A lot of what goes missing in football analysis is the fact that being a professional football is an actual job. Many who enter the profession think about the food they put on the table for their families. They think about the future since the job only pays well till the early thirties. They think about bigger and better clubs offering bigger and better opportunities. They think, constantly, about the next step in their careers.
Understandably though, most fans don't see a player playing for their club as a job - as an honor, or as a responsibility, but certainly not as a job.
One way professional football is harder, aside from the competition of course, is job security. One-year contracts are the norm for most teams. That, along with miserly termination clauses and relegation clauses that cut wages significantly means that Spanish football, and indeed football in many second tiers in the world, produce numerous journeymen who bounce around from club to club, with no clue whatsoever about where they will be playing next season.
That uncertainty is as much a part of football as the actual football being played.
Edit: 1st June, 2017.
The list of contract expiries below was taken from the wrong source, it was corrected here.
Just look at Rayo - the weird situation is that the next big thing at Rayo - Pablo Clavería - might leave this summer. So might Miku. And Baena. And Ebert. And Embarba, Lass Bangoura, Quini, Nacho, Raț, Manucho, Amaya, Aguirre, Dorado, Dovale and Toño.
And since Jordi Gómez, Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will finish their loan spells and in all likelihood return to their parent clubs, the only players who even have a contract beyond this summer are Zé Castro, Johan Mojica, Ernesto Galán, Fran Beltrán, Roberto Trashorras, Santi Comesaña, Álex Moreno and Javi Guerra.
That's not all - since the Segunda B is technically not a professional league, most Segunda players have walk-out clauses that permit them to leave should Rayo get relegated - it seems unlikely now but if it does happen Trashorras is the only player who has confirmed that he won't use that option.
I expect a lot of renewals will happen if and when Rayo do stay up. But surely something is wrong? Surely the Segunda B shouldn't be so dreaded that player's futures are at stake? Surely there needs to be a conversation about what the Segunda B should look like?
Because currently it's a division that tries to be semi-professional by incorporating professional players and an amateur spirit but achieves neither. The enforcement of a six professional player rule combined with the scarcity of TV money means clubs go out of business, clubs in the Tercera have resigned their promotion to the league, and the division of groups is poorly planned anyways...
Understandably though, most fans don't see a player playing for their club as a job - as an honor, or as a responsibility, but certainly not as a job.
One way professional football is harder, aside from the competition of course, is job security. One-year contracts are the norm for most teams. That, along with miserly termination clauses and relegation clauses that cut wages significantly means that Spanish football, and indeed football in many second tiers in the world, produce numerous journeymen who bounce around from club to club, with no clue whatsoever about where they will be playing next season.
That uncertainty is as much a part of football as the actual football being played.
Edit: 1st June, 2017.
The list of contract expiries below was taken from the wrong source, it was corrected here.
Just look at Rayo - the weird situation is that the next big thing at Rayo - Pablo Clavería - might leave this summer. So might Miku. And Baena. And Ebert. And Embarba, Lass Bangoura, Quini, Nacho, Raț, Manucho, Amaya, Aguirre, Dorado, Dovale and Toño.
And since Jordi Gómez, Cristaldo, Gazzaniga, Tomás Mejías and Pablo Iñiguez will finish their loan spells and in all likelihood return to their parent clubs, the only players who even have a contract beyond this summer are Zé Castro, Johan Mojica, Ernesto Galán, Fran Beltrán, Roberto Trashorras, Santi Comesaña, Álex Moreno and Javi Guerra.
That's not all - since the Segunda B is technically not a professional league, most Segunda players have walk-out clauses that permit them to leave should Rayo get relegated - it seems unlikely now but if it does happen Trashorras is the only player who has confirmed that he won't use that option.
I expect a lot of renewals will happen if and when Rayo do stay up. But surely something is wrong? Surely the Segunda B shouldn't be so dreaded that player's futures are at stake? Surely there needs to be a conversation about what the Segunda B should look like?
Because currently it's a division that tries to be semi-professional by incorporating professional players and an amateur spirit but achieves neither. The enforcement of a six professional player rule combined with the scarcity of TV money means clubs go out of business, clubs in the Tercera have resigned their promotion to the league, and the division of groups is poorly planned anyways...
The end of the 2016-17 league season (the La Liga and the Segunda B "group stage", that is) is here.
Something I almost forgot to do? Update my statistics - I promise more articles of that nature are on the way.
What do #Granada, #Zamudio and #RealJaén have in common? None of them won a single away game this season!!!!https://t.co/n4W7zjnfNC— Sarthak Kumar (@Vallecanos1924) May 22, 2017
Granada, Zamudio and Real Jaén are now part of the infamous club - a club that still unbelievably includes a team that won the Europa League in the same season.
He's back.
He stood up for what he believed in and the party forced him to resign because of it. He wanted parliamentary deadlock and the PSOE voted against that in order to form a minority government.
Sorry, that should read in order for the opposition - the PP - to form a minority government.
And today (well, yesterday), the PSOE primaries yielded victory for Pedro Sánchez.
Now, Pedro is no saint - but he is one of the few standing up for progressive politics in a bitterly divided party. He now has a slightly increased mandate - from 49% in 2014 to 50% now - but that won't paper over the cracks.
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