Committed Manchester United and Liverpool players make up a rare shortlist in the modern game.
In the modern game it is really hard to find players that are loyal to just one club; but it’s not a new thing.
The most obvious players from the past are Tony Adams with Arsenal and Southampton and Matt le Tissier and not forgetting Trevor Brooking and West Ham of course going a little further back.
I decided to do a bit of research and found it hard to believe that there are only four players in the Premier League that have only played for one club for 15 years or more.
I mean not even going out on loan. Amazingly the four of them play for only two clubs. I won’t tell you till later in the piece, just think about it.
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We all know that Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger have shown loyalty to their clubs and that has to be admired by the boards for sticking with them and them doing the same.
But they are rare; of course owners want success and as soon as it can happen. Just in the last 48 hours both Brendan Rodgers and Paul Lambert look to be moving on from their present clubs;
Both are good young managers but why move? Money is the obvious answer; they will be on a higher wage but the club they move onto will buy ‘bigger’ players.
So in theory why should a player show loyalty if a manager doesn’t? It’s swings and roundabouts.
The two clubs the four players I was talking about earlier are Liverpool and Manchester United; Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher plus Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
The recently retired Gary Neville was another, while Tottenham’s Ledley King broke into the first team 14 years ago, so he’s close to meeting the criteria.
Manchester City’s Micah Richards is another on the right track, completing seven seasons without interruption at the club, and it does not look like he is leaving any time soon.
If I’ve missed any one, let me know. John Terry doesn’t count because of his loan spell at Nottingham Forest, while another ‘one club man’ Shola Ameobi briefly left Newcastle on loan for Stoke in 2008.
In this era of players and fans wanting instant success, it is rare for them to stay at just the one club. Will it die out altogether? I hope not, but it remains to be seen.
Are one club men a dying breed? Can the trend be reversed?
image: © Paolo Camera
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