BBC SPORT | Football | High cost of cold comfort



By John May BBC Sport Online

It may look like the life of Riley, pulling in �40,000 a week sitting in the reserves of a Premiership football team.

But it is a situation that suits nobody, and is one which could be averted by a fundamental shift in the way contracts are negotiated.

Top agent Rachel Anderson says a change to performance-related contracts would halt the embarrassment of top players pulling in huge amounts while wallowing in the reserves.

If contracts were incentive-based this wouldn't happen

Agent Rachel Anderson

But Anderson, whose stable includes the likes of Don Hutchison, scoffed at suggestions players were happy to ride a reserve team gravy train.

Have your say on the gravy train

She told BBC Sport Online: "I don't think I have ever come across a player who enjoys sitting in the reserves, content to take the money.

"Players are performers and they want first-team football, it's what they've trained their whole lives for.

"If contracts were incentive-based this wouldn't happen.

"Players should be well rewarded for doing what they are paid to do. But if they don't perform then they shouldn't.

"Of course, safeguards need to be worked in so that a player is not penalised if he is injured."

Newcastle defender Marcelino
A rare sight - Marcelino in a Newcastle shirt

In Mark Bosnich and Winston Bogarde - who last started a Premiership match 18 months ago - Chelsea have the dubious distinction of having the Premiership's two highest paid reserves.

But just about every club has its own expensive misfit, a Picasso that looks out of place on the walls of a Regency mansion.

Whether it is Marcelino at Newcastle, Titi Camara at West Ham or Igor Biscan at Liverpool, fans find it hard to get a handle on the concept that football clubs pay players huge amounts of money to sit in the reserves.

But clubs and players are hostage to fortune, victims of circumstance in the Alice in Wonderland world that is football finance.

It's unfair for the club to blame a player if he chooses to sit out his contract

Rachel Anderson

Clubs are finding it increasingly difficult to move out-of-favour players on because of the contract and high wages they negotiated.

It takes two to tango, though, and the only reason that players have huge wage packets is because clubs agree to fill them.

Anderson said: "When you first get married, then everybody agrees to the terms of the engagement.

"It's churlish when either side says: 'It isn't fair' and wants to renege on the contract."

Anderson admitted a player sitting in the reserves long-term earning a big salary was an unsatisfactory situation for both parties.

"It's silly boys, locking antlers," said Anderson.

"I don't doubt there are mind games going on.

"Players will say 'I'll sit here and take your money for a few weeks', while clubs will keep him in the reserves in the hope he will eventually seek a move.

"If a player is given a four-year contract by a club, it's unfair for the club to blame him if he chooses to sit it out.

Chelsea defender Winston Bogarde
Winston Bogarde last played first-team football 18 months ago

"It's not his fault if he has an agreement with a club who then appoint a different manager who doesn't fancy that particular player."

It is a cold place in the wilderness that is reserve team football.

For some, a five-figure weekly wage provides only the thinnest of blankets, and one which Anderson insisted they would be happy to shed.

She added: "I don't think any player is prepared to sit in the reserves for a long-time, whether they earn �40,000 a week, or �40."

BBC Sport Online's team of highly priced reserves.

Goalkeeper: Mark Bosnich (Chelsea).

Defenders: Winston Bogarde (Chelsea), Marcelino (Newcastle), Michael Duberry (Leeds).

Midfield: Hassan Kachloul (Aston Villa), Diego Gavilan (Newcastle), Stefan Schwarz (Sunderland), Igor Biscan (Liverpool), Jason Wilcox (Leeds).

Strikers: Sergei Rebrov (Spurs), Bosko Balaban (Aston Villa).

Substitutes: Gabriele Ambrosetti (Chelsea), David Batty (Leeds), Corrado Grabbi (Blackburn), Mustapha Hadji (Aston Villa), Nicolas Medina (Sunderland), Titi Camara (West Ham).


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