Former Tottenham winger Jermaine Jenas has explained why Kyle Walker is unsettled at White Hart Lane and his comments would make us think twice about Kyle’s situation at the club. Walker has been linked with a move away from Tottenham and Manchester City seem to be keen on the £35million rated fullback.
Walker is currently on £70,000-a-week wages at Tottenham and The Evening Standard suggested that the Englishman was aware that he could double his wages by moving elsewhere. If the report is believed to be true, then Jenas’ comments make total sense.
Jenas said while speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live,
“You’re dealing with players now that I personally believe deserve to paid probably 100% more than they’re actually being paid. It’s about the glory, it’s about the love of the game and you want to get over that line but at some point, as a player it’s also about self-worth.”
“If I’m Kyle Walker l’m sat there on £40,000 to £50,000 a week and Nathaniel Clyne’s sat across me in the England changing room on £100,000-a-week I’m saying, ‘well is that how my club values me then? Are you telling me I’m the second-best right-back in England, because I’m not.’ As a player that does start to become annoying.”
Walker is easily the best English right-back and there’s no denying that. His form has been poor in recent weeks but that could only be because he is unsettled at the moment. He remains the quality player that he is and it is important that Tottenham hold on to such a talented defender.
Jenas’ explanation particularly makes us think because Daniel Levy recently spoke about not changing the club’s wage structure despite the impressive performance from the lads this season.
Levy recently insisted that the players were happy when they signed those contracts and hence he expects them to honour it. He also said that no player would be sold for non-footballing reasons and the comments were strong considering the situation at the club.
It is probably now clear as to why Walker is unsettled at Tottenham. After the kind of effort that the players have put in, it is natural for them to expect a pay rise and when they don’t get it, they would be upset. It isn’t like they want to hold the club for a ransom, but as Jenas has pointed out, if the players at other clubs earn more than what the Spurs are earning, then it is a problem to be dealt with.
https://youtu.be/3euskl5OEtM
These players are mightily well paid. We can all look with envious eyes at others, and covet what they’ve got, but in these cases, and after taxes, commissions and everything else, our best players at Spurs (and let’s not forget that Poch and his coaching team have helped make them what they are) can’t surely envy the houses or cars, or indeed anything else, of players at other clubs whom they perceive to be better paid or richer?! It’s all an illusion. If you’re on £60k pw, there’s really not much different than being on £100k pw ..when it comes down to nett pay, and what these immensely rich young men actually DO with their money.
They’re not office workers on £30k per annum, whose lives CAN improve if they move for £50k per annum.
So please, Kyle Walker ..play for glory, play to win things with our great club (that’s the next step after nothing for 10 years), play for loyalty, play your team-mates with whom you’ve forged a fine team, play for Poch who has helped you to become even better, play for the fans who love you (even if they rarely chant your name) and play to make history with Tottenham Hotspur – a sleeping giant ready now to resume its role as one of the greatest clubs in the world. We’re that close. Do all that and you’ll be even MORE rewarded financially …if you really need it ..but more importantly, you’ll have memories of Glory, of being part of something far bigger than yourself, and the respect of everyone in football. Otherwise ..go to China, if it’s really just about more money during these wonderful times of your young life.
If all the reports we see and hear are correct I would say he is an extremely selfish and greedy person .the wage he gets now equates to several million pounds plus any image rights he gets from endorsements etc are quite substantial. What Mr Levy says is quite correct that he was quite happy to sign his last contract.He would also be quite aware of what others were getting so that’s no valid excuse – just greed! Do all these plates realise it’s the lifelong fans who pay the price with extortionate entry fees and high costing replica merchandise. I have supported this team for 68 years and have seen them all but I refuse to accept that it should all be about money! What idea of living an ordinary life on a low wage or pension or benefits do these players have? Shame on them and shame on Jermaine Jenus for this post however well intentioned it might have been
Nonsense Walker is actually the 3rd highest paid right back in the league behind zabeletta and sagna
I don’t understand this hysteria concerning Walker. If this supposed value of him comes to fruition then sell him. 50 million for someone who can run very fast? because let’s be honest this is the sum total of what he can do. He has always had a mistake in him and is not an intelligent player to utilise what benefits he has. If these are the figures certain clubs want to pay for him then let him go. For that money, it will improve the team all over and not just in the right wing back position. Of all the players in the first time we can get the maximum for and let go, it’s Walker every time other than Sissoko but he’s a bit part player.
Get real, we’re paying these players poorly compared to other top clubs and it’s not really about the money it’s about feeling valued. I’d be quite happy to give the existing squad a pay rise and forget spending 30 million on the limes of Sissoko.
Jenas is 100% correct. Why did we waste large sums of money to buy and to pay high wages for overrated prima donnas like Sissoko and still thinking of doing the same for Zaha and Barkley when such large sums can be better utilised by revising the wage structure and rewarding our most important players for jobs well done? Our ceiling could and should be raised by at least 50% to 150k. Walker should be paid 100k a week, Alderweireld 110k. But no, we’ll waste the money instead on overhyped Zaha and Barkley.
I share cb Walter’s views.
One cannot entirely attribute his worth & success due to his own ability.
Football is about team effort & his good fortune comes from his teammates too for what he is today.
Can he be assured of first team place with other top club.
I wished he would stay for another season & prove to Levy he is worth the raise.
I concur with C.B. Waters.
Seriously, £70K week is £3,640,000 a year. 50% tax drops it to £1,820,000.
Day a player earns this for ONLY 5 years – that’s £9,100,000. Really how much does a family need? Is it really just to be SO wealthy?
Transfer to another team. The manager gets sacked. The clubs playing system changes. The risk is that he’ll be dropped from the 1st team.
Poch has a brilliant methodology, a manager/coach who is approachable & honest and a damn good coach.
As above: Kyle Walker … please play for glory, play to win things with our great club…
Want players who play for glory not money. Southgate will be the same at England, didn’t he give up 90% of his wage to save his club from bankruptcy, can’t remember if it was Villa or Middlesbrough but he’s a man of morality
C B Waters, Edward, IDC and Phill, you can moralise about loyalty, blah, blah, blah all you want. What separates us from the Chelseas, Man Cities, MUs and all the other successful clubs is money, money, money. Like it or loathe it, if you want to be competing for titles and trophies year in and year out you have to have a solid core of top players and top players don’t come cheap. Would you rather race in a Ferrari or a Toyota? We’ve never had a more solid core of players than we do now, but if we are unwilling to pay them what they can get elsewhere, then we’ll simply lose them and forever remain in the shadows of Chelsea, Man C, Man U and, yes, even Arsenal. We will very much be a perennial mid table team with a 800 million quid 65,000 seater stadium and a huge but disgruntled fan base. Goodbye Kane, Alli, Eriksen, Verts and, yes, Poch too. It will be good remembering you guys in the nearly glory days though we’ll never understand why you had to follow Walker and Toby out to more ambitious and successful pastures.
You’re wrong, Hiano. I don’t see much separation from us and the Chelseas, Cities, MUs etc., and, for two consecutive seasons, we most certainly have NOT been in their shadow. In fact over two seasons Spurs (overall) have been AHEAD of them, despite their ‘money’. Not bad for a Toyota. You also say top players don’t come cheap. They don’t, but even very average players don’t come cheap (look at Sissoko, Soldado etc.). I personally don’t think Spurs are that good at buying ‘top’ players. And Sissoko’s wages must cheese his team-mates off more than believing what they can get elsewhere. But remember this. We have a team ..something bigger than individual ‘top players’, as you mention. And that is where loyalty comes in. Would they really have become, many of them, ‘top’ players at clubs other than Spurs??
They ARE well paid too (and under contract so can’t leave unless Levy sanctions it) but will see even greater ‘carrots’ before them if they knuckle down to succeed both in their name and our club’s. Right now, it will be about fending off swoops this summer by the rich ‘vulture’ clubs, I agree ..but hey. If we sell them all, we can afford to go out and buy all those TOP players you’re talking about and pay them enough money to afford 6 Aston Martins as opposed to 3 or 4. How’s that for ‘Glory’?