A book has appeared recently by journalist David Boyle called The Tyranny of Numbers in which he calls into doubt the modern obsession with reducing everything to an equation, a mathematical formula or a neat row of statistics, creating the illusion of understanding through quantification. Translated into modern football (itself fascinated by statistics), and the direction it's taking, it means that the most successful club is the richest one, the one who can afford the 'best' players money can buy, has the best/biggest stadium, the best sponsoring deal etc. Sounds perfectly logical n'est pas? Unfortunately this leaves out other equally, some might say vitally important factors in success - such as health, happiness (pride in one's work, job satisfaction), the feeling of belonging to the 'family' of a club - mutual loyalty fuels collective success and creates the freedom/security to enjoy its fruits. The best clubs have always benefitted from the trust and team spirit that comes from longevity/constancy (see Simon Kuper's article at http://www.onefootball.com/index.phtml?page=fullstory&newsid=73963 for an in depth look at the subject or a 2nd opinion on the subject is David Icke's at http://www.football365.com/content/features/icke/fw_ike_523977.htm Football365.com, and the indefinable factor that sets a magic team apart from the rest is one that can't be reduced to a mundane equation. 

Privacy and 'freedom' are often compromised as players further their careers - they can already be sold when they have no desire to leave a club, fall 'victim' to a change of coach, a club's financial problems, change of chairman, behind the scenes politics and so on. The commercial pressures as they multiply (and especially if the transfer system is really broken are often accompanied by increasing stress and decreasing attention to the human inside the shirt. The change from sportsperson into commodity has its own downside and players can find themselves hounded by the press on a sliding scale according to their newsworthiness, notoriety, who they are married to, how much they earn and so on. Hardly anything new  and, as some players become more like stars than sportsmen, this will only get worse - just as Michael Douglas and his Welsh wife Catherine Zeta Jones 'expose' their private lives on their website in order to provide an 'official' version of their 'reality' before the press, so do players with their on-line diaries. As players get richer they expose themselves, as do other wealthy and famous people, to 'kidnap-ability' (see the recent events which caused Michael Reiziger to express his fears on the subject after the attempted kidnapping of a teammate in Spain) to add to the 'normal' threats and verbal abuse they endure from their 'fans' if they don't do well enough, are the wrong colour, have left after 'loyal' service to join another club etc. To a certain extent their privacy has already been 'kidnapped' by virtue of their becoming 'famous'. 

The meaning and value of loyalty is certainly much misunderstood and easily confused with notions of ownership - once a player belongs to a club and its fans he becomes practically the same as property and he should beware going against the will of his 'masters'. Football remains a very tribal sport where the 'primitive' idea of loyalty (to the death) lives on in some hearts - often not allowing much room for enduring respect when a favoured player (chooses to) moves on. All this is suffered in the name of success and by some of the best known names in football. This form of loyalty resembles that seen in gangs, the mafia and so on - more a question of obedience than the (mutual) respect real loyalty implies. So it's rather pathetic to read about English 'fans' (for example) booing players on their team who come from the 'wrong' club. Loyalty is something which often goes out the window when finances and politics come into the 'equation' of decision-making - a player can be the workhorse who's got to go once his usefulness expires and a club can be 'deserted' by a player who catches a glimpse of greener (richer) pastures elsewhere. In today's football loyalty has more in common with fulfilling the terms of a bargain/deal/contract and, in professional terms, that is exactly what it should be - giving a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. A more romantic form of loyalty is dependent on the emotional makeup of individual players and their clubs/trainers/fans etc. - the one feels it more by nature than the other, and here actions speak much louder than words (do they put their heart into their footballing on the pitch, do they gain and retain the respect of trainers and fans?).

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