With money holding an ever-increasing power in football, how footballers are treated has changed.
While they are millionaires who live comfortable lives, there is no longer the level of relationship that used to exist between a club and player.
As such, players are considered commodities, stock to be moved around for the best of the company. Former Watford midfielder Alexander Merkel can attest to that.
After breaking through at AC Milan and playing with the likes of Ronaldinho, he found himself moved on to Genoa in a co-ownership deal that took Stephan El Shaarawy in the opposite direction.
Less than a year later he was being split again, with Udinese buying half of his rights in another deal involving a fellow professional. They then bought him outright before, a year later, he found himself at Watford on loan.
Udinese are owned by Watford’s owners the Pozzo family as part of their network of clubs and used this relationship to send players between them.
Merkel would spend six months at Watford, making 11 appearances and scoring one goal in a short spell that neither party wanted to make permanent.
He now finds himself at Heracles Almelo and, looking back on the move has criticised Watford for their lack of humanity.
“I would have liked to move to the Bundesliga,” he told SportBild.
“You agree with a club, you absolutely want to go there, but you have no right to move there. This is very difficult to cope with as a young player. It really hurt. I was very sad.
“But that’s the business: The club is the corporation, and we are the goods like in the supermarket. But seriously: Not only in my case – often humanity is left behind.”
