Quote Originally Posted by Badly Ironed Shirt View Post
To be fair, it's usually the players that are being dicks (not that that excuses Wolves' actions here btw). Courtois, under contract and very well paid, went on strike this week, for example.

So, as well as Wolves facing action (can Afobe take it up with the PFA?), that needs to extend to players too otherwise contracts are not worth the paper they are written on. Bosman had a very good case in the 90s, and that changed football for the better (remember those tribunal set fees!?!) and on the face of what you have posted, Afobe can feel every bit aggrieved.
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 always end up forced to sell them.

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.