For a long time I've held the point of view that footballers are some of the most incompetent, unprofessional and least self motivated professional sportspeople. The most extreme comparison here is with the discipline of Olympians. There are countless examples to back this up, players deciding to not play for a manager, excess partying/drinking, lack of fitness, being extremely one footed, general bad attitude etc etc. What got me thinking about this again was our performance on Saturday. The number of basic mistakes players on our team make is staggering, a professional footballer performing at these levels is alarming. I just don't understand how someone who plays football, for hours a day, every day, can make these basic mistakes. I get that teams can not perform well, but you would think that there would be a minimum level of performance that you shouldn't really dip below, purely based on supposedly having the attributes to be a professional footballer. Most of us are looking correctly at this being the responsibility of Poya, and to an extent rightly so. Most of us also agree that should Neil Warnock take over as manager, we would most likely see an eradication of basic errors. For me, that says much more about the players than it does about any manager. Football has come a very long way in terms of professionalism in the last 20 years, but still has a long long way to go. I would even say that it has got worse in the last decade. It seems like the biggest attribute a coach needs at this level, is to be an authoritarian - because if you give players an inch, they will take a mile. They can't be trusted to have too much agency to manage themselves. As a side note, how some of the players (from any team) look at their bank account each week and see north of 5K in there without p*****g themselves laughing is beyond me. The level of football quality output to wages paid in this division a ridiculous inequality.
There is a fair share of Olympians that waste a place on the plane. If they're nursing injuries and not expecting to medal they shouldn't be going. However, some still do.
I believe the Olympics are about taking part, so I don't really share that view. However, there were 82 female downhill skiers the other morning - just for qualification! Also, 72 Biathlon females take to the course yesterday. Where are all these athletes coming from? Some countries must be taking 5 or 6 skiers surely. That's a bit overkill for me
