Oh dear. This can only end badly for all concerned. Here we have Jack Rodwell, one of England's many promising stars of the future, who has seemingly decided that joining Manchester City is the perfect next step for him in his blossoming career. One can only assume that poor old Jack doesn't have Adam Johnson's mobile number...
If anything, it's saddening to see that the Evertonian has joined the vast majority of professional footballers plying their trade in Europe currently, in following their wallet as appose to the best 'career' choice for them as a footballer. Rodwell made noise shortly after joining City on Sunday about it being a 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunity'- really though? A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for what? Training all week in anticipation for 90 minutes on the bench every weekend? I mean sure, Nigel De Jong may well be on his way out of Eastlands (good riddance quiet frankly), and should the likes of Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri, or David Silva get injured, maybe he'll get some half decent game-time under his belt. But for one of England's most promising players, is that really what he/we should come to expect? We've seen it with the likes of SWP and Walcott in the last decade or so, both of which are far from the finished article of which they at one point both appeared to be striving for.
This is one of the fundamental issues with English football as it currently stands, it's almost as if the juggernauts of the sport are suppressing young talent purely for the sake of a half-decent back-up player for any given position on the field, which im sorry, is wrong.
We, as a pessimistic nation, are often criticising the somewhat elderly age of our national teams starting XI compared to the likes of Italy and Spain's squads. In these nations, young players are at the very heart of Starting XI's throughout club-leagues, regardless of how much noise the wallet of a wealthy chairman makes.which im afraid is simply not the case in English football today. I can't but help but fear that Rodwell's probably ill-fated move to Man City, illuminates this disappointing fact.
