It's not uncommon for a big free agent to come to a new club with a big contract and not perform up to his standards.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Nowadays there are too many players who can't get a contract elsewhere, who come to England and just take the money.
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.
Today, free agency takes away a lot of your heroes, they go somewhere else. Some of them don't but a lot of them do-take the higher offer to go somewhere else. And, it turns the fans off because they get attached to the players.
Any time you sign a big contract, you get in those later years, the expectations are high to play at a high level.
I believe a lot of players that start to think about money - 'Oh my goodness; I'm up for a new contract' - they don't have a great season because they're thinking about all these different things. Do your business on the field, and everything takes care of itself.
People talk about loyalty of players to clubs. But in the everyday world, you don't see people being loyal to their company when they're getting offered considerably better deals elsewhere.
Teams buy players and change managers if they feel they need change at the club.
In fact, an awful lot of N.F.L. club owners have practically no influence on their players at all, simply because they're not full-time working owners.
It's inevitable now, because everyone is a superstar, even if they're just an average player, and maybe that was part of the process set in motion when I signed that contract in 1994.
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.