The Illusion of Choice

the risk of spending a considerable amount of money and not getting its worth is another factor many clubs consider. It's becoming clearer that buying a young player and developing him are now the priorities for most clubs.

The most important contributing factor is the huge wages players earn today. Because every top team already has a few Elite players, bringing in another one will increase their wage bill drastically.

The top players have plenty of choices; however, a few clubs are willing to overspend on these players to the extent that they spend more than they earn. These players refuse to 'step down' to more reasonable salaries when they look to move clubs. In most cases, players just prioritize salary over other factors when making their decisions.

All you're really saying is that top players reduce their choices through their vastly higher demands.

The idea one of the richest people in the world doesn’t have the choice of where to play because so few teams can afford huge wages assumes that players don’t have the choice to be paid less. There’s nothing forcing any player to go where the money is highest. They have a choice and they choose the money.

I kinda dislike how it's a given throughout the whole video that top players have few choices because they want the most money, which is already a choice. 😅 Mbappé could easily join most teams in the world. Could they afford him? Sure, if he were to make the choice to leave money behind for other reasons. Say town to live in, fan base or whatever else he fancied. Sure, he might make a lot less money than his yacht-rich peers, but as long as he stayed in professional football, he'd still make enough to be set for a couple of lives. 🤷

Harry had a lot of options before he decided to extend his contract with Spurs some years ago. Clubs were naturally more averse to signing a player entering his 30s at the expense of a potential club record bid. Even Bayern who took the risk is not having a good season.

The best players, like Mbappe, actually have choices. They just tend to choose money over everything else so they enter into an "illusion of no-choice".

Harry Kane is sadly unintentionally comedic while also being talented.

This feels slightly disingenuous. Mbappe could go wherever he wanted if he ran down his contract. Running down contracts has become more commonplace over the years. Only thing stopping him going wherever is a desire to maximise his income (which he is perfectly entitled to do but to pretend that no one would take him without a transfer fee is nonsense). The other big motivator is to win things. Probably needs to be winning the champions league to win the balloon d'Or which narrows choices a fair bit. It feels like the main change from 1996 is that a handful of clubs have blown values out of the water meaning that others simply can't afford to keep pace. It started with oligarchs with Chelsea and then nation states with Man City. However, financial fair play restrictions are starting to bite and was probably only sustained over the last year by the Saudi league expenditure and Chelsea manipulating lengthy contracts (which will come back to haunt them). The real question is if FFP is shown to have long lasting teeth whether the market will adjust. Feels like we're in the readjustment phase and in a couple of years market prices may come down, and give those players this speaks of more 'choice'.

Tifo football taught me more about football than my manager

Me, a philosophy undergrad: Phew, sure can't wait to leave all the existentialism behind and go watch some mindless football content! Tifo: The Illusion of Choice.

You correctly said that a "player must accept comprises". Any player can go anyway as long as he isn't too greedy!

David De gea is a prime example as he still without a club right now. Lorenzo Insigne, Hugo Lloris, Wilfred Zaha, could some what fit into the similar mould to what is told in this video.

I like how he just snuck Mason Mount in there as an example of a top player 😂

All well and good but a reminder that Mbappe, for example, can choose to play in the English league two. Ego and thirst for money defines the choice when no transfer fee is involved. They pick their agents, they demand high salaries and bonus and thus limit their options when they are a “free agent” Choices are there. They just only want the highest wages and the best teams. No desire to play for a Dortmund type club and try to make them the best.

The excess of money in the game, the disparity in wealth between a select few clubs and the rest, means that once a top player wants to move only a small handful of clubs can take him on to meet transfer fees and salary expectations. So if the top clubs are already well stocked with top players who play in a similar position to him, the footballer wanting a move is stuck. Unless he fancies Saudi Arabia.

This is why top players should refuse to sign long term deals and agree to shorter term contracts, i can imagine a LOT of Chelsea's new signings are regretting signing those 8 year deals.

Say what you will about the North American sports system. But the NFL, NBA, MLB, and even the MLS creating teams where everyone can be profitable, well paid, and competitive with the right planning really goes a long way compared to European football. The only way clubs like PSG and Man City broke through is due to unprecedented amounts of money from nation states. Having a select 12 or so teams have it all at the top makes having the Super League inevitable.

I’d say that top players still have almost unlimited choices. Like is it absolutely necessary to get paid £350.000 in a week? Even 100k would be quite alright for anyone’s finances and it would allow so much more competition.