Wayne Rooney and Marc Overmars are two superb players, one in Rooney is still playing football now with Derby after a glittering club career mostly with Manchester United. Dutchman Overmars lit up football in the 1990s and early 2000s with Ajax and then in the Premier League with Arsenal and will surely go down as one of the best foreign players to play in the league. However both have really put their foot in it these past few days.
The Convid-19 virus has gripped the world and this has trickled down to football leading some to make some bizarre comments. Rooney was talking about how he felt it was unfair that every footballer is being asked to give up 30% of his salary. He admitted that he could take the hit and then spoke about a young player he plays with at Derby.
The player he says lives on a council estate with his family and earns £2,000 a week, so he would have to give up £600 or £2,400 a month. Forgetting that he would still be bringing in £5,600 a month. There is a complete disconnection with society when Rooney seemingly cannot understand that earning over £5k a month is more than a great wage. Also said player would only be giving up some of his salary for 2-3 months. It is affordable and that is the bottom line.
It is worrying that Rooney would come out with such a statement when many up and down the country living in council homes struggle to find a quarter of the monthly wage that he is talking about, and it makes no sense. If Rooney is that concerned that the player and his family will start to struggle on £5k a month maybe he should be contributing himself?
Another player that made a faux pas this week was Marc Overmars. The technical director of Ajax has called for the Dutch league to end and use the current placings. That would, surprise surprise mean that Ajax would be champions.
There are still 9 games to be played in the league and Ajax have 56 points, however AZ Alkmaar also have 56 points and in 3rd place is Feyenoord with 50. If Ajax were 2nd would Overmars really be calling for the season to be cut short?
Of course it could play out that some European leagues will want the season finished given that Belgium have taken that route. However the main difference there was that Club Brugge could not be caught in 1st place and other positions had been decided and they only had 1 game of the regular season left to play anyway. In other leagues that simply isn’t the case with so much still to play for.
Overmars has shown what appears to be an arrogance, yes he is right many are dying and that football is not important when the virus is here. But to suggest that the league should be shut down with so many games still left to play just feels premature. If the virus situation follows Wuhan where the virus begun it might be possible to bring back football by June. If not then it won’t be possible, but with the Euro’s now postponed until 2021 there is still plenty of time for football to come back.
The Dutch league may well not resume this season, but Overmars seems to have jumped the gun by 4 months in suggesting it should end.
