Do players really want...

A load of nonsense. Ask the likes of FGR, Exeter and Northampton players whether they would swap their top 3 spot for ours and I can guarantee every single player would not swap places.

Every professional surely wants to be a winner and have promotion on their CV's

 

Is this a wind up?

 

If you are a player in a team that gets promotion, you aren't going to be short of offers from teams in the league you've just got out of. Players will then be free to pick and choose which club they think is likely to finish mid table, if that is their aim in life.

 

If play often in a promotion winning side you are very likely to be a good player at that level so at worst you are will get offers from that division. Players will always back themselves to play higher up and also if you get promoted you'll get a pay rise if you have another year left with your club.

 

Last time we got promoted a lot of the players had a year extension written into their contracts, with significant salary increase. Even if they don't, I'm sure a promotion on the CV will get you a salary increase at your next club.

 

Sorry Karl, I cannot take your suggestion seriously.

 

I've often wondered this.
In any promotion winning team there will be players who know full well that they won't be retained in the higher division, or else will be bit part squad players who won't even be on the bench very often.

I've certainly seen it happen at non league. Defensive lynchpins of promoted teams who've had experience of being replaced by older players dropping down from L1 or L2 and when they've moved to other clubs have been happy to not go through the same experience again.

 

Tim Dieng 14 goals and Exeter POTS. Utter shite for us. We are such a toxic club.

 

Wouldn’t say he was shite for us, certainly didn’t do as well as he’s done this season but he was a regular in a team that got to the league 1 playoff final and played some of the best football we’ve seen in decades. It’s now also a level lower and he’s more experienced, I’d be surprised if he gets over 5 goals next season in league 1.

 

I remember when we were getting promoted Wayne Jacobs was always pointed out as one who would not make it at the next level and should be replaced but always hung on and fought his way back into the team and onto another promotion

 

I seem to remember paying a direct debit of £45 per month for a few years (I can’t remember how many), which was more than my mortgage if my memory serves me right. I have never once taken up the free upgrade so guess I am still out of pocket with the small discount on my season ticket - but hey ho.

 

He was not utter shite as you put it. I remember a goal scoring man of the match performance against Sheffield United. He was one of those players who you didn't notice until one match he didn't play.

 

If you lose your job because the team you played in were successful, you will be associated with that success and have few issues getting another deal in the same division!

 

There might be a few who like to take the easy route but I know when I was a kid playing junior and schoolboy football you always wanted to be competitive. Even if it was a friendly, if you had anything about you, you wanted to win. The lads that make it pro would surely have that mentality and an ambition to try better themselves, not just be content to pick up a wage.

The ones who are looking for a free ride - the Dele Alli’s of this world, surely slip out of the game.

 

He was alright for us that Wembley play off season. Too good a player for league 2 and currently better quality than any midfielder we currently have

 

Professional footballers have relatively short careers. If they're playing regularly in the first team at 20 and play until they're 35, that's only 15 years. Factor in that they won't be earning premium salaries at the start and end of their playing days in the lower leagues. There's probably only around a decade where they can earn towards the top of the scale in each division.

Even if they were afraid that a promotion meant that they wouldn't be good enough for the league above. The fact that they'd got that club promoted would make them attractive to other clubs in that division that hoped to emulate what they'd just achieved. I think every player in every club wants to earn as much as they can for as long as they can. The only way they can hope to do that is by being consistently successful.

There's obviously other factors determining who they play for. Like where they and their family originate from geographically, the age of their kids and how settled they are in an area and how much affection they have for a particular club. But by and large, I think a high percentage of players in the lower leagues will play for the club who'll pay him the most. They've got to maximise their earnings throughout their career when they've still got another 30 years of a working life after playing professional football.

 

I think sometimes it's the club that holds back when concerned about the increase in expenses (players wages for starters) should they be promoted especially if based in a small catchment area...