"He Kisses The Badge On His Chest...."

[Marky]

September 18, 2008
"He Kisses The Badge On His Chest...."
I sit back on a Sunday afternoon in front of the box, feet up and recovering from yesterday's antics with the hangover of all hangovers. I feed crisps and lucozade into my system in an attempt to kick start my immobile limbs, but it's just not helping. I stick on Sky Sports in anticipation of the afternoon's games; one at 1.30pm, the next at 4pm, as basically, I've got nothing better to do and really don't feel like waking myself from this semi conscious state.

The credits role. Images of players celebrating goals; pointing to the skies, doing cartwheels and back flips, or kissing the club badge. The latter being the one that irritates; really, really irritates. Players that have just signed for the club kissing the badge in celebration, but wouldn't think twice about signing for their biggest rival if they offered to double his wages. Depression kicks in.

For some reason Joe Cole always sticks in my head for this one. I've no idea if he has actually kissed the badge of West Ham and Chelsea, and I'm not prepared to scour Youtube or buy season reviews for the past decade to find out, he might have been on the credits of Match of the Day smooching the Chelsea badge, no idea, so I'll just treat it as fact for the purpose of the article. I just have this image of him kissing the badge of West Ham, then jumping ship to Chelsea and doing exactly the same as soon as the money was right. Maybe I'm in the wrong to target him alone, maybe I should include Frank Lampard as well? But that image is in my head for some reason and it won't go away. He's just an example for me to highlight the turncoat nature of the modern footballer, and sadly, only one of many.

Man United fans take great delight in singing their little ditty in the direction of our captain:

"Steve Gerrard, Gerrard
He kisses the badge on his chest
And puts in a transfer request
Steve Gerrard, Gerrard.."

All in reference to his close call with a move to Stamford Bridge several years ago. The handing in of a transfer request and statement that he wanted to sign for Chelsea, only to change his mind and decide to stay at Anfield when he was already halfway down the M6 on the way to the smoke. A boyhood red about to walk away from his hometown club in pursuit of silver, both in monetary and trophy form. Both apparently meaning more than captaining the side you're supposed to love, and living the dream of thousands of kids on his doorstep. He made the decision then went back on it, for one reason or another, and those United fans have mocked him ever since.

Through reading his book, it appeared to me that he handed in that transfer request on the advice of his agent, to kick Rick Parry up the posterior, and finally getting him into gear to offer the improved contract that had been requested straight after the final whistle in Istanbul. Gerrard stated in his book he was then surprised when the club accepted an offer from Chelsea, and made the decision to leave.

Now was it the fresh £100,000 a week offer from Liverpool that persuaded him to stay? Or could it have been those wild rumours about him being threatened by the underworld that forced him into staying against his wishes? I know which one I believe, and it involved his weekly wage moving from five figures up to six.

The flocks of the great unwashed that inhabit Old Trafford every week love to revel in the antics of our captain, yet the irony of their actions seems lost on them. See last night's welcoming of Ronaldo onto the pitch with a heroes reception as the reason why. This summer, he publicly stated he wanted to sign for Real Madrid; he didn't want to be at Old Trafford anymore and made no bones about hiding that fact. Yet he was greeted with a standing ovation on his return to action by the United masses. The same fans that revel in the Steven Gerrard situation a few years previously, and enjoy nothing more than singing about at every given opportunity. The hypocritical fans of the year award goes to...

But maybe our own fans could have won that award for the 2005 season? Well maybe not the hypocritical award itself, as we hadn't be singing and lauding the fact another side almost had their star player walk away through choice for the past few years had we?

Steven Gerrard made his return at pre-season in the aftermath of the Chelsea saga, and was given a similar sort of reception to the one Ronaldo received only a few hours ago. My own reception for him was different, it was mute. I didn't think he deserved that reception in the slightest, in fact, I was of the persuasion that he should have been greeted with silence and ignored. He'd decided to walk away from the club, turn his back on us and move onto pastures new, yet we still treat him like a hero on his first appearance following the summer chaos? To me, he had to start from scratch in winning back our love and support. He had to prove he wanted to stay here and captain the side for years to come, and earn back the respect of the fans. He was given that on a plate without even stepping onto the pitch. Are all football fans that fickle now? Maybe some of our own support will come up with a song about United's star turn wanting to move to sunny Spain? Yet forgetting what happened with our own captain just a few years ago. Can we revel in their hypocrisy, and mock the actions of their saviour? Or does that make us just as bad?

Make no mistake, every footballer would walk away from the club he professes to love if the money was right. Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard are treated like gods at Anfield by some. I've distanced myself from all that these days, with the view that all footballers are mercenaries in today's game. There's too much money involved to expect anything else.

So players; please stop all the badge kissing and similar embarrassing and meaningless antics in an attempt to convince the fans you do actually care about the club, when all you're really interested in is who will pay the most money for your services. Stating you've been a Liverpool fan all your life and it was your boyhood dream to play at Anfield; it's all yesterday's news and tiresome now, we've heard it all before.

I think it was some African player Everton signed a few years ago, stating he always used to look out for Everton's results as a child in Africa, and one day dreamed of playing for them. Are we seriously meant to believe that? Please, give it a rest and save us all the embarrassment. Let's just sit back and laugh at the hypocritical United fans instead, as they bellow out "Rooney Rooney Rooney" literally seconds after singing about how they all hate scousers. "Yeah but he's not a proper scouser, he's our scouser...." - You couldn't make it up.

Players are all mercenaries, the majority of fans are now fickle and hypocritical in the extreme. And I can probably include myself in that. Believing anything else is only hiding from reality.

I look forward to the next rendition of "he kisses the badge on his chest" with great anticipation.

Paul Jones

[Shaggy]

I laughed my head off when they burst into that on Saturday. I'd thought to myself before the game that surely they would no longer sing that.

I should've known better. Tools.

[Joe King]

I wasn't the least bit surprised.

[yukpo]

not that i give any sort of ****e about what they sang last year and kept singing on saturday, for them and how they see it is a local lad putting a transfer request in only to kiss his badge later. its just football banter

to a liverpool fan, well most of them ..gerrard had his head turned by money for a bit but then his love for the club prevailed

its sad really, to take what football supporters chant personally

[Guest]

You're really a changed man Marky. You even sound like a manc.

[Marky]

You're really a changed man Marky. You even sound like a manc.

What?

Elaborate...

[Parm]

there is something very irritating when Lampard does the old kiss the badge thing, look up into the sky malarky when scores. The article is spot on though, player loyalty is paper thin these days. Just look at this summer-how many players were so unhappy at their clubs, wanted to leave but didnt have the balls to short change their agent by handing in a transfer request-Berbatov, Keane, Adebayor, Ronaldo, Barry, Lampard, Drogba, Hleb. It's all a big game to them, leverage their position by threatening to leave, one way or the other they will get a bumper pay rise.

[redlancer]

no loyalty in football - and that's from the players or the club.
end of day money, trophies and success are the factors.

A top player choosing us is a ledgend, a top player leaving us is a T**T
a crap player staying is a t**t, a crap player leaving is good news and good luck.

its a fickle world. I have no issues with Stevie wanting to go to the Chav's as its his carrer and he knows the situation.

[dww]

While I find badge kissing fairly irritating I think the one size fits all, every footballer has no loyalty argument simplistic and frankly dull. For example look at Lee Croft (think that was his name) who left QPR for Fulham (before their take over) and gave them £250,000 of what he got from the deal as he felt they hadn't received enough for him and he was a fan.

There are other more complicated tales like Heskey giving money to that consortium trying to save Leicester a few years back.

Obviously there is a lot of greed and avarice in football but to tar everyone with the same brush is unfair IMO.

[Chrono]

While I find badge kissing fairly irritating I think the one size fits all, every footballer has no loyalty argument simplistic and frankly dull. For example look at Lee Croft (think that was his name) who left QPR for Fulham (before their take over) and gave them £250,000 of what he got from the deal as he felt they hadn't received enough for him and he was a fan.

There are other more complicated tails like Heskey giving money to that consortium trying to save Leicester a few years back.

Obviously there is a lot of greed and avarice in football but to tar everyone with the same brush is unfair IMO.

Completely agree and don't see how it is any different from any other line of work. Most people would wax lyrical in a sales room about their current employer and then pack their bags for a few more grand.

The only reason this even gets a mention is because of the money and tribal aspects of football.

[Craig_H]

The thing is though, for the average office worker, a pay rise of a few grand is significant and can have a major impact on their life and standard of living.

For a footballer earning £90k per week, an extra £30k per week wont really make a significant difference to their life.

It's easy to say that the man on the street would go elsewhere for a few grand more, and they probably would do but i dont see why a footballer cant manage on £90k p/w and would need to put his sense of loyalty through a shredder for an extra £30k p/w.

[Parm]

The thing is though, for the average office worker, a pay rise of a few grand is significant and can have a major impact on their life and standard of living.

For a footballer earning £90k per week, an extra £30k per week wont really make a significant difference to their life.

It's easy to say that the man on the street would go elsewhere for a few grand more, and they probably would do but i dont see why a footballer cant manage on £90k p/w and would need to put his sense of loyalty through a shredder for an extra £30k p/w.

exactly, think one of the papers asked why in these difficult times Lampard could not live on 130k p/w