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âOur group chat is shite,â says the player at the other end of the phone. âYouâve got some of the group who⌠they wouldnât do anything, but we can see whatâs happening and know itâs not the end of the world (to defer wages). And then youâve got some who are happy to do it once certain conditions are met, and theyâre nearly there. And then youâve got some who are just, âNo, Iâm not doing that.â But the weird thing is, because youâre team-mates, youâve got to protect the people who donât want to do anything. And youâre thinking, âtheyâre just knobheads.ââ
Nothing divides a dressing room quite like money â 13 in favour and 14 against was the result of Arsenalâs initial pay-cut vote. Actually, maybe that should be nothing divides a WhatsApp group quite like money, given thatâs where the salary discussions are generally taking place these days.
In some cases, players are being asked to reply with a tick or a cross. In other instances, the shop steward â normally the Professional Footballersâ Association rep or captain â opens up the floor. And then hides behind the sofa. âYouâre getting 25 different opinions in a group,â adds the player. âSo where do you even start?â
Understanding that a pay deferral is very different to a pay cut is probably as good a place as any â and thatâs not to say signing up to accept a deferral is an easy decision. Everybodyâs personal circumstances will be different.
Some players have tried to find a positive amid the pay talks and taken the view that deferrals are essentially a savings plan. Others arenât convinced. âIt would be in a legal contract that weâd get the money back at some point, but even then youâre still getting people coming back saying, âNo, no, no.â Some people are just arseholes,â says the player, who agreed to speak to The Athletic on condition of anonymity.
In fairness, the situation isnât straightforward. At clubs where bonus payments havenât always been made on time, or where there is a disconnect between the players and the board, the scepticism is understandable. At Watford, for instance, talks over a deferral have been skewed by some playersâ lingering resentment over a bonus they have never received for last seasonâs results.
âSome things are legitimate,â says the source. âYouâve got people saying, âWhat if I go and they say they wonât give me the money back and theyâll use it against me?â And people are asking what money our owner is putting in. Some players think that weâre doing it because other clubs are, rather than because we need to do it. But the problem is that some of the lads who say ânoâ are the sort of lads who then go and spend ÂŁ15,000 on a table for a night in London. Itâs not like theyâre super savers and the tightest player in the world.â
The potential ramifications to all of this are already being talked about within clubs, and some managers are genuinely concerned about the possible fall-out once everybody reports back to training grounds and matches start up again. Itâs not just about how players feel about the club after being asked to give up some of their wages without necessarily knowing exactly how that money will be used; it is also about how players feel about one another.
Will a playerâs stubborn refusal to sacrifice a penny be in the back of his team-matesâ minds? Could the disagreements during those WhatsApp conversations, and some of the ill-feeling that has followed, damage the harmony in the squad? And what happens if a player who wasnât willing to fall in line with the rest of his team-mates is bloody awful in one of the first games back?
They arenât easy questions to answer. âItâs a difficult one,â the player adds. âI donât think it will be too bad. I think the effect will be that the players who donât (agree to a deferral or cut), the difference will be that the club will fuck them off in some capacity. And if they do that to a player, quite frankly, I wonât have any sympathy whatsoever, whereas before Iâd have thought that was out of order on the clubâs part.
âI think it now seems worse than it is because you donât see them or speak to them every day. But once youâre in a dressing room and having that general laugh, I donât think it will be too bad. Donât get me wrong, if someone makes a mistake in a game, instead of just brushing it off, youâll probably think, âHeâs a fucking prick.ââ
Another player listens to all those quotes being read out and chuckles. âI can imagine all of that,â he says. âOur lads are on the same page (and close to agreeing a deferral). But Iâve been in dressing rooms before where it would be an absolute nightmare. Sometimes you need someone dictating to the other boys what theyâre going to do because otherwise⌠I know lads that Iâve played with who would say, âIâm not giving anything up, itâs my money, itâs in my contract, why would I give the club anything back, itâs not my fault?ââ
This is the player, he explains, who drags his heels when it comes to paying a fine for being late or â and you donât have to be a footballer at the highest level to relate to this one â says, when everybody else is taking it in turns to get a round in on a night out on holiday, âIâll just pay for my share and give you my 20th of the bill. Itâs like, âYou tight bastard!ââ
Senior players should, in theory, be taking control during the negotiations and looking after the interests of the younger or lower-paid members of the squad, who are often anxious about speaking up or being too opinionated because they have far more to lose. At some Premier League clubs, players have also pushed for any team-mates who are out of contract in the summer to be exempt from salary deferrals.
There is another interesting issue that has come up during negotiations between players and their clubs in relation to the summer transfer window. âOur argument is that we donât want to be doing pay deferrals and then the club going out and spending that money on new signings and wages,â says the second player.
It is easy to see why clubs have found this whole issue such a headache. For many managers, who normally spend their days on the practice pitches and leave the finances to a chairman, chief executive or sporting director, it is uncharted territory to be regularly discussing pay with players and, in many ways, an eye opener.
Perceptions can quickly change. âIn terms of player mentality, when it comes to money and taking something from them, you just see a different animal. An absolutely different animal,â one manager says.
âAnd I think itâs a really interesting point what you say (about the possible impact on the dressing room). Itâs down to the individual whether they accept a pay deferral and it is voluntary. But itâs a team sport and you want everyone to be together. Itâs going to be fascinating when we start playing again to see the teams that thrive and the teams that blow up.â
While pay talks are taking place at clubs almost everywhere, Arsenal is a fascinating case study. By Friday, the majority of the Arsenal players had given written agreement to a 12.5 per cent pay-cut proposal, which will now be worked through in detail on a one-to-one basis. Arsenal had hoped for unanimity, but the agreement is voluntary and they will proceed regardless of whether every player signs up.
Arsenalâs pay talks had pretty much split the squad down the middle until the board rolled out Mikel Arteta. The Spaniardâs intervention was a game-changer and, by and large, it always will be when a manager gets involved in pay negotiations with players. At that stage, the lines become a little blurred and, from a playerâs point of view, it ceases to become a purely financial decision. How can it be if the man speaking on behalf of the owners also decides whether youâre in the team?
Although Arteta did say he would respect whatever decision the players reached, he also encouraged his squad to accept the pay cut. After the group call had finished, Arteta followed up with one-to-one conversations with certain players. Essentially, his oratory was enough to turn the tide and led to all but a few of the Arsenal squad consenting.
Arsenal released a statement on Monday announcing a voluntary agreement had been reached, yet it is far from the united front that has been presented by the club. A significant number of the playing squad are unhappy about the way that the club went about implementing the cut.
Arsenal initially communicated their proposal through Hector Bellerin, the clubâs PFA rep, who relayed messages via a WhatsApp group. That immediately put some players on the back foot and left them wondering why the club didnât deal with them directly about such an important issue. Others wondered whether it was fair for the younger players â some of whom are still teenagers â to find themselves handling a complex financial situation. One agent said it felt like an attempt to âpull the wool over their eyes.â Words such as âcoercedâ and âmanipulatedâ have also been mentioned to describe how at least one player felt. Arsenal called them âpositive and constructive discussions.â
Those players who objected had similar questions: why are we being asked to take a cut when clubs like Southampton are doing deferrals (Arsenalâs turnover in the latest set of accounts, for 2018-19, was ÂŁ367.5 million; Southamptonâs was ÂŁ149.5 million)? Where is this money going? Is there any guarantee it will protect other jobs? Why is it for 12 months when we donât know the true financial impact of the crisis? Why is the figure 12.5 per cent? Is the owner going to put his hand in his pocket?
In truth, there are more questions than answers. The fact that the world is in the grip of a global pandemic explains a lot but not everything. Some wonder whether there is an element of opportunism on the clubâs part, bearing in mind that Arsenal have, in the words of Josh Kroenke, the ownerâs son, âa Champions League wage bill on a Europa League budget.â
It was interesting to hear the thoughts of Erkut Sogut, Mesut Ozilâs representative, who spoke to The Athleticâs Raphael Honigstein earlier this week. Sogut, to be clear, was not talking specifically about Arsenal but instead in more general terms when he addressed the issue of pay cuts and deferrals.
âIt is not enough for a club to present a proposal to one member of the first-team squad and then ask them to go to the rest of the squad and get their consent to do it. That is not how individual contract negotiations should take place,â Sogut said.
âA club may even ask a first-team manager to negotiate with players and this may influence some, particularly younger players, or those on the fringe, who fear there might be personal repercussions for him if he does not agree.
âIn those circumstances, it could be questionable that any consent from the players would be legally binding anyway as some players are not in a position to give true consent if they are under pressure to do so.â
It subsequently emerged that Ozil is one of the Arsenal players (it is understood there are also two others) who refused to accept the cut. Arsenal will plough on whether or not that situation changes, and save somewhere between ÂŁ25-ÂŁ30 million a year. But at what price?
Will any lingering resentment, coupled with the fact that Arsenal are the only Premier League club to announce a pay cut so far, mean that what is gained on the balance sheet is lost on the pitch? And how will it play out within the squad, and in the mind of Arteta, if some players donât accept the clubâs terms? Do you lose a little respect for a team-mate? Or do you not care if they still win you a game?
Financial disparity is already an issue at Arsenal. Ozil, the highest-paid player in the club on ÂŁ350,000 per week, picks up more in seven days than Bukayo Saka earns in a year. Nobody in the Arsenal squad would begrudge Saka a pay rise â the club are keen to reward his progress and extend a contract that expires in the summer of 2021 â but how will it go down if senior players get new deals in the next 12 months too?
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Ozil and Saka in the Arsenal changing room before a Europa League match against Qarabag in December 2018. (Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
One leading agent says Arsenalâs board relied heavily on David Luiz as well as Bellerin during the pay talks and suggests that the 33-year-old Brazilian, who is believed to have supported the clubâs proposal at the outset, is keen to extend his contract by another year.
The same agent admits that he encouraged one of his players at another club to accept a pay deferral without any fuss in order to maintain good relations with the board before trying to negotiate an improved deal once football returns. âIf you know youâre going to be there for a while, youâre going to play the game,â he says.
But what if you donât play the game? When it comes to the situation at Arsenal, families and agents have told The Athletic they feel players were put under pressure to agree to the pay cut, and also made the point that bringing Arteta into the fray created the impression that refusing to play by the rules could impact on first-team opportunities.
Arsenalâs players had been open to a pay deferral with certain conditions â they wanted assurances that any lost income would be returned if a player was sold and guarantees that their money would go towards protecting the jobs of non-playing staff at the club â and there is a feeling that an agreement along those lines would have got unanimous approval.
Instead, the only way that they will get all their money back now is if they qualify for the Champions League in 2020-21. That could motivate some. It could demotivate others. And then, rather curiously, there are those who may end up earning the same regardless.
âI was asking a player to take a pay cut or a deferral, and then 24 hours later asking him to go and play a game of football for me and try and get three points. It was a little bit crazy,â says Michael Appleton.
Appleton, who is now the manager of Lincoln City in League One, is remembering the chaotic 12 months he spent in charge of Portsmouth across 2011 and 2012, when the club were placed in administration, docked 10 points and relegated from the Championship. Barely a week passed without redundancies, pay cuts or deferrals being discussed.
âI had at least three or four of my own footballing staff who needed time off to try and negotiate something with their bank, to try and freeze the mortgage,â Appleton adds. âItâs just like whatâs happening at the minute. They were strange conversations to be having but that was the world I was living in.â
Finding a way to keep the players motivated was a challenge. âTime and time again I used to say to the lads⌠when we first started playing football it was for the love of the game. I hate using that phrase but itâs true; we did it because we loved playing football.â
Appleton recalls turning up to work one morning and the kitman telling him that they wouldnât be able to train because the locks had been changed on the kit container where the footballs were kept. Another bill had gone unpaid. It reached the stage where the club couldnât even afford to pay for MRI scans for injured players, prompting Appleton to ask during a press conference if anybody locally could help out. âAnd we did get one step forward,â he says.
Yet it is the conversations that he had with his squad around money that resonate most now. Appleton felt that the players were far more likely to agree to a reduction in their salary if he was transparent about where the money was going.
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Appleton gives out instructions during a Championship match at Leicester City in December 2011. (Photo: Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
He recalls an early meeting with the clubâs first administrators and being told that seven staff needed to leave with immediate effect. Appleton called the players together in the dressing room, reeled off the roles that were under threat and asked his squad, who were already deferring some of their wages, if they would consider sacrificing another five per cent. An agreement was reached within a couple of minutes.
âIf players have got a little bit of clarity on things, Iâm sure theyâd be a lot more forthcoming,â he says. âI think the more information you can give players, the better. I think itâs the way you do it as well.â
Some of Portsmouthâs pay negotiations dragged on for months. They had high earners during that time â Benjani, Nwankwo Kanu and Tal Ben Haim among them â and not everybody in the squad was willing to compromise. Talks with a few continued well beyond the end of the season.
Appleton says that he ended up in a situation at one point where some players were earning 10 times as much as others. In a way, the negativity and apathy among a small number was even more damaging than the absence of any sort of salary bracket.
It was more than tough. Portsmouth were relegated on the penultimate weekend of the season, with the 10-point deduction ultimately the difference between staying up and going down. Looking back, Appleton had been placed in an impossible position almost from day one. He was being asked to work in the best interests of the club, which wasnât always in the best interests of the players financially, and yet still try and get results. âIt was a surreal time,â he says. âBut, honestly, it was probably the biggest and best education Iâll ever have.â
âSome players literally canât afford to defer 25 per cent, 33 per cent, because their living costs are 80 per cent of their salaries. The one rule for all, I donât know how that is gonna work. A lot of circumstances are different. A lot of footballers are in debt. Gambling, overspending, splitting up with baby mums, there is a lot of financial instability in League One, League Two, with footballers on ÂŁ2,000-3,000 a week, who just live well beyond their means.â
The agent who is talking represents players at all levels of the game and you wonât find many people in football arguing with his view that a one-size-fits-all approach to pay talks is riddled with problems. What one player saves, another player spends.
âAt every club there is a split,â the agent adds. âThat will become more apparent in the next six weeks or so. No player is agreeing to it overnight. Every player is thinking long and hard about whatâs best for them. Nobody really wants to commit until they know what footballâs doing. There are a lot of people who simply havenât responded to their clubs.
âThe fact none of the players are together at the moment makes it easier for the clubs. There is no day-to-day chat in the dressing room. I can see some resentment happening. Nobody really knows the truth. People only have fragments at the clubs. And the picture changes every second.
âPlayers just donât know what to do. They are flickering between just agreeing to a cut for the sake of their careers because they have maybe one year left, being kind to the club in the hope of getting a new deal when they can, or going against the club because theyâve been treated poorly. Itâs a bit of a poker hand, really.
âNobody is guaranteeing that football is going to be fixed in a yearâs time â so itâs how much you need your current employer, or whether itâs a good time to get out. Every player is thinking of themselves, really. There are a lot of worried people who are out of contract in June.â
Another agent strongly believes that a lot of clubs in the top two tiers have âpanickedâ and initiated pay talks with players prematurely. âMy feeling is that the clubs have gone too early, because it could be worse (later in the year). If you look at the Championship owners, they had no football in May, June and July anyway.
âThere are clubs who have done 10,000-plus season tickets and theyâve had that in, so theyâve only missed out on April (revenue), and theyâve asked players to take a pay cut or a deferral. I think theyâre killing themselves. It could be worse in August and theyâre not going to be getting any more money off these players then. You canât go to them again.â
Whether clubs approach players again or not later in the year â and in theory that could easily happen â the overriding message to take away from this whole debate is the extent to which money dominates the game, right down to the way that people think and behave. At times it all feels a little desperate.
âThey all know they need to play, otherwise their money is under real pressure,â the agent adds. âTheyâve got appearance money, bonuses due after certain games⌠players will play because they want their dough. Make no mistake, they will play because they know theyâre under pressure with their contracts if the season doesnât finish. Money talks.â
It does indeed.
(Top Photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
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Thatâs the EPL - full of mercenaries.
Compare and contrast that to the attitude of the Roma players.
These UEFA Classic matches on RTE are gas. Quite obvious that the commentary has been added in the past few weeks to keep Hamilton, Moloney and co in gainful employment
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Duffer there with a goal for Chelski
Cracking header there from Mr Chelsea
Lacrosse on Bt/Espn.
Thanks mate 
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Roscummon v Leitrim on 8th Nov the standout fixture there for sure
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Well there may be little else to do.
It seems elite sport in England will be stopping in the next few days for 3 to 4 weeks.
Where you seeing that? Seems inevitable alright
Call a halt until big Virg and Naby Lad are fit
If naby lad comes back heâll be like a new signing.