Those really aren’t the players you should be following if you want to see genuine loyalty to the club. I never expected Bale to end his career here, but I did hope he would spend at least one more year here so we could try to send him off with a medal of some kind. But no, I was apparently let down in that case, and part of me now won’t feel the same about Bale if he stays. But that’s player power, and that’s the cost of being a second-tier club in an increasingly capitalistic game. Money buys trophies, and money and trophies buy loyalty, and that won’t change anytime soon.
But just because the likes of Modric and now (apparently) Bale want to dump us for somewhere else doesn’t mean we can’t still love players that do genuinely love playing for the club. It’s just that these players tend to be less noticed than some of the other guys on the team. For example, Daws: he’s our club captain, been here nine years and says he wants to finish his career at the club. When we transfer listed him, he turned down higher wages offered by the likes of QPR to fight his way back into the side. He gives 100 percent in every game, plays with a smile and goes over to pump up the fans on a regular basis in games. And, like he himself says, he genuinely loves the club.
This guy still does love playing for Spurs. The same can be said for Assou-Ekotto (’what mercenary stays for eight years?’) and to a lesser extent Sandro. While that bond of trust between fans and players may have been broken forevermore (thanks to the commercialization of the game and the Bosman ruling, plus teams shipping out their unwanted players without a second glance while imploring their main guys to stay), players like that still warm your heart every now and then, and are the ones you should look to for loyalty. Most of the rest, you should just look for good performances.
