The Roland Harris Column

Wednesday 29 May, 2002

Sod the players

Eoin Jess is moving to Coventry. "Once bitten", perhaps not.

Jess will not be getting that much composition from City if he gets any at all. Unfair dismissal takes into account how much time you are out of work. Jess will be putting in a claim however.

Jess, Benito Carbone, Juanjo etc... They will all be putting the boot in to City when we are down. None of them will take into consideration that fact that most of them put us here with some rubbish displays. In fact the players do not seem ready to take into account much of the stuff that the club does for them.

The bleating cry we hear from football is that if Bradford City were stupid enough to offer these contracts then Bradford City should honour them. Like it's that simple.

OK so City should honour contracts to the letter, but for some reason I don't think the players really want that.

Take for example our hero Carbone. He will want his contract honouring to the letter but in the lettering of his contract it might have a clause that says that City are entitled to get rid of a player who refuses to play as Beni did for the Preston game.

What about those times the club gave Beni compassionate leave to look after his son in Italy? Of course we should let a guy look after his poorly son but when we flex his way, why shouldn't he flex ours and find another club taking a token pay off from City to let us stay in the league.

Andy Tod at Rotherham? My contract stipulates that I can be sacked for acting against the best interests of my employer I'm sure his does and that that handball would therefore be a sacking offence. We kept him on. We flexed.

We gave Danny Cadamarteri a second chance despite the fact that he could have and still could go to prison for (allegedly- BfB Ed) lying to court. Flex back?

No names no pack drill:

Players at this club in the past have got away with boffing a couple of the team mates wives. We did not sack them.

Players have been involved in all kinds of antics that have been hushed up: I've heard of parties that turned X rated. Ex-wives and girlfriends paid to keep quiet. Players are "looked after" by clubs in ways that we never see. There is one member of the City squad who will be hoping that nothing comes to court where some of his antics become public knowledge, however you can bet that he expects the club to pay up.

Footballers are a stupid bunch. Clubs and managers mother them. They get looked after when there with the club, they expect to get looked after when they have left. If they try to make claims agianst us that could put us out of the league what they are doing is the same as what a kid does when he can't get the toy he wants. Throwing a tantrum.

To the lads: The holiday is over. Get new clubs, get on with your lives and let us get on with ours.

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