By Boris Mellor
February 3 2005

When I went to the match on Tuesday Arsenal fans were fuming about Ashley Cole. After the match even more so, as his performance had sucked.But it wasn’t for his poor performance that a mate, in the pub afterwards, wanted "to lynch him".

 It was because of the alleged meeting with Kenyon. True it is Wenger who has given the impression the story is true, and most fans assume it is. However that is not the key issue for this article (whether he did or didn’t meet Chelsea) but rather have we got a right to expect loyalty from Arsenal players?

Well they are all highly paid, receive the adoration of the fans, and have won trophies that 18 of the other 20 clubs in the Premiership can only dream about. And when they are winning those trophies they have professed that they are Arsenal through and through. So shouldn’t they stay loyal to the club for life? Of course fans never change clubs, well mostly never, I do know a fan who went from Arsenal to Spurs, and back to Arsenal, but that’s an exception, not the rule.

But football players are professional, they do it for pay, we pay to be fans. They move clubs to further their career, if they didn’t we wouldn’t have Sol Campbell. Yet if Vieira went to Man U we would, including the author, feel sick. But there is a contradiction or double standard here, and why not, we are only football fans, not trained logicians. Most fans stick with their clubs through thick and thin even when their club is rubbish. Football is very big business now (it always was business, but not so mega) and fans are its consumers, yet what other business would consumers keep throwing money at even though they were rubbish? Ask Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury.

But players are not fans, as Leeds supporters found out not so long after they had chaired Alan Smith around the ground at their last Premiership game. Footballers are highly paid employees of a billion-dollar entertainment industry. It is the most successful commercial sport worldwide. It is played and watched, with varying degrees of intensity in every country in the world. No other sport has so many participants or spectators. Without top players the Premiership would not be the spectacle it is. Without its stars Hollywood would not be tinsel town, but nobody gets emotional about film stars wages, or loyalty to studios, apart from producers and directors.

But we resent footballer’s wages and their ability to change clubs. But even so is there not a right to loyalty? Well let’s take the case of Lauren, he stopped playing for the Cameroon to concentrate on Arsenal, his reward was the offer of a one-year contract. He had to fight tooth and nail to get two years. Bergkamp a player loyal to Arsenal has to wait until the end of the season to find out if he is still at the club, and last year took a wage cut to boot. Giggs at Man U is arguing he wants a longer contract. How often do fans complain if a footballer is left out in the cold? Managers are now quite ruthless at trimming the "dead wood".

On wages we may well feel that Cole is greedy for wanting more money, I would swap a year’s wages for what he earns in a fortnight anytime. But he doesn’t compare his wages with mine, but with fellow professionals. Film stars are the same they don’t compare wages with dustman, though if they did it might make them a bit more humble. So Cole probably feels the club is taking advantage of him, he is a top performer an England player rated as one of the best in Europe. Why wouldn’t he want parity with other players? We might not agree, but he probably feels the club are getting him on the cheap, that they have taken advantage of his loyalty.

Of late a few Arsenal players have been aggrieved at contract offers, wages or length of contract. Wiltord felt that way and left, Lauren did, but stayed, Bergkamp had to knock the door down to get a contract. Kanu was basically told to go, as was Luzhny. Fair enough they were either getting too old or not up to scratch. Can any club, including Arsenal, put its hand on its heart and say it is always loyal to its players?

Therefore we need to keep in mind loyalty is a two way street, if it only runs one way then it leads to cynicism and discontent. The reality is that loyalty died with Sky TV, Bosman Ruling. Transfer Law changes and PLC’s. Make the best of it the golden age is dead.