worst player I have seen in the claret and blue. A fresh start at a club with lower expectations (he excelled as a big fish in a small pond at Fulham) would have been in both parties’ interests.

The great irony is that Bellamy was abused for wanting to quit West Ham, while Boa Morte was jeered for refusing to leave. When it comes to loyalty, nowadays it is only the fans who are even on nodding terms with the concept.