Mane Made An Example Of Sorts

Football fans spend an increasing amount of money supporting their chosen club, especially in the Premier League.

If you were to have purchased a season ticket at every Premier League club this season for the cheapest available price it will have cost you a staggering £10,556. That makes the average CHEAPEST season ticket in the Premier League £527.80. Simply put, watching top flight football will cost you an awful lot of money these days.

Those earning the UK minimum wage (full-time) of just over £13,000 a year and then having to use that to pay taxes, bills, housing and transport would have to sacrifice an awful lot to be able to afford to go to every home game. Rest assured there are many in that position, those that love the game and will do whatever it takes to get there to watch their team.

Then you have Sadio Mane of Southampton who cannot be bothered to arrive on time for pre-match team meetings. It may also be the case that this is not the only thing Mane has done to upset his manager Ronald Koeman, such was the reaction. I also doubt there was a genuine reason for his lateness. He was rightly dropped by the Dutchman, and also rightly publicly vilified too. For it is those fans who I mention above who are paying the extraordinary amount in wages these overpaid footballers earn, whether that be from ticket sales or satellite television subscriptions.

I am sure there are plenty more instances of this kind that happen throughout a football season, but for whatever reason it will be kept quiet. I am pleased Koeman has publicly shamed Mane for his antics, and in doing so put Southampton Football Club and their fans before the player, any player in fact, regardless of his undoubted ability and what he can give on a football pitch should he be in the right mood.

This trend needs to be followed and players made accountable, just as you or me would be to shareholders or management at whatever company we work for or whatever job we are doing. These football players are in a privileged position and therefore they must be made to answer for actions which undermine the club that pay their wages and the fans who spend their money to enable these clubs to pay their wages.

The openness afforded to us by Koeman is something to be commended and applauded and I hope many more managers in future take a similar stance. This might then lead to our Premier League millionaire footballers taking some responsibility for their actions.

Knowing that some of these players give less than 100% when us fans give up so much to follow this sport is for me a disgrace.

Here are the statistics from the first weekend of Premier League action of the year as we head for a break from league action as the FA Cup third round takes centre stage:

West Ham United 2 Liverpool 0 – Liverpool have managed to score just one Premier League goal in their last four away games. So much for all that ‘challenging for the title’ talk from the Reds fans.

Arsenal 1 Newcastle United 0 – A valiant performance from the Toon Army, but they could not make the breakthrough. The Gunners are unbeaten in their last nine home games, winning seven and drawing the other two.

Leicester City 0 Bournemouth 0 – Scoring in every single one of their first seventeen games, the Foxes have now failed to score now in their last three.

Manchester United 2 Swansea City 0 – United have scored just two Premier League goals in the first half of games at Old Trafford this season. All three goals in this game came after the interval.

Norwich City 1 Southampton 0 – One shot on target, one goal. That was the story for the Canaries in this one.

Sunderland 3 Aston Villa 1 – I saw this on the BBC Sport website and just had to use it – ‘Aston Villa’s Premier League winless run now stands at 19 games (D5 L14) – the joint fourth worst run in the history of the competition’.

West Bromwich Albion 2 Stoke City 1 – The Baggies have now beaten their Midlands rivals Stoke in their last three Premier League fixtures.

Watford 1 Manchester City 2 – Man of the moment Yaya Toure has scored three goals in his last four games, before that he had managed just one in thirteen.

Crystal Palace 0 Chelsea 3 – This was just Chelsea’s second away win of the season. Their first came back in August at the Hawthorns against West Brom.

Everton 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1 – These two sides have both drawn a Premier League high of nine games so far this season. Could be a betting tip hidden away in their somewhere!

Premier League Table