Quote Originally Posted by Heisenberg View Post
Agreed, which is why I thought I'd share what Afobe said about this situation in response to your "mercenary" comment.

Courtois and the like give footballers a bad name and there should be policies/procedures/even laws in place to stop them behaving in the manner that they do.

Basic contract and employment laws don't seem to affect footballers as it always ends up with a financial penalty that they can easily afford - but the clubs are left with a player who refuses to play and

I wonder if lengthy bans put in place for when they've signed for their new club would be a possible deterrent. Maybe Courtois wouldn't have gone on strike if he knew he couldn't play football for 12 months once he signed for Real... or maybe he would. Who knows what goes through the mind of a professional footballer.
In the old days, the manager could just freeze the player out - I would have liked to have seen Chelsea say "You know what, you still have three years to run on this contract. You didn't negotiate a fee release clause and until you start showing up for training, you're not getting paid". However, Courtois could retire today and live the good life for the rest of his life.