Jack Stevens reports on the strange hypocrisy that has surrounded the transfer of an ambitious English player to an ambitious English club.
‘Fabian Delph is a shining example to other footballers that money isn’t everything and he doesn’t want to sit on the bench doing nothing’
This tweet on the 11th of July summed up the global feeling of warmth towards English midfielder, seen as an inspiration to footballers and fans as he turned down money from Manchester to stick by Aston Villa, the club who had stuck by him through an injury plagued start to the decade. In a dark season for Villa who almost looked condemned to the drop until the last month, Delph was one of few bright spots, one of the others being Christian Benteke, who has agreed a move to Liverpool. It seemed as though Delph, Villa captain, was set to again be the example, staying with the club for another surely hard season, but winning the hearts of fans everywhere due to his loyalty.
‘Fabian Delph you’re an absolute f*****g c**t and I hope you have a s**t time, hopefully suffering a career ending injury soon.’
‘Don’t often get worked up but f**k you Fabian Delph you lying p***k. Enjoy the heated seats’
These were just two tweets from a sea of thousands of abusive pipebombs aimed towards Delph after his sudden U-Turn to now join Manchester City for just £8m, the amount they paid for him from Leeds, due to a clause in his contract. These tweets may seem over the top, but these were some of the cleaner ones I can ensure you. Aston Villa fans clearly felt betrayed and let down by Fabian ‘shining example to other footballers that money isn’t everything’ Delph. This fury has transferred to the legions of other fans on Twitter, from Liverpool to Livingston fans all around who felt that Delph had made the wrong decision and that he should feel the full wrath of their opinions of anger. Maybe Delph’s decision to make a video stating his loyalty to the club just days before was unwise in hindsight, but unforeseen circumstances clearly changed his trust in the club, who had supposedly ensured him that the club would be strengthening, yet were selling their star striker. Many felt that the main reason for Delphs move was because of his ‘malicious money motivated mind’, but what few have mentioned about the move, is that Delph is moving to a much larger, more successful club.
If Delph was making this move to Chelsea, Manchester United or Arsenal, one has to question if the move and player would be under anywhere near as much scrutiny considering these clubs are viewed as the biggest clubs in the country. So if a player is moving to one of the big 3 – much like Morgan Schneiderlin has recently – they’re seen as taking a step up in their career. However the mentality and mindset of the neutral seems to be completely different if a player is moving to new power boys Manchester City, who, like every other club ever has used finance to get success. The player must only be doing it for the money, because surely there is no other reason to move to a club with state of the art facilities, Champions League football and a growing worldwide reputation in the game matches by the club’s ambition and intent to achieve.
Now whilst City may not have the best reputation of buying English and using them – with examples of Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair being the most prominent – it’s important to remember when these players were at the club. Both joined in the summer of 2012, immediately following the club’s league triumph when they boasted one of the best midfields in the league, with Yaya Toure at his unstoppable peak and David Silva on the wing, employing the positions Sinclair and Rodwell had played at their formers clubs. This is a stark contrast to what Delph will be up against this season. Yaya Toure is coming of a season where he faced much scrutiny and may even be leaving the club, the versatile Milner has left the club after playing anywhere in the midfield for four years and Samir Nasri has since been moved onto the wing since the days of Rodwell, so also won’t be blocking Delphs path into the team. The main point of this is, Manchester City’s squad is in need of a major overhaul, and with the form of Delph last season, it wouldn’t be hard for him to imagine first team football being found at the Etihad.
In summary, people need to begin to get their heads around the fact that Manchester City are now a big club, and just because they’ve only recently become one, doesn’t mean that everyone moving there is in it for the money. Why would a player not want to a move to a club on the up, away from one that seems to be falling closer to the Championship with every year that comes. Or you could come away from it thinking that Fabian Delph is an absolute f*****g p***k.
