Jack Rodwell

[AyrTroopMajor]

With Sunderland's relegation to League One confirmed, it has also been confirmed that Jack Rodwell will, finally, be forced to take a wage cut.  Having raked in an absolutely obscene £73,000 per week and only featuring for the first team twice this season, he will next season only earn £44,000 per week. 

http://www.sportbible.com/football/news-rodwell-will-earn-40000-in-league-one-20180421

Rodwell is training away from the first team and has even went so far as refusing to play. Having claimed in a newspaper interview at the tail end of 2017 that  it 'wasn't about the money' and that 'all he wants to do is play football', Rodwell rejected the chance to move away in January, with Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem reportedly the club he turned down. 

Just want to know what the view is on here of the Rodwell situation? Is he perfectly within his rights to claim that money, while his financially crippled club goes down the drain? They did offer him the contract, so you could say it's entirely the club's fault, however surely as a human being and a professional footballer, he should feel some sense of shame as he bleeds his employers dry while refusing to contribute on the field?

It's situations like this that make me f***ing thankful for Scottish football to be honest.

 

[J_Stewart]

Football Clubs show their players absolutely no loyalty whatsoever when they're underperforming / injured and can get away with getting rid of them, so they shouldn't expect any in return. Just as I have little sympathy for players who sign long-term contracts and then complain when they can't get a move to a bigger club, I have no sympathy for a club who signs a player to a long contract with a big wage and then get burnt when he's shite. All part of the game, and seeing as it's the players who have the actual talent in this situation and generally the shorter, riskier and less financially viable career than an entire football club, I have no problem with them squeezing out every penny they can.

[ICTChris]

If they could Sunderland would have turfed out Rodwell in a second with the minimum of pay.  They gave him the contract, it's Sunderland's fault for being probably the most useless organisation in English sport.

[The Moonster]

17 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said:

It's situations like this that make me f***ing thankful for Scottish football to be honest.

I'm thankful for Scottish football too but don't think that players being paid way above what they're worth isn't happening up here.  There are players in Scot Prem youth teams who are earning ridiculous amounts of cash having achieved absolutely nothing in the game (not even talking about solely Old Firm here). And that's before you consider that Carlos Pena was given a reported £26K a week.

As for the topic, Rodwell is well within his rights to sit there and coin it in. It doesn't show much in the way of ambition, but if I was being paid £70K a week and knew that in about 5 or 6 years time I'd probably be looking at retiring from football, I'd likely sit there and coin it in too.  If the board of the club were daft enough to give him that deal when they weren't sure they could afford it then it's not down to Rodwell to bail them out.

[7-2]

Disappointed there isn't a 'Bloody Hell, he's dead?' option given the thread title.

[Rob1885]

It's a mixture of both options given. I'd be picking up the money on that contract and would not be taking a wage cut before the end of my contract. It is, however, sad to read that he's been refusing to play. Certainly wouldn't do that personally.

[LincolnHearts]

If he refuses to play, isn't that like a breach of contract?

[Peppino Impastato]

Tbf it said he refused a loan move.  Which probably included a pay cut.  Not that he refused to play for Sunderland which would be breach of contract.  Mendacious and sensationalist wording by the journalist.

[DutchBorderer]

Just now, Peppino Impastato said:

Tbf it said he refused a loan move.  Which probably included a pay cut.  Not that he refused to play for Sunderland which would be breach of contract.  Mendacious and sensationalist wording by the journalist.

To be fair that loan would see him move over these shores, can't fault him for turning that down!

[AyrTroopMajor]

11 hours ago, Peppino Impastato said:

Tbf it said he refused a loan move.  Which probably included a pay cut.  Not that he refused to play for Sunderland which would be breach of contract.  Mendacious and sensationalist wording by the journalist.

He has refused to play for Sunderland, it's not referenced in the article but Chris Coleman confirmed it.

Worth mentioning by the way that, while he's raking that wage in, Sunderland held an internal review recently and had to make a string of redundancies among the ordinary staff.

[Peppino Impastato]

17 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said:

He has refused to play for Sunderland, it's not referenced in the article but Chris Coleman confirmed it.

Worth mentioning by the way that, while he's raking that wage in, Sunderland held an internal review recently and had to make a string of redundancies among the ordinary staff.

That's a different story if true.  Though redundancies aren't his fault Sunderland should have run their own business better.

[AyrTroopMajor]

Redundancies are 100% not his fault, and neither is the absolutely shambolic way that the club is run, but when does human decency come into play here? His weekly wage is about 3x the annual wage of some of those who are now jobless. 

[Thistle_do_nicely]

16 hours ago, LincolnHearts said:

If he refuses to play, isn't that like a breach of contract?

I thought that - I would imagine that it'd fall under gross misconduct as a professional footballer (unless you Do the Barton and just go on the sick due to stress) to refuse to attend training/matches.

I'd absolutely say that the blame lies with the people who committed to such an onerous contract rather than the player himself. Some of the lack of basic financial prudence (i.e. planning for worst case scenarios such as relegation or lengthy injuries to players) in football is incredible.

[The Moonster]

22 minutes ago, AyrTroopMajor said:

Redundancies are 100% not his fault, and neither is the absolutely shambolic way that the club is run, but when does human decency come into play here? His weekly wage is about 3x the annual wage of some of those who are now jobless. 

They aren't his fault at all. It's sad those people are losing their jobs but ultimately it's the Sunderland board who have brought this situation upon themselves by dishing out a £70K long term contract to an average midfielder.  Were any of the Sunderland board worried about human decency or redundancies being a consequence when they were dishing out the ridiculous contracts?  Rodwell cannot be blamed here and if he's refusing to play then Sunderland have an easy out in sacking him for failing to fulfil his contract. The fact they haven't done that and instead have leaked stuff like that to the press in order to discredit Rodwell makes me think he hasn't refused to play at all.

[ICTChris]

Yeah Rodwell is very possibly a total dick but Sunderland making staff redundant is a consequence of them blowing huge contracts on average and below-average players.  They had ten consecutive seasons in the top flight, their best run since the 1950s,  but completely failed to build any sort of team at any point.  They spent fortunes but never managed to finish higher than 10th, they went through eight managers and God knows how many highly paid players. 

Being honest, it would've been better for Sunderland to have been relegated a few years ago but their successive last minute escapes, combined with a great run of derby successes against Newcastle, covered up the clubs rotten core.

[Rob1885]

I've read that he'll have his wage cut to only the £44k a week next season.  Not sure how that works if there was no cut when they were relegated last season.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Its all Martin Bain's fault.

Everything, Sevco, Sunderland, Trump, Brexit, the Royal Baby.

Bain's fault. 

[ROBROYSTON]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43905840

Coleman doesnt know where Rodwell is mentally but is training with the under 23s according to the story above.

 

[Mark Connolly]

On 4/25/2018 at 16:50, The Moonster said:

 

As for the topic, Rodwell is well within his rights to sit there and coin it in. It doesn't show much in the way of ambition, but if I was being paid £70K a week and knew that in about 5 or 6 years time I'd probably be looking at retiring from football, I'd likely sit there and coin it in too.  If the board of the club were daft enough to give him that deal when they weren't sure they could afford it then it's not down to Rodwell to bail them out.

Stuff like this always reminds me of Richard Wright, who finished his career with 4 years at Man City where he earned something like £30k a week and never played a game.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

31 minutes ago, Mark Connolly said:

Stuff like this always reminds me of Richard Wright, who finished his career with 4 years at Man City where he earned something like £30k a week and never played a game.

Much like me ( apart from the £30k a week bit).