Stan Collymore conjured up an idllyic picture of old-timey football to accuse Eden Hazard of “chucking it in” last season. His view of Hazard and the past is particularly rich given his own history as a player.
The last two Premier League champions failed miserably in their title defence. Current champions Leicester City would give anything to finish in 10th place, as Chelsea did in their 2015/16 campaign with the golden arm patch.
Leicester City’s abortive defence is more understandable than Chelsea’s. The Foxes were never supposed to win the title. They do not have the stars nor the experience with winning that Chelsea had. However, that only goes so far to explain their current predicament, which has them in a relegation scrap.
Player-turned-pundit Stan Collymore weighed in on the matter. He places the blame solely on each teams’ star players, for whom “the money outweighs the glory.” For Chelsea, he leveled the strongest accusations against Eden Hazard.
"[H]e got a little bit of criticism from Jose Mourinho so he chucked it in. No loyalty to Mourinho for helping make him a champion, or to Chelsea’s fans — he was happy to go missing and to hell with the consequences. – Mirror"
Collymore goes on to place the same charge against Wayne Rooney, Dmitri Payet and Riyad Mahrez. He opens and closes his piece by talking about how players have no loyalty to club, fans or managers. They simply chase pay cheques around the world without any concern for what happens to the clubs they leave behind.
Well. The idea of a paradise lost in pursuit of material gain is as well-tread as it is fanciful. For as long as there has been money in football, players have followed its lure. Whether the wages were on the scale of a few quid a week or an eight-figure transfer fee, the dynamic has always been the same.
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“One club men” were barely more common in the era of Ron Harris than the era of John Terry. Stan Collymore knows this as well as anyone. Collymore played for 10 clubs in his career (one of which was on loan). When he signed for Liverpool, he set the English record for highest transfer fee: £8.5 million.
With that money, he propelled himself straight into the lifestyle of Liverpool’s “Spice Boys.” Much worse allegations surrounded Collymore at Anfield and the remainder of his career. Even in retirement, Collymore retains his lucrative brand appeal – of which he is barely self-aware even as he cashes in on it at every opportunity.
The point of all this is not to dredge up old Stan Collymore banter. If anyone should understand the pressures and temptations that unimaginable amounts of fame and money place on young men, it is Collymore. He is making a fair return on his autobiography recounting his wild day. Yet he does not seem to understand the glass house from which he writes his column.
Eden Hazard and Riyad Mahrez at least have a title their credit, and significantly fewer off-field scandals. Collymore’s theory falls even flatter given Eden Hazard’s resurgence this season.
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The players Stan Collymore lambasts are little different from any other professional footballer who considers finances along with loyalty and camaraderie in their career decisions. Looking back he may see more one-club men than the Premier League has now. But not if looks clear-eyed at history, and certainly not if he looks in the mirror.