Definitely players who behave like Carlos Tevez, skipping training, refusing to pick up the local language after years and flying back to his native country at a whim, club hopping are unprofessional and deserved to be condemend, but for the rest of them like in the case of Van Persie in particular isn’t asking for a massive wage hike, but merely trying to determine whether the club he will be a slave to for the next four years will be able to provide the environment and trophies that a player of his calibre hopes to be winning in his career.

Robin Van Persie is a person, and if he hates his job, he will have to wait four years to quit it. He cannot simply quit the job because of his contract. He simply wants reassurances that the next four years will bring him what he wants. It is his right to put pen to paper, and not to.

However player power is a prominent problem, where superstar players act unprofessionally, refusing to play for managers or give their all for a manager they dislike, not signing contracts is one thing, but refusing to stick to it is another.

They are then stuck playing for that same club for the extent of the contract, no being able to leave your “job”. What about the flipside though? Managers have been known to keep players in the reserves and not play them if they refuse to move to other clubs (think Man City – Adebayor). Is this not unfair? To force the players who may not want to make the move to another club for personal reasons such as relocating family etc. People like Van Persie can hold their club to ransom, and in my eyes rightfully so in a way and in some instances: many people become professional athletes to win trophies, and although RVP may have Wenger to thank for his progression as a footballer, Arsenal and all of their associates have RVP to thank for Champions league football next season (which in itself brings vast amounts of TV revenue into the club. Ultimately if Van Persie wants to win trophies and he doesn’t feel that his current team aren’t good enough to do so (which lets face it, is pretty accurate) and his employers aren’t doing anything about that, he is well within his rights to leave because he’s hot property, if Arsenal were so keen to keep him they should have tied him up his contract last year or possibly the year before. Would this discussion be happening if RVP only scored 5 last season? If that were the case Arsenal would probably trying to ship him off, and if he refused? He’d probably end up in the reserves…

Rooney was completely out of order with his antics a few years back, United were not exactly in a massive dry spell in terms of silverware, so in my mind, he held arguably the biggest club in the world to ransom because he wanted more money. Then again, Rooney never has been far from controversy, so I expect little else from him.

AVB is a good manager, that much is proven in his time at Porto, Chelsea was not the best choice for his first foray into “the most exciting league in the world” though, with Abramovich’s obvious penchant for changing managers as often as he changes his underwear, he would have to hit the ground running to have any chance of staying on at terry Stamford (sorry) bridge. A task which is ultimately impossible given his apparent plan for the champions league winners would take 3 years to implement – not too intelligent when your manager has the patience of a 3 year old.

He deserves a chance at Spurs really, Harry left a great team with not so much of an “old guard”. The likes of Bale, Modric (if he stays), Lennon and Parker demonstrate a good mix of youth and experience, so I very much doubt that AVB will bench the majority of the ego’s at Spurs, I would hope that he builds on what is currently a great team which should be challenging once again for champions league football – especially if he receives some financial backing from Levy.

The Clough thing I completely disagree with, as a player I could not expect my club to work under a manager that has publically slated me and my team mates, managers and players have to have a mutual respect between themselves. The players were possibly out of order for acting out towards their new manager, but the board of the club CERTAINLY should not of appointed him, as manager of Leeds given what he had said, and Clough shouldn’t have said anything in the first place so perhaps all parties were guilty in this instance but Clough, in my eyes started this merry go round of wrongs by making his remarks initially.

There is some instances though I think where players will give managers the “benefit of the doubt and give them a chance”. Take Mcleish’s jaunt across the city Birmingham to manage rival club Aston Villa, he stayed for an entire season, despite outrage from fans and poor results to boot. The players stayed quiet though, and played exactly how Mcleish wanted them too, it must have been incredibly hard for them to stay awake though…