Right. So the PFA and their Managers have come out and told the players side of the story? I haven't read that, please link me to that... Caceres manager has come out in the press because he needs to find a new club having been told he's up for sale. That's kinda his managers job.
Or are you talking about the PFA taking issue with the players being paid late / superannuation not being paid at all? How dare the players be upset for not getting paid, I know all of us would just suck it up in our respective work places...
So first off, this time around, the issue has "only" been with late super, not actually getting paid... No problem in them being unhappy about it but...
A) They were actually paid before the deadline... It's not pretty but no rules were breached
B) The PFA made a statement that Adelaide, Brisbane, Jets and CCM were close to being in breach... In their statement they put forward that all club had put forward a statement saying that the money owing would be paid, but they were really concerned about CCM - this is in spite of CCM having made the same statement and actually having a history of being true to their word in these sorts of situations.
That sort of thing tends to lead to people feeling targeted.
People stating the players are actively seeking to get out of their contracts is so far off the mark its not funny. I'm not suggesting I know the ins and outs of the situation but I know that is completely false. In fact, the majority of the players are devastated by the news they're no longer wanted.
The thing is, by all accounts, the club didn't tell them that they were being cut lose... If they did we wouldn't have an issue... The whole point of this argument is that Caceres has a-year-and-a-half (I think) to run on his contract and he wants out of it...
He was pulled from the team after rumours started circulating that he was looking to go to Arnie or someone else... The whole thing about him potentially being sold/swapped, only became an option after the club was pressured to provide a response, after a couple of days of rumours flying around.
In that, what they said was essentially "we don't want to get rid of him for nothing, but if someone was to put in an offer we'd consider it".
That's hardly unreasonable... Indeed not only has that exact attitude been one of the points of pride for the club in the past, it's been a recruitment tool... "Come to us and we promise, if you get a good offer that'll further your career and make us a little bit of coin, we'll let you go, rather than argue about it".
For Fitzy, my perception is different again... From the sound of it, he was at least a potential for the bench on NYE - it's not even like the club's setting him loose in any sense right now.
Anyway I'm fighting a losing battle, I think it's great people are so loyal to the club and will believe anything that's fed to them.
It IS great - the thing is though... This isn't exclusively about loyalty... That would imply that none of us would be able to see any issues here... The real thing is that I - for one - just can't make your view of it add up... It would imply that the club is chosing to sabotage itself, rather than try to make money... I might not be Charlesworth's biggest fan, but I also don't think that he's particular keen to loose money - especially not after having listened to the latest YA podcast.
Combine that with discussions having been floating around here for months now, about Caceres just not looking that engaged etc and you might start to get a sense of where we're coming from.
Ultimately, I think the thing is that what I've seen of these arguments, around letting Reddy and Bosnar go as well, seem to come back to a frustration with us not having adequate replacements for them... I don't think that's a reason to keep someone on, if they're sabotaging the team in some way... It's not all about their physical abilities - how they play with the team is at least as important.
