10/7/15 – Fabian Delph undergoes a medical at Manchester
City
I’m having a nice time on holiday in Ayia Napa with six Aston
Villa fans when the news first broke. My friends take to slating Delph as they
process their anger. ‘He’s not going to play’… ‘not technically good enough’….’not
as good as Fernando’….’wrecking his career’…’I hope he breaks his leg’. An understandable
reaction given that the Villa captain committed his future to the club not six
months previously.
11/10/15 – Fabian Delph is staying at Aston Villa
Oh my lord. The smugness from the Villa faithful bordered on
insufferable, only to sprint past that border not long after. The same player
who had been deemed not technically good enough to play for City 24 hours prior
became touted as a future England captain. Twice the player that Bastian
Schweinsteiger is. Breaker of chains, mother of dragons. Every other sentence
uttered was ‘I’m not f****** leaving’ (see Wolf of Wall Street), and the most
horribly butchered Yorkshire accents you are likely to hear were used to quote
snippets from Delph’s loyalty monologue. One friend went so far as to get ‘Delph’
tattooed on his hindquarters. Ridiculous. The change of heart was absolutely
staggering. However Fabian Delph wasn’t to be upstaged in that department.
17/10/15 - Fabian Delph signs for Manchester City
No words. For me, just pure unadulterated joy, and a quick
thank you to several deities.
 |
| I think you'll find he did f****** leave lads |
The dramatic double U-turn inevitably sparked cries about a
lack of loyalty in modern football. The sad reality is that to achieve
something in football, sometimes, loyalty has to take a back seat. Not every
footballer is lucky enough to break into a football team capable of challenging
for honours at the highest level in the way Ryan Giggs or Steven Gerrard did. If such an
opportunity arises, it is one that sometimes has to be taken – whatever the
cost.
Sol Campbell switched North London allegiances in 2001 as he
left Spurs to join Arsenal on a free transfer – one of the most shocking
transfers in Premier League history. Knowing what it would do to the Tottenham fans,
Campbell joined Arsenal with the aim of winning trophies. Tottenham fans never forgot, but two Premier League
titles, two FA Cups, part of the only unbeaten team in the Premier League era,
and a goal in a Champions League final probably vindicate his decision. Robin
Van Persie left an Arsenal team that had gone nearly a decade without winning a
trophy in pursuit of a Premier League title – a feat achieved in his first
season at Manchester United. On the reverse, Matt Le Tissier turned down the
likes of Tottenham and Manchester United in the 90s to stay at Southampton. A
Southampton legend and a ruthlessly efficient penalty taker he may be, but a
Premier League winner he is not. |
| This transfer may take some getting over |
The Delph transfer makes sense on paper. A 25 year old
England international is leaving a team who have fought relegation in the past
two seasons to play Champions League football. He could very well suffer a
similar fate to Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair. City could very well be
signing him to bolster their home-grown quota. Either way, Fabian Delph’s
chances of winning any sort of silverware have increased significantly by his
transfer. It’ s the same chance that the likes of Raheem Sterling, Morgan
Schneiderlin and even Christian Benteke are taking this summer. Had Delph not
raised Villa fans hopes only to take them for fools, they may have more
sympathy for him.
Does it sting for the fans? Of course it does. We hate to
see it. We watch a player develop, stick by him through the hard times only for
him to move on at the first opportunity. Doing it in the manner Delph did
leaves a much more bitter taste, and if he makes it out of Villa Park alive in
November it will be a minor miracle. In a perfect world, the players would love
the club as much as we do, if not more. The ones we like would stay loyal, and
the ones we don’t wouldn’t overstay their welcome. Sadly we don’t live in a
perfect world. If we did then Rachel Reilly would’ve been my prom date.
Being a footballer is a relatively short career compared to
the jobs ordinary people do. They don’t have forty years to achieve everything
they want. We’ve all dreamt of kissing a trophy, or scoring a winning goal in a
final – they’re just living that dream. The goal of many footballers is to get
to the very top, and rightly so. If that means that along the way they have to
break a few promises, and a few hearts, then there’s nothing that can be done.
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