Get off Ashtons back!

I wasn’t going to comment on Ashtons injury since it has been obvious for some time that he will be out for a bit.
But some comments I read are in the line of “let’s get rid of this injury-prone moneygrabber” and I totally disagree.

Maybe this discussion is better taken on a general level.


When a team signs a player there are countless of “ifs” involved. The major one, for any team, is - will he perform?

For some players the size and numbers of ifs increase and since some teams are not willing to gamble on these players, the price will automatically go down.
Hence, a player with a big if, for example in the shape of a suboptimal injury history, will be cheaper than his equally competent twin brother.

For clubs not able to pay the highest prices and not the highest wages, but are willing to gamble a bit, this can be good (or bad) news.

Remember the "‘Arry era" when we were “Past Their Best Ham”?
I can count more players with problems than I care to from that period (often players on decline), that were picked up for cheap, hoping that it would still be possible to squeeze out a decent season or two out of them (he still does this at Portsmouth, but on a slightly higher level).
That gave us Paolo but also Ruddock…

What I’m trying to say here is that a number of uncertainties are packed into every deal.
It could be the question of motivation or ability but also future injuries. They should all be reflected in the price and the offered wage! If the ifs are too big, offer the player “pay-per-view”, and see if he takes it.

Then to the tricky question of who is responsible for the sick leave?
Is the footballer the one at fault for getting injured? Or is it perhaps the medical staff that told him and the club that he was fit to play (when he actually wasn’t), or is it the club that provided him with an inferior medical staff, training facilities and rehab possibilities?

Can you imagine the legal consequences this will have if we would take away a players pay when he suffers something so intimately connected with his job as a footballer as an injury?
We will spend more time following transcripts from courts than on the game itself.

I may be convinced that there are advantages in cutting the pay checks of players lacking the right motivation, but please, get off Dean Ashtons back!
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