Soccerphile Editorial - August 2013
Player Power
The transfer stories revolving around Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney and, latterly, Yohan Cabaye this summer might just serve as examples of when clubs actually began to subdue the seemingly unstoppable rise of 'player power'.
Despite there still being a handful of days before the close of the European transfer window, and even irrespective of the recent history of clubs originally refusing to allow players to leave only to suddenly perform an about face (notably Arsenal's dealings with Manchester United's pursuit of Robin van Persie last summer), the trend so far this window has clearly been club strength outweighing player disgruntlement.
Suarez's public mutterings about first joining Real Madrid and then Arsenal, after the Gunners thought they had activated the £40 million release clause in his contract (they hadn't), have been gradually squashed by Liverpool steadfast resistance to all offers for the Uruguayan.
Again, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has come into his own in managing media interest in the Suarez saga to the point that transfer news in Liverpool this week has rather centred on Oussama Assaidi joining Stoke City on a season-long loan.
Similarly, the likelihood is that Rooney has accepted that his preferred switch to Chelsea will not be happening this season.
To his credit, Rooney himself has kept his counsel about his desire to join the Blues, although his detractors might well argue that the England striker's silence has been engineered as much to avoid the wrath of the United faithful as due to a respect for the club he currently serves.
Indeed, Rooney's aborted bid to link up with Jose Mourinho in the capital could be argued to be a snapshot of the contrasting trajectories of player power and fan power.
Manchester United's supporters drew credit from all corners for their unhinging backing of Rooney in Monday's night drab goalless draw with Chelsea, and the word is that the England striker is unenthusiastic about publicly demanding a transfer request and losing the bulk of that support only for Manchester United to refuse Chelsea's latest bid in any case.
A feather in the caps of football fans, perhaps?
One player who should have probably taken a leaf about of Rooney's book is Newcastle's French midfielder Cabaye, who has been left in the unenviable position of demanding a transfer to a club (Arsenal again) who seem to have bid for him in a blind panic rather than as part of a structured transfer policy.
Cabaye, you feel, should know better than believing that Arsenal - who have developed the reputation of being the poorest transfer window dealmakers - were seriously interested and willing to pay the requisite amount to secure his services.
While the Frenchman has patently been badly advised, it is his position of making himself unavailable for matches while the mess is resolved that is unlikely to endear him to Newcastle United supporters in the long-term, especially when he is only two years into the five-year deal he penned with the club in 2011.
Buy tickets for soccer matches around the world