Ipswich Town Goalkeeper quits the game

[soggy biscuit]

As a ballpark figure what would his salary have been as a goalkeeper at Ipswich Town out of interest?

Young lad, about 4-5k a week wouldn't be far from the mark.

I know things move on quickly in football but 2 years ago it was revieled that the average Championship player was on £3,750 per week. I would have thought a 22 year old reserve goalkeeper would be way, way below that average

[Magnus]

That figure sounds more reasonable to me sogs. Plus if that's the average (mean) then I suspect it's heavily skewed by a few Billy Big Bollocks's wages and that the median would fall below this.

And certainly a 22 year old reserve keeper even lower again. You could of course argue he stood to earn a lot more had he progressed further up the ranks, but it's a moot point as for whatever reason he just doesn't want to.

[TBM]

Agree with soggy; we should give him the benefit of the doubt that he knows exactly how lucrative a career is giving up - he is one of very few who have the balls to do it, I'm sure. He's no different to accountants, nurses, mechanics, whatever, who decide that their current career isn't for them.

I'm sure a lot of us can sympathise with the feeling that you are doing something you don't really want to do - it just happens in this case that that thing is playing professional football, which is the ambition of many a young lad, and I'm sure many adults would give up their right leg for a chance to do the same, but it doesn't make him 'simple' to decide it isn't for him.

Exactly

Most footballers dont give up their career when they get bored of it, simply because they dont know what else they would do....

[Avon Royal]

Or more likely this lad is just a bit simple.

He's just given up the best career anyone could ever have on more money than he'll get anywhere else, he's in for a shock IF he gets a dull job on 9-5 at crap pay. He's 22 with sod all behind him apart from playing football. He'll be serving us hot dogs in the away end at Portman Road this year probably.

Sorry mate, but that post indicates that it is you that is more likely to be "a bit simple".

[Wax Jacket]

maybe he got fed up of having to be around professional footballers all day who are in 99% of cases total twats

[bobbybottler]

Which is what RG6? Doesn't really say why he's "fallen out of love" with the game.

Fallen out of love with the game because he doesn't see the enjoyment in it anymore hth. This could be due to a number of reasons such as the amount of money in the English game and the lack of passion.

I don't really think any player is going to quit because of the amount of money in the game. I don't think any is going to cite a lessened atmosphere in the stands for his reason to quit either.


A few years back Colin Baillie quit football when playing under John Beck. His reasons were that (particularly under Beck) the way you had to follow strict instructions about how you played the game just stopped it being enjoyable. Some players also have no time for the "motivational techniques" of certain managers and coaches, which often just consist of shouting at them.

Given that Roy Keane might well be that sort of manager, he could possibly have just seen all the enjoyment taken out of the game for him.

Baillie quit to be a policeman. His pay at Cambridge woudn't have been all that amazing, so it probably wasn't a huge step down. I would be surprised if supple was on less than £1000 a week though, and he'll have to accept a big salary drop.

I was going to mention Baillie - he joined the Cumbria Police Force IIRC.

Lots of people change careers, for plenty of reasons other than money. Why would a footballer be any different?

[AF1]

Prolly spent the summer snorting lines and quit to avoid the inevitable piss test tbf

[papereyes]

maybe he got fed up of having to be around professional footballers all day who are in 99% of cases total twats

There's an interview with him, today in the Mail, that suggests precisely that.

'Even if I could have afforded to drive a Bentley, that’s not what I was in it for. Some seem to think it’s about flashiness, the big house, big money, cars. That wouldn’t be my take on things.

'I remember Joe Royle saying that some of them think they’re stars and they’re not even players.’

'When you’re a young lad your one aim is to get into the first team. You’re in digs, you’re training, you’re resting, all you’re looking at is the first team. Being away from home can be difficult on top of that, but at first it wasn’t a problem for me.

'Then I got into the first team and I saw that some of the lads didn’t really care whether we won or lost. I didn’t really like that, that was disillusioning. Things weren’t going great at the club at the time, which I suppose didn’t help, but it made me question whether this was what I wanted to do.

He's gone back to Ireland and is playing Gaelic football, presumably to a decent standard.