would you have more respect for a player if...

[Cellarite]

the only player i can think of who have moved for love of a club is nick barmby who dropped 2 divisions and took a massive paycut to join his hometown club hull city.

here are a few examples of honest players :

Gary O'Conner on leaving Hibs for Lokomotiv Moscow - "I can set my family up for life. If I was single and never had Lisa (fiancee) and (son) Josh, I maybe wouldn't have made the move to Russia. But I signed a 5 year contract and I have other ambitions to play in England, Italy, Spain or France."

Tomas Radzinski on leaving Anderlecht for Everton - "I'd love to sign for Everton. They are offering me a wonderful 4 year deal, I could earn three times as much as I do now at Anderlecht. I know Everton are not a top club."

Chris Waddle on leaving Tottenham for Marseille - "I just had to accept for what it offered my family for the future."

and Lars Bohinen on leaving Nottingham Forest for Blackburn - "It was like winning the lottery. I was able to negotiate the kind of contract that would otherwise have been way beyond my reach."

Winston Bogarde takes the biscuit though. Talking about his contract stalemate at Chelsea, he said - "Why should I throw £15M away when it is already mine? At the moment it was signed it was in fact my money, my contract - both sides agreed whole heartedly. This world is about money, so when you are offered those millions you take them. Few people will ever earn so much. I may be one of the worst buys in the history of the Premiership, but I don't care."
Bogarde made 4 starts in 4 and a half years at Chelsea.

 

[bluemoondays]

Funny story about Seth Johnson at Leeds (from his wiki page)

There was an interesting anecdote allegedly about Seth Johnson doing the rounds. In his personal terms negotiations with Peter Risdale (Leeds Chariman) Johnson and his agent agreed in advance to hold out of £16k a week. So Risdale opens up the talks with “We are willing to pay you £26k a week”. The flabbergasted agent replies “Well that wasn’t quite what we were expecting". “Right so, £32k a week is my final offer” said Risdale.

 

[The Pink Panther]

I think when a player says after signing "it was too good an opportunity" or "I couldn't refuse this opportunity" you can end the sentence in your own mind with "to sign a contract worth millions of pounds that will set me up for life"

One player who's contract negotiations and dispute came out into the open was Ashley Cole.
He reused to sign a contract with Arsenal for something like £78k a week and said it was derisory compared with Chelsea's offer of £84k

When you're earning that sort of money, does £150k a year, which is what it comes down to after tax, really mean anything?
Perhaps Cole didn't want to say he was moving to win medals.