 Thursday, 20th Jan 2011 08:54 Nowadays in football money talks, but ulimately does chasing money equal success. There is an old adage " Chase money and success wont always come, but chase success and money will follow" In football in recent years the trend has been for the big clubs to try and buy up every young talented player that comes into view and develope him, the real reasom could be a lot more sinister and that is to make sure that your rivals cant do the same. Alen Oxlade Chamberlain would do well to look at a few case studies before he decides on his next move in football. Take one or two very near to home, Theo Walcott is an obvious comparison, ironically enough as i checked Theo's stats he left for Arsenal on the very day I write this article 20th January, back then he had played 13 games in the league plus 8 as sub scoring 4 goals, which is very near Oxo's 16(7) & 6 goals. I dont intend to run too deeply into Theo's career but although initially it looked the right move as he was in the 2006 World Cup squad his minutes on the pitch in those five years havent exactly been plentiful, in the league he has started 51 games and came on as a sub 49 times, if you think that the Gunners have played around 200 league matches in that time, he has started barely a quarter of them, in other competitions he has amassed 36 starts plus 22 as sub, given that Arsenal usually play around about another 15- 20 games a season, his appearances to games ratio is roughy similar, last season in the league he made 12 starts of which he completed only 3 of those games for a total of 1,210 minutes of league action, around a third of the total that he could have possibly played. Now Theo is about to turn 22 and is no spring chicken any more, has he really fulfilled his potential ? I would say no, and the reason for that is he didnt get the match experience enough in his early days to stand him in good stead later in his career, on reflection Theo would probably have benefitted from staying at Saints at least another season and getting that experience before going on to bigger things, they used to say that there is no substitute for games under your belt, match fitness they used to call it and even a reserve game wasnt considered a real alternative, nowadays this rule has all but disapeared in the eyes of the big Premiership managers. But that good grounding doesnt even guarantee that you can get game time after a big move, take Shaun Wright Phillips, at 18 he broke into Man City's team and in five years played 130 games plus 23 as sub in the league, he was an England international and at 23 had the world at his feet, three years at Chelsea in which he made only 43 league starts plus 39 as sub saw his star plummet and was proof that in the world the very top clubs operate in, even a seasoned professional is often not prepared for the change in culture that a move to one of them entails, in the three years since he headed back to City he has featured in barely half of the matches he could have done, although he can still get into the odd England squad, he is no longer considered the player he was and he is still only 29 a time when he should be at his peak. Gareth Bale was another who left Saints for big money after only a season at Saints, it took him a long time to establish himself in the Spurs side and in his early days was considered something of a jinx to them when he played, it was only a year or so ago that Spurs were prepared to offload him to Forest for a cut price, for Gareth fate intervened and the rest is history, but that was luck and it shows that sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time, it could so easily have been that this article could have been using him to emphasise just how easy it is to fail. So the message that Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain should perhaps take in, is that although football is a short career and none of us know what is around the corner, the best players are those that have got their early grounding and footballing education on the pitch in league matches, not on the benches of Premiership giants, Oxo could have a 15 year career ahead of him, he should bein no rush to hurl himself into the footballing oblivion that is a Premiership squad for many a promising player lately, even since Theo left St Mary's football has changed beyond recognition, even more than then the big teams want success and want it now, they buy players who are ready for first team action at the level they need, promising youngsters are gambles for them. Of course another option for Alex would be a move to a lesser Premiership club and there are certainly some that would be able to afford him, in my opinion that would be a better option than the likes of Arsenal or Liverpool, but still a tough one for him at this stage in his career, Newcastle or Sunderland are perhaps two examples of clubs who could afford him and where he would get a chance, but expectation would be high and if you have a high price tag on your shoulders then the fans expect performances of that level now and not in three years time. Ideally and i say this not as a Saints fan but as a football manin general, Alex should get at least another full season at Saints under his belt hopefully in the Championship, and then assess his next career move, whether he could achieve the premier with Saints ? or whether he needs to move on. But the final question is not would a move benefit the player, but would it benefit the club ? The feeling in football is that with certain UEFA rulings coming into force that transfer fees might be heading downwards, that being the case would it actually be in Saints interest to cash in now, if they could get the purported £10 million today would that be better than in 18 months time when although Alex might be a better player and ready for a move, that the going rate might have halved, could Saints do with that money now and invest it wisely after all the teams who get promotion from League 1 or the Championship for that matter dont do it with superstars they do it with hard graft from seasoned professionals, could Saints use that £10 million now more profitably than they could use Oxo ? Thatmy friends is the $15 million dollar question (assuming an exchange rate of 1.5 $ to the £) Photo: Action Images Please report offensive, libellous or inappropriate posts by using the links provided.
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