"But I couldn't believe one of England's best players was making cups of tea in a shack.  He had all those England caps and there he was making tea for me, a park player at best.  It was staggering."  Excerpt from Nick Varley's Golden Boy: A Biography of Wilf Mannion

No professional football player should end up like Wilf Mannion, Tommy Lawton and a host of England stars from the old days who were left paupers by the football establishment after bringing millions of pounds into the game.  Today's top players are financially secure, of course, but professional players who don't reach that level are not.  Don't be taken in by the lies and reactionary 19th century economic views of the football club owners, their Football Association mouthpiece Adam Crozier and their running dog lackeys in the big business mass media.  Their scare-mongering is a tactic big business bosses have used for more than a century to try to divide and conquer union forces.  

The fact is that the football owners are trying to reduce the percentage share of television money that goes to the Professional Footballers Association, which is the only organisation that looks after the needs of players who suffer misfortune.  The football owners have never given a penny to the players--who are the game and bring in all the money--until they've been forced to.  Let them spin their lies, go to their courts and bluster all they want.  Justice is on the players's side, and they will win in the end if they stay firm.