I find it unjustifiable the amount of money these folk are paid ....Let's face it in comparable terms to what doctors nurses paramedics and others who save lives are paid it's downright sinful....IMO it's medics who are *Gifted* not footballers kicking a lump of darn leather around a pitch..

I'm with you and in agreement all the way Lee - don't start me off!

Well - who do these 'footballers' turn to when they're 'injured'? (as if in some cases - injuries you and I would take a painkiller for) the medical profession - who work all hours God gave them, seeing sights we wouldn't like to imagine and get paid pittance for!

Have you ever heard my one hour lecture about ameliorating the defects of capitalism?

No because sticktoria can make it all better, seriously tis a shame for Becks but as a bonus hopefully the press will learn to stop hyping us up too much because we're soon brought back down to earth but of course the press never learn..


Read in ASDA that they're apparently trying for another baby.

It's not the money that footballers get, it's the money going into football full stop. I know if I was a footballer, I'd feel justifiably entitled to my fair share of all the money that the club is earning through my image, fame, talent and entertainment that I provide thousands of people every week. So if anything it's the money in football as a whole that is disgraceful.

Though your point about doctors being gifted and footballers not, is total bollocks. Just about anyone can become a doctor if they put their minds to it through school and uni etc. You are either born with the gift needed to make it as a professional footballer or you aren't. Simple as that.

How rude!!!!!......I disagree that just about anyone can become a doctor in fact I'd go as far as to say that's a ludicrous assumption.....Put any doctor onto a pitch with a ball and without doubt he'd be able to play football to some level...By the same token put any footballer into an operating theatre to perform as much as taking a blood sample never mind perform surgery they wouldn't know where to start.....Simple as that.

Who really gives a stuff about these prima donnas and their ...."Oh .I've hurt me ankle" etc..Now the only football fact I know about,because I'm old enough to remember,was that Glasgow Celtic were the first Scottish/British team to win the European cup!  With all "Home " grown players.So there..."get it round  yea!"

Oh noooes, the next one will be called ASDA?

Fruit and veg aisle

Every little bit helps.

Lee! how the heck are you?  Hope all is well can be.

Aww hi Katty....I'm fine thank you going to be a granny again in early June so we're all excited.....Hope you are well gorgeous.

Could be George maybes? Nah, too boring...Asda it is then

Wonders if being polite and respectful is a gift of birth?.... Thinks not, Googles social skills courses in Newcastle area!

Good stuff..Man, you really are an auld granny!

Katty less of the auld please, I'm 49 a mere slip of a thing.

Who talks total bollocks apparently!

*Takes bollocks out of mouth*..... Moi?

Ah Lee,you're younger than me then.I'm 54 next week...runs away!

You may find this a useful addition to your cookery book collection Lee :

Falls over knickers round the ankles.  "I was airing them!"

Rude? Okay then
Note the word 'professional' in my post. If you think any doctor (or just anyone for that matter) can be put into a professional game of football and not be out of their depth, then you are living on another planet. But that wasn't my point at all, my point was that you are born with being gifted enough to play professional football, where as you aren't born with the gift of being a doctor. I guarantee you that it is more difficult to become a professional footballer than it is to become a doctor. If you think differently then it's probably not your fault.

You can guarantee it?....On what basis can you be so certain....Tell you what go ahead start your training as a surgeon when it's completed come back and we'll talk shop eh.....Pssst meantime get your head out of those clouds.

Because out of my year at school (about 150 male pupils) I'd say about half of them at least wanted to become a professional footballer. None of them are. If it was that easy to become a professional footballer like you seem to think, why aren't there millions of professional footballers in this country alone?

I think it's you who needs to get your head out of the clouds.

Just so you know, because you probably can't tell... I'm not for a minute suggesting that footballers are more important than doctors.

Aahhh ....Based on the delusions of perhaps 100 lads....Yeah that solves it all....Oh and btw for what it's worth my head isn't in the clouds I have managed in this life to achieve all I aspired to.

Just to be awkward

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Deuchar

Just out of interest Crunchy, how many of them became surgeons?

Oh right, so you're deluded now if you want to become a footballer? Well that's funny... why would someone be deluded about becoming something that's so easy and realistic to achieve?

You've just pissed on your own side of the argument I'm afraid mate

To be fair what Crunchy says is true, if you put your mind to it for your school life and uni life anyone could be a doctor- as long as they could get over the gory side (something I couldn't), but no matter how much effort some people put into football they would never be as good as Beckham, they might be a good footballer but they'd never be great without some kind of talent.
This is not taking away from doctors in any way, but some people forget how much Beckham has worked to get where he is today, its not just like he has become famous for dating someone famous.

Well if they all end up as bitter as you come across if they fail to cut the mustard it say's a lot...BTW do you enjoy trying to be rude and crass or does that come natural ?....Dear dear schoolboys these days eh.

Two people from my year that I know of are studying some form of medicine at University, but there definitely wasn't 150 people in my year who wanted to go into that as a career.
All my point was is that you're not born with the ability to be a medic, you can gain the ability. Where as to become a pro footballer you have to be born with natural ability. It's not a criticism of the medical profession.

I'm not, but if that's what I am in your world... then yeah it comes natural.

See I don't think it's an either or Trixy, both need some aptitude and talent and both require damned hard work to be really good at it and to be either a top surgeon or a top footballer.

That's basically the point I was trying to get across. In professional football, if you aint got some sort of natural born talent to begin with... there's no chance. 

I also love how it's always footballers pay that is compared to doctors pay, when in reality 90% of professional footballers are on a decent wage, but not the types of wages Wayne Rooney and Becks are on.
Why are people who get paid a fortune for other forms of entertainment never brought into question when it comes to 'doctors deserve to be paid more', and i know it's the case in this thread because it's about football, but I mean in general.

But surely that's about different aspirations rather than talent  Quite sad really if 75+ kids thought that they might be able to cut the mustard at top level football and not one of them got a whiff. Then again, suppose the likelihood of the 2 who are doing: 'some form of medicine' becoming top surgeons is fairly remote too.

Crunchy, do you not think that some have a gift towards the sciences, such that, with hard work, they can then get the grades needed for med school?

It all depends super, obviously there are certain surgeons who were born with the talent and are seen as amazing, but they get paid a lot more than people assume. But I know people at uni who really have to try all the time but they will be amazing surgeons just as soon as they get there.
Plus I know what doctors get paid its really not that bad! Someone I know who will be finished his five years at uni in March 2011 already has his F1 position sorted (so he wont even be a real doctor) £40000 salary, going up to £60000 for his F2 year...imagine what that will go to when he is properly qualified

That's my point Trixy, money debate aside, I think to say anyone can be a doctor/ surgeon is just  a daft thing to say

Yeah some maybe do, but it's probably more down to them getting interested from an early age than being born with it. With footballing technical ability, you either have it or you don't. I think with medics you can learn everything you need to know gradually... but to make it as a professional footballer you definitely without a shadow of a doubt have to have ability that can't be coached. You've either got it or you haven't and if you haven't, no matter how much training you do from a young age... you just won't cut it at a professional level.
It's really hard to explain. Although I can string sentences together, I find it difficult sometimes to explain myself sometimes.