Something interesting has happened over the last 10 years in the Premier League. Players who once would have been discarded as expensive and too old have become important parts of title-winning squads.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Nowadays there are too many players who can't get a contract elsewhere, who come to England and just take the money.
The trouble for today's footballers is they have too many distractions. We used to get our old players coming to watch training with football magazines in their hands. Now, more often than not, they are checking the share prices.
I think sometimes managers like to buy players because they're more experienced from abroad or when they've got players under their nose that will give everything to the club they've been brought up with.
So when they have Mourinho and Benitez joining the Premiership they should say it's good for us, maybe these guys have something new to give.
Footballers are an easy target. They are offered big lines of credit. Every sport is vulnerable; it's such a big gambling industry, and there are problems with syndicates in other countries.
Then all the foreigners started coming over. I don't mind that but a lot of teams are laying out fortunes for ordinary players and that's no good for our youngsters coming through.
There's a tacit understanding among clubs that a good player shouldn't miss out on the big break of his career or a chance at exponentially improved earnings.
Once, players came to football expecting to be wealthy when they retired. Now, they expect to be wealthy before they've played their first game!
English football has just had a transfer window imposed for the first time, so it will be interesting to see how managers cope with the squads they have until it re-opens.
The likes of Frank Lampard and John Terry at Chelsea, English players with proper status at a club, they're going to be like the dodo bird. Extinct.