England captain says money hurts young players

[Jonathan Fairfield]

England captain says money hurts young players

AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL

Football's huge riches are diminishing some players' desire to perform for England, captain Steven Gerrard said as the country licks its wounds over its early World Cup exit.

Gerrard said the speed at which football turns teenagers into millionaires "has an impact on certain individuals."

"For those who want money, fame and everything that comes with football, of course it will have an effect," he told the BBC in an interview ahead of England's final World Cup group game against Costa Rica on Tuesday.

"If you have the right mentality and the right character, you do things right and work as hard as you can to become the best player you can, but we need more of those players."

A recent report by consultancy Deloitte said that the average English Premier League player now earns £1.6 million ($2.7m, 2m euros) a year and that wages would rise as the league's value grows.

Wages account for more than 70% of the estimated £3.2 billion ($5.3 billion) revenues of top English clubs in 2013-14 -- the highest figure in Europe, said Deloitte.

England's young stars are rarely off the tabloid front pages. Eighteen-year-old left-back Luke Shaw featured in The Sun on Sunday over sexual antics with a Playboy model.

Amid the recriminations over England's disastrous performance in Brazil, Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp said this week some young players at Tottenham Hotspur had asked him to help avoid England duty when he was manager there.

"When I was at Tottenham, when full internationals came around, there were two or three players who did not want to play for England," the QPR boss said.

"They would come to me 10 days before the game and say, 'Gaffer, get me out of that game, I don't want to play in that game'," he added.

Redknapp has since rebuffed calls from Gerrard to name the players concerned.

"Every Premier League manager past and present knows what I'm talking about," he said. "Sadly this attitude is not unusual these days."

Gerrard insisted in his interview that despite England's worst performance at a World Cup finals since 1958, the 23 players in the squad had the necessary "hunger and desire" to succeed.

"Sitting here now, we are not in a position of strength. The England manager and players need some help because this pool of players we pick from can't get any smaller and if anything it's got to grow.

"We have to get the balance right of still having the best league in the world but expanding the pool of players for this England manager and the England managers in the future."

England lost to Italy and Uruguay in Group D, tumbling out of the tournament before even playing their final group game.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2014-06-25

[Travel2003]

Hey!

He read my post here on TV a few days ago.

Good on you Stevie G.

[Chicog]

Nothing to do with the FA and their ridiculous faith in Charlie Hughes that still blights coaching in England.

Hoof!

[bigbamboo]

Nothing to do with the FA and their ridiculous faith in Charlie Hughes that still blights coaching in England.

Hoof!

Football's equivalent of The Great Leap Forward.

[Ulic]

FIFA makes a couple billion dollars from the World Cup. National Federations make money playing friendlies. Yes

the players are well paid by there clubs but are asked to play a lot of extra games for pride and expenses.

Beyond the World Cup and Olympics I understand why they are begging off.

[NongKhaiKid]

Not the brightest of remarks from Stevie G who was himself well looked after as he matured from a young player.

Rightly or not I can understand why players and clubs don't want to risk serious injuries in a ' nothing at stake ' friendly when a club has important domestic games as well as any involvement in one of the Uefa competitions.

It's naive to pretend otherwise and I don't believe Harry Rednapp's ' whiter than white ' stance as he's exactly the type of wheeler dealer manager that would try to keep his players out of meaningless internationals.