Ever wondered who is the highest earning footballer in the UK? The names that you might come up with would be Ronaldo, Rooney, Lampard, Terry etc. It is in fact someone else. The rich list or the wage list is always interesting, isn’t it? Who doesn’t want to know how much others earn? TimesOnline has made a list of top 25 richest footballers under the age of 30 in the UK. Here, the income figures are all annual numbers and they are the overall amount that includes the weekly wages plus income from all other possible sources of income including endorsements and investments.

The common perception that the top 20 of the 25 players would be from Chelsea, has been quashed. Still, 8 out of the 25 are from Chelsea. The balance is made up of 4 players from Man Utd, 3 players from Liverpool, 2 from Arsenal and 8 from the non-top 4 teams. I used to think that the Chelsea players are the most over-paid but I’ve now changed my mind. When today’s Michael Owen is getting 41m pounds per year, no one else could be more overpaid. And then, Kieron Dyer at 12m? Harry Kewell at 12m? How many matches did Louis Saha play, for his 7m? Damien Duff gets only one million pounds less than Cristiano Ronaldo and one million pounds more than Didier Drogba? Let me say it again, SWP should go.

Here is the list in the order of annual earnings in british pounds:

Michael Owen (41m) | Wayne Rooney (35m) | Rio Ferdinand (28m) | Frank Lampard (19m) | Steven Gerrard (19m) | John Terry (16m) | Cristiano Ronaldo (15m) | Damien Duff (14m) | Didier Drogba (13m) | Harry Kewell (12m) | Emile Heskey (12m) | Kieron Dyer (12m) | Ashley Cole (11m) | Joe Cole (11m) | Nicolas Anelka (11m) | Michael Essien (10m) | Craig Bellamy (9m) | Robbie Keane (9m) | Jonathan Woodgate (8m) | Louis Saha (7m) | Cesc Fabregas (6m) | Fernando Torres (6m) | William Gallas (6m) | Shaun Wright-Phillips (6m) | Jamie Carragher (6m)

Chelsea is paying a premium for many of their players. That’s understandable because Chelsea are trying to get into the top league rivalling the best teams in Europe. If they are to do this, they need to get players who would otherwise play for teams like Madrid, Barcelona or Man Utd. Chelsea, not being in that league, will certainly have to pay a premium to buy and to keep the players. May be, things will change after 5 years. Players should be willing to play for us by taking a pay cut. That’s the long term, obviously. Until then, Roman’s ready to whack his wallet.

Anyway, I would never say footballers are being overpaid. I will only say some are being overpaid for what they offer to their clubs. It is always the market that determines their weekly wages. It is economics. They are being paid so much because someone can afford it or someone thinks they can get the money’s worth. So, let them earn as much as they can, their careers are short and can be cut even shorter by Abou Diaby. I have no issues about them earning so much, I’ll have a problem only when they don’t play with passion, having been paid so well.

By now you would have understood that there is not much Chelsea news anywhere. So I went around digging for some news or planned to make a news out of something. Here is John Terry saying that we will be after the premier league. He says that we saw the very best of Man Utd. I agree but that’s what I said after the 06-07 season. In the next season, they simply bettered themselves. For that, hats off to them. Now, it will be really really difficult for them to better what they did in 07-08. If their rivals improve themselves, Man Utd will be under tremendous pressure as the gap keeps reducing.

They (Manchester United) have had two good years and you have to stand back and take your hat off to them, but we know we were good last year and we have another level to go to. Last year I think we saw the very best of Man United, but we have got an awful lot to come from last year. We have got improvements to make, but I think Man United are at their peak. The Premier League is the one we want and when the Champions League starts again, it’s going to be exciting.

I’m very pleased to hear that from John Terry. As Scolari mentioned earlier, we would try to win every single competition. In terms of priority I’d always put the premier league ahead of the champions league. Premier league is the truest test of champions. The champions league winners may not always be a champion team but the premier league winners will undoubtedly be the best of the country. No excuses of luck, injury or whatever. The winner takes all. Terry says that premier league will be the priority this season. May be, Roman has understood that champions league is after all like the Russian Roullette. I’m not trying to take anything away from the champions though. He’d have realised that when all other things are equal, luck plays quite a big part.

I want Chelsea to go after every cup and trophy that we participate in. Despite our focus on the champions league, I don’t think Chelsea in the last few seasons have ever wieghed any competition less than the other. We have always respected all trophies alike and tried to win every time we fielded a team. I’m quite proud of that. It is quite unlike what Arsene Whinger says below:

It is clear there are two trophies we are focused on – the Premier League and the Champions League. After that, the FA Cup, but we will never go seriously for the Carling Cup, again this year we will have the same philosophy on the Carling Cup. The Premier League and Champions League are the trophies we will fight for.

If the above paragraph had come out of the mouth of a Chelsea manager, there would be debates on ‘respect for the domestic cups’ and ‘should we exclude the top four from the domestic competitions’ etc. The response from Press to Wenger’s disrespect to the domestic cups is absolute silence. No one cares. That’s a shame.

John Terry also said something else too.

All the lads are already saying we’ll get Inter in the Champions League and you just know we probably will meet them. Jose was a top manager and someone I loved working with. But it was a change the club made so we’ve moved on and moved forward.

It would be interesting to draw FC Inter but given a choice I’d avoid it. If we draw them in group league level, that would be fine. I would like the prospect of meeting a Jose Mourinho team in a knockout round. In a final, no way. The last thing I want to see is a champions league final between Chelsea and FC Inter. No, please.

On transfer front, it’s been very quiet really. Robinho aside, no rumours involving Chelsea. I’m not really disappointed at this. Ok, I’ll take Robinho because SWP would be non-playing player. Other than him, I think we have a very good team. We have a great defence, enviable midfield and on paper, a great attack too. What shocks me is that we might even retain some of the players who are not showing any promise at all.

Let’s have a poll. It’s been a while since the last one. The only player we are after, seems to Robinho who’s caught in some kind of tangle at Madrid. Now that Scolari and Kenyon hint that our transfer activity could be over, what feelings cross you mind? Take the poll and use the comments section to explain why you voted for what you voted for. I’ll do the same. Catch you then.

Where will Chelsea end up this season?

    • View Results

Loading ... Loading …