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Is the money young players receive in England killing their ambition for titles?

Johnny Ward joined Saturday's Off the Ball to analyse the Premier League action and talk soon tur...



Is the money young players rec...
Soccer

Is the money young players receive in England killing their ambition for titles?

Johnny Ward joined Saturday's Off the Ball to analyse the Premier League action and talk soon turned to the amount of money younger players are now receiving and how it's affecting their long-term goals.  

Seamus Coleman spoke out recently about the lack of ambition younger players have nowadays and Ward explained: "He's come from a Gaelic Football playing background, played for Sligo Rovers and spoke of when he went over to Everton - he really had to graft. He was single-minded in terms of the work he had to do. 

"But I've spoken to a few people in the League of Ireland who've had the experience of being to England - Conor Clifford was one that I spoke to this year.

"I actually spoke to a teammate of his previously and he didn't particularly like him and I said I didn't get that impression from Conor at all like he thought he was a bit of a 'Big Time Charlie' when he was at Chelsea and Conor's from Palmerstown.

"I met Conor last year after he'd been done for a betting ban - he was done for 8 months and I thought he was one of the nicest lads I've ever met but it was clear that the money had gone to his head at that time. 

"And he spoke of lads being on £17,000 a week without even playing once for Chelsea and it's the notion of the flash gear on you and the nice cars and all that.

"But I spoke also to Paul Corry about it today and Paul's career was done for injury but he was talking about a guy who came in on loan from Sheffield Wednesday when he was there - never played for Chelsea and was basically a higher earner than anyone in the Sheffield Wednesday squad.

"Basically they go in and at a very young age they're put on money that is so good that they, kind of, felt that they've made it. 

"And Paul spoke as well about conforming to social media norms where you can show your flash boots and you can show the life that you're living - are you motivated as much by winning medals and are you motivated by progress?

"I mean Liam Brady was on Lyric FM there recently and he was talking about his career with John Kelly and he was talking about living in digs and being on pittance and just having to get to know the landlady and the landlord."

However, we don't have to go back that far with Ireland's nemesis also struggling when he moved to England, as Keiran Cunningham explained: "Even more recently, Thierry Henry was in digs with an Irish landlady when he joined Arsenal from Juventus so it's not that long since that was the norm!"

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